Adnoc Distribution gears up for expansion with a strong IT infrastructure in place
ADNOC Distribution is ambitious and a company that walks the talk. The company has now set its goal on becoming the leader in the world of oil distribution and is marching towards that ambition with a strong IT infrastructure in place.
“We decided in 2010, that Adnoc Distribution will be a world class company and a leader, not just in the Middle East, but across the world by enabling our business to take full advantage of the latest technologies,” says Awad Ahmed Ali El Siddig of Adnoc distribution, speaking to Refining and Petrochemicals Middle East.
El Siddig is a senior database administrator and the Oracle technology project manager of one of the country’s largest distributor of fuels.
As the Oracle Exadata project manager, he is a proud man today. The company is the first oil and gas player in the Middle East to implement the Oracle Exadata Database Machine X 2-2 to optimise performance and quality of service across all its functions.
So why is that so important to Adnoc distribution, we ask him?
“Well, Adnoc distribution manages more than 200 filling stations in the country. We have more than 100 convenience stores, vehicle inspection centres, a bulk fuel supply line and manufacturing of lubricants. In a year, we do more than 100 million financial transactions and billions of dollars worth of business. All of this needs a secure and a very fast IT infrastructure solution,” says El Siddig.
Adnoc Distribution today is comparable to a bank or a retail operation with regard to the number of transactions it does.
Scalability, reliability and quick transaction time is the most important aspect of Adnoc Distribution’s IT infrastructure, says El Siddig quoting Ali Abdul Azi Al-Ali, IT Division Manager, Adnoc Distribution.
“We don’t want to see customers queuing for long in our petrol pumps. Oracle Exadata Database has made our system 10 times quicker. This means quicker dispensing of oil and faster movement of crowds at the petrol pump,” he says.
The company, according to him has grown leaps and bounds in the last decade and is expected to see similar growth for the years to come. Life has been made easier, for not just senior management but also the employees across different business units and even at the pumps, he notes.
“Earlier when we had to generate a report for the stock monitoring of inventory items at each service station, it would take us five hours and today it takes us 10 seconds. Imagine the time and energy saved in the process,” he says.
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The Oracle Exadata system has made many other processes in the company much quicker as well.
Monthly closing reports are being generated today in an hour as against 12 hours in the past. Data back-up happens in an hour and twenty minutes as against 24 hours in the past and critical business financial reports for each zone is generated in literally a few seconds.
“We have seen the speed optimised by five times to 20 times across the company, depending on the kind of work,” he says.
So now that the IT infrastructure is in place, are there big plans for Adnoc distribution that we’re going to hear of?
Absolutely, he says. “Our business is only going to increase and we will definitely see more acquiring in the future. We are also going to expand rapidly in the next two years, and the ADNOC Distribution logo will be seen globally, as well.”
“We now have the IT infrastructure ready, it is like a solid foundation for a sky-scraper. So now the business can grow and we can support it, ensuring our senior management is happy and most importantly, we keep our customers satisfied,” he concludes.
In numbers:
– 100 million financial transactions is done by the company in a year
– 5-20 times is the speed optimised for the systems with the Oracle Exadata
Benefits of the Oracle Exadata Machine X2-2 implementation
– Increase the Sales System Average Performance by 15X, enabling the company to complete Customer Auto Blocking Processing in less than 2 min compared to 30 minutes before.
– Increase average performance of the Smart Card System by 20X, processing all the day’s transactions in less than 30 minutes compare to 4 hours in the past.
– Increase average performance of the Retail system by 15X, enabling processing of the Retail data in 15 minutes as compared to 1 hour and 30 minutes before the migration.
– Lower storage and licensing costs by consolidating all workloads on to one platform.
Challenges in the Oracle Exadata Implementation
Being the first oil and gas company in the Middle East to implement this solution was the biggest challenge, said Awad Ahmad Ali El Siddig. There was no reference point for price or performance.
Adnoc Distribution has done extensive study and research for this implementation to improve business productivity and the company is extremely happy with the results. In October, ADNOC distribution also received the 2012 Oil and Gas Industry Excellence Awards from Oracle in the downstream category at Oracle OpenWorld, San Francisco.
