OMV needed to manage its VIM reporting and data more effectively and make improvements to its processes.
About OMV
OMV is an integrated international oil, gas, and chemicals company headquartered in Vienna, Austria, that is currently undergoing a structural transition into a sustainable energy and circular economy provider. As one of Austria’s largest listed industrial corporations, the company operates across three primary business pillars: Chemicals & Materials, Fuels & Feedstock, and Energy.
Problem
- Manual reporting of data within VIM for SAP by OpenText was taking too long to do
- By the time reports were ready, they were out of date
- Manual reporting in Excel was taking too long and was ineffective. Risk was elevated
- As the data in the environment grew, it became unmanageable
What We Did
- Implemented Insight and Analytics within OMV to support their VIM reporting
- Reduce the manual workload on the accounts payable and the process improvements teams
- Reveal the true picture of what was happening
Results
- Time was saved due to faster data access
- Less time building reports to create useful and timely reporting
- More visualization of the real picture
- Improved VIM flows
- Increased automation rates
- Efficiency improvements
- More trust in data
Challenges
10 years ago, like a lot of companies, OMV were using Excel to extract data and create their insights and dashboards for their accounts payable processes. Taking data out of VIM, manipulating manually and using formulas and manually built graphs to build a picture of what was happening. This was time consuming, elevated risk and frustrating for everyone involved. This is when they became aware of the Insights & Analytics tool for VIM. A bespoke tool that supports VIM for SAP by OpenText.
As their environment grew and became more complex, the data volume grew to be unmanageable. Meaning you could only get a snapshot of what was happening. Creating views of the data was taking weeks, which meant by the time it was ready the reporting was obsolete. The company acknowledged the risk this was creating and decided to seek a solution. The constant need to review changes and check improvements was moving too slowly, and they needed to fix that quickly. Going forward is difficult when you look back.
“We always felt heard by Turnpikes and even if features were not implemented straight away, we knew they were coming. I would recommend anyone who wants to know what is happening around their VIM data to use Insight and Analytics. I would also recommend Turnpikes to everyone; their experience is really useful.”
Ramona Nedulcu – OMV
Why Turnpikes and why Insight and Analytics?
“Other companies promised everything in pitches and could never deliver it. Turnpikes were honest and delivered what they said they would. They told us what we could not do and explained why. That is why we went with them and their analytics tool.”
There is an automation team at OMV that found the Insight and Analytics tool from Turnpikes and pitched it internally based on the company requirements and the likelihood that the Insights and Analytics tool could meet those requirements. Against other pitches, Turnpikes stood out with not just the tool but their experience, their knowledge and flexibility.
Implementing alongside Turnpikes was important because their VIM knowledge and their ability to quickly understand the problems sped up the time taken to get up and running. Their experience and understanding were key in getting the implementation done quickly and making the tool a success internally.
“Implementation was smooth and fast compared to other implementations that OMV had done. Turnpikes integrated our requirements into the tool to make it work for us. Their experience mattered to us and made the changes smooth.”
OMV
Not all the requirements could be met, because OMV is a big company and has complicated processes. Missing data here and there, a few teething problems but there was never a point where that felt anything but normal. Fixes were made quickly, and there was never an impact on the teams using the tool. All the problems and the requirements Turnpikes couldn’t meet felt like normal issues that didn’t stop our success.
“Turnpikes were incredibly open during implementation and lent their expertise when it came to data structures, what data was useful, what data could be misleading and where to focus. They also listened to feedback, and we have seen the tool adapt in the years we have been using it. It has gone from a reporting tool to a much more analytical tool. You can delve behind the dashboards, and you can see the data that is forming them.”
You cannot improve process unless you are looking into it, so from day one, Insights and Analytics was going to improve what OMV were doing in their accounts payable processes.
The Results
The first tangible thing that the tool did was save time, which was a huge relief for teams. Data is available quickly and regularly. Allowing daily insights to be easily accessed and helping to allow quick fixes to processes. Then getting a monthly drop of data gave deeper insights to verify that fixes were doing what they needed to do. Reducing the manual load of creating these reports freed people up to focus on the right areas of the process.
Large companies often struggle to have a single model of process. Being able to adapt your solution to specific areas helps to achieve better processes, which in turn reflects in Automation. It enables process management to improve the ability to speed up processes. Being able to see the reality of the process removes the risk of looking to automate in the wrong areas.
Turnpikes helped OMV to understand VIM data better. Immediately seeing what was happening led to improvements in VIM flows, efficiency improvements and automation rate increases. It was never from a single activity, but from the day-to-day small steps that Turnpikes showed OMV they could make.
Overall, Insight and Analytics enables a loop to review data and fix problems, cleaning up processes, and allowing more automation. There is always more to improve, firms are living creatures, people leave and take experience with them, new people join and need help getting up to speed with how things work.
There was an initial concept in mind for what OMV wanted, but as time went on, more and more things became important to them. Constant feedback from OMV and other clients led to changes in the product to make life easier. For example, being able to copy and paste from the tool to create reports.