ADNOC Upgrades ERP for Competitive Advantage in Oil and Gas Sector

ADNOC UPGRADES ERP 1
Q1. Summary
The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is the oil company owned by the
government of United Arab Emirates (Marjanca, 2010). As per the Journal of Oil and Gas, in
2015, the UAE was announced to have the world’s 7th biggest established reserves of oil at
97.8 billion barrels. Approximately every reserve is placed in Abu Dhabi. In terms of
production, ADNOC is known as the 12th largest company of oil in the world (ADNOC,
2017). As per the analysis, it has been said that by production and revenue ADNOC
Company is the largest energy company in the world. In upstream, midstream and
downstream it comprises 16 subsidiary companies. Umm Al Nar and Ruwais are the two oil
refineries in which company operates. In the form of LNG (liquefied natural gas) natural gas
is exported by the company. Headquarter of ADNOC is situated in Abu Dhabi.
In 2015, Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning 1.2.2.4 was chosen by ADNOC in order to
deploy and utilize the platform of the latest technology at the middleware layer and
infrastructure. ADNOC has the aim to grow the competencies of the business process for the
benefits of the end users and to achieve the UAE smart government vision (Business Chief,
2015). Before implementing ERP company was using SAP so that it can support company in
overall business transformation strategy. Due to the aim of getting ahead of the competitors
functioning in same industry and fall in the prices of oil, they decided to change their
strategies from the top level to lower level. Along with this, it was identified that SAP was
costly as compared to ERP. Therefore company implemented new and latest technology i.e.
ERP by replacing SAP.
ADNOC offshore continuously pursues to add worth to ADNOC group by implementing
advanced technologies that add worth to its processes and assignments. These comprise smart
wells and stimulations, control systems, brownfield monitoring and artificial islands

ADNOC UPGRADES ERP 2
(ADNOC, 2017). The reasons behind selecting Oracle ERP was that it provides relatively
less cost than on-premises substitutes, it is a complete resolution for each part of the current
ERP puzzle, and it offers a helping hand into the cloud, etc. (Rimini Street, 2018)
In 2013, the “Oracle ERP” upgrade project was started in which more than 40 technical
resources were involved from the IT Division of Abu Dhabi National Oil. Along with this,
their partners were also involved in this besides 50 main business users for authenticating and
enhancing the procedures grounded in the standardization approach.
ADNOC face several challenges during the process of upgrade. Initially it faced the challenge
of extracting the information from the system of ERP specifically for the department of
finance. This is because of the reason that the data warehouse was generating simple data that
cannot be utilized for wide-ranging projects. Additionally, Ease Enterprise Resource Planning
incorporation of applications planned for deployment is one more challenge. For instance,
getting the country RFID to support in gathering complete details on clients and cars entering
ADNOC gas station, comprising fuel types, convenience usage, payment information,
capacity, and other services usages like vehicle washes and lubricant changes. The ultimate
challenge is to reduce the IT assistance cost and high growing data volumes. The upgraded
system was a success for the company because the whole platform was mobile-enabled and
modern convenience.
ADNOC has adopted the ERP implementation strategy i.e. clearly describe the necessities
before taking action. This strategy can be applicable to every type of business as those
businesses who do not keep a tight focus on particular procedures and system necessities will
face additional cost and time in the implementation of ERP (Compudata, 2016).
The culture of ADNOC is defined by the enthusiasm, energy, and unwavering passion of the
employees of the company. They are more focused towards inventing new solutions,