The challenge: After decades of haphazard information management practices and growth by acquisition, the downstream division of this integrated energy company needed a fresh evaluation of its information management strategy and portfolio and a plan to address the findings.  Access Sciences contributed in a variety of ways:

• Worked with client executive leadership and SMEs to develop an Information Management Strategy and Roadmap for Downstream Operations that encompassed the client’s three major plants along with divisional management at their headquarters.  The Access Sciences team was responsible for:
  • Assessing the current state of information management and technology including practices/policies/governance, application portfolios, application architectures, communications networks, physical and electronically stored information repositories and disaster recovery capabilities and risks.
  • Identifying gaps and inefficiencies in information management.
  • Developing integrated goals for information management improvements.
  • Developing an integrated strategy and roadmap for improvements to information management processes and technology. 
  • Defining an information management strategy for hardcopy documentation.
  • Assessing requirements and recommending an enterprise content management solution for downstream operations.

• Assisted the client’s downstream operations management team and plant operations SMEs in the assessment and selection of a common Plant Information Management System.  Deployment of this system is currently underway.
• Designed and developed taxonomy, metadata and security models for use in the deployment of an enterprise content management system.  These models are built to meet the need for employees to create, file, and retrieve their information in a way that is familiar to them and efficient for their use against the need for regulatory compliance.
• Designed and developed records retention policies and schedules, including legal research in multiple domestic and European jurisdictions, to support defensible information management practices.
• Developed use cases and deployed these as a proof-of-concept exercise in an enterprise content management system at one of the client’s plants.  This tactical project proved out the usefulness of the technology and created buy-in within the end user community. 
• Designed a consistent information architecture centered around
  • A common data bus using commercial EAI technology that allows a variety of applications and data stores to communicate in near real-time, improving information flow and consistency and enabling proactive decision making.
  • An ECM solution for managing “unstructured” content that provides a secure, accessible platform to deploy the enterprise taxonomy and retention schedule.
  • A Downstream Information Portal based on Microsoft SharePoint that provides for centralized, role-based access to applications and data from systems across the Downstream Division. This unified portal is needed to aggregate and combine information from multiple, disparate systems and will provide a unified view into the enterprise.
  • Deployment of this information architecture is currently in the funding phase.

The outcome: Access Sciences quickly became the client’s trusted advisor for information management and technology, identifying issues and designing solutions that quickly affect the client’s bottom line while lowering risk and enhancing regulatory compliance.