Shell Company: Gathering Business Requirements for ERP Implementation

This report details the business requirements for implementing an ERP system at Shell (Royal Dutch Shell) using the HANA platform. It begins with an overview of Shell's mission, vision, and strategic objectives, followed by an identification of the top five problems faced by the organization, including SEC compliance issues, bribery accusations, resource challenges, environmental factors, and skill development gaps. The report then outlines ten business requirements to address these problems, focusing on transparency, performance management, data management, simplification, innovation, operational resumption, and training, all leveraging the capabilities of the SAP HANA platform. The goal is to enhance Shell's efficiency, profitability, and sustainability in the global market.

Running head: Enterprise resource planning
Enterprise resource planning

Enterprise resource planning
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Mission....................................................................................................................................................3
Vision......................................................................................................................................................4
Strategic objectives..................................................................................................................................4
Top 5 problems in Shell Company..............................................................................................................4
10 business requirements based on Hana platform......................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................10
2

Enterprise resource planning
Introduction
The primary purpose of this paper is to outline and discuss the business operations of Shell
which is the growing firm in the international market. The main aim of Shell group is to engage
profitably, efficiently responsibly in gas, chemical, oil and other business for contributing in
search for formation of energy sources and to fulfill the demands of the customers in the global
market. The responsibility of Shell is to deliver the gas and oil profitably in environmentally and
socially responsible ways. The paper also explains the mission, vision and objectives of Shell
Company. Along with this, here is the brief discussion about the challenges and issues that
encountered and handled by the firm in the marketplace. Moreover, it also depicts ample of
information about the Hana platform that helps the company to flourish the business worldwide.
More detail of the task has been detailed below.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc is known as Shell which is a British Dutch multinational oil and gas
Company. The company was incorporated in 1907 in the United Kingdom having headquartered
is situated in Netherlands. It is one of the sixth oil and gas companies and it is the sixth biggest
company in the world evaluated by 2016 revenue. It is also listed in the top 500 global and
largest companies. It is a global group of energy and petrochemical corporations having approx
86,000 employees in around 70 countries. The firm uses advanced and innovative technologies
to build and develop a sustainable energy future (Shell, 2018). It has been found that Shell brand
is the most familiar and well known brand in the world. Shell code of conduct includes various
areas such as manager and individual responsibilities, people, culture, behaviors, communication
and information.
Mission
The mission of the company includes the following:
 To protect the shareholders investment and deliver a long term return and revenue.
 To maintain and win loyal customers by building and rendering products and services
which offer worth in terms of quality, safety, price and environment.
 To respect the human rights of the workers and to render them a good and favorable
working environment. To encourage the development and best use of talents, skills and
3

Enterprise resource planning
knowledge of the workers to create a dynamic working environment within the
organization (Sharman, 2013).
Vision
The vision of the company is to be a global leader by providing energy and petrochemical
products to the customers in the international market (Epstein and Buhovac, 2014).
Strategic objectives
The objective of Shell Company is to engage responsibly, efficiently, profitably in the oil, gas,
chemical and other selected business and to contribute in the search for expansion and
development of other sources of energy.
Top 5 problems in Shell Company
Although, Royal Dutch Shell is improving and enhancing its reputation in today’s modern world
but there are ample of issues faced by the company in today’s competitive world that affect the
success and growth in the international market. Some of the issues have been discussed below.
 It is noted that the firm is conducting now an internal investigation and the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US financial watchdog is running one out as well.
Some researchers analyze and identify that SEC is partly at fault just because it has failed
to clear and reduce the issues as per the guidelines. Some analysts believe that SEC
guidelines are too conservative and not effective. There is a discrepancy between SEC
guidelines and industrial reality that are affecting the profitability and outcomes of the
firm. This issue is also reducing the market values and market share (Davies, 2016).
 Along with this, Shell was accused of bribery practice with Nigeria officials to attain
goals and objectives in 2010. Shell bribed Nigerian officials to make it easy and flexible
for them to import equipments and goods, ignore customers and get lower taxes.
Pollution is another issue in Shell that could affect the profitability and outcomes of the
firm (Hennchen, 2015).
 Resource challenge is also one of the biggest and dynamic issues that is being
encountered by the company. Global warming is a threaten for Shell Corporation. In
addition, human resource is another issue in the company (Ermida, 2014). The firm is
unable to recruit and select right and appropriate candidates for performing roles and
4

Enterprise resource planning
responsibilities in the workplace. Finding and evaluating a right person is the biggest
challenge for Shell Company (Ben-Menahem et al, 2013).
 There are ample of micro and macro environmental factors that are influencing the trends
of the industry in a large extent. The macro environment factors include political, social,
cultural, economic, environmental and technological factors. It has been noted that new
creative lines would leak out of the upstream ground towards midstream foundation,
petrochemicals offices. Along with this, there would be a steady change in the oil and
petroleum sector that might affect the sustainability of the firm. It has been found from
the various analysis that various competitors such as Exxon Mobil Corp, BP Plc, and
Conoco Phillips Co. These competitors also affect the outputs of the firm adversely. In
addition, ample of undesirable situations and problems can be created in the
organizational structure and along with this correspondence holes can produced just
because of the social contrast in the business substance. All these challenges are
becoming a serious concern for the firm (Rasmussen and Ulrich, 2015).
 Skill development is another issue that is being faced by the company in today’s
competitive world. The company is unable to provide training and development coaching
to the workers due to high cost involvement. The human resources function plays a
significant and foremost role at Shell Company. Due to high employee turnover and
absenteeism, the firm is failed to appoint technical specialist such as project engineers
and geoscientists (Charles Jr, Schmidheiny and Watts, 2017). On the job training is not
providing by Shell due to lack of adequate resources. It also affects the working
environment and operations of the firm. It is noted that Shell’s Arctic drilling is harmful
to the environment and company. Equal opportunities are not being provided by the
company to its stakeholders. Along with this, the firm does not provide adequate values
and profits to them thus it affects the goodwill of the firm. Maintaining a strong and
reciprocal relationship is one of the major concerns in front of Shell Company. Apart
from this, supply chain issues are also influencing the growth and progress of the firm.
The environmental damages and furthermore human rights violations also committed by
Shell Company. The firm is unable to protect the rights and interest of the shareholders in
the competitive market. Advertising complaints are done by various stakeholders that
affect the outputs and returns of Shell Company. The organization needs to focus on
5

Enterprise resource planning
these issues and challenges to make a dynamic image in the minds of the customers.
Further, it also helps in maximizing the profitability of the firm (Vertigans, 2013).
10 business requirements based on Hana platform
SAP HANA platform plays a fundamental role in each and every company to gain competitive
advantages in the marketplace. It is one of the significant types of the ERP system that is
initiated by Shell. HANA stands for high performance analytic appliance that may be defined as
a application that uses in memory database technology which permits the processing of massive
amounts of real time data in a short time. The in memory computing engine permits HANA to
process data stored in RAM as against to reading it from a disk. The 10 business requirements to
handle above mentioned issues based on the Hana platform have been discussed below.
1. Transparent system: There should a transparent system to handle the key issues and
challenges related to bribery and fraud. It will provide support to Shell Company to
prevent the any misconduct and fraud at the workplace. This system will also help the
company to fulfill the needs and requirements of the customers in the competitive market.
Only Hana platform will provide transparency to the company. The main purpose of the
Hana platform is to resolve and handle the all kind of complex queries in the global
market. The in-memory technology at Hana platform helps in analyzing the biggest data
volumes within the organization. The transparency system will also provide ample of
benefits the stakeholders (de Ruijter, 2016).
2. Performance management system: It is one of the effective and unique business
requirements of the business that should be fulfilled by Shell Corporation. This
performance management system helps the company to analyze and evaluate the
performance and efficiency of the workers (Hahn and Packowski, 2015). In this way, the
company can improve and enhance the efficiency, talents and skills of the workers. Hana
platform facilitates a much simple and unique data model (Sandberg and Holmlund,
2015). This Hana platform will provide end to end process support to the employees as
well as customers. The main and primary benefit of the Hana platform is to render a
customer centric application to the customers (Morrison, 2018).
6

Enterprise resource planning
(Source: Morrison, 2018)
3. Optimum data management: The Company needs to use optimum data management
system to reduce the data delays and to maintain reliability at the workplace. This can be
done with the help of Hana platform. Shell Company can reduce the operation monitoring
cost with the use of Hana platform. Through Hana platform, Shell company can direct
report from their ERP data bases. By using this tool, the managers and top management
can make quick decisions related to the operations and business.
4. Simplification: It is biggest and unique requirements of the business that can help the
firm to reduce the issues and conflicts and it also promotes one source of truth. It is noted
that Hana platform helps in bringing simplicity to the administration and management of
the complete IT landscape, and it also helps in processing. The simplification includes
varieties, fewer, parts and changes in the products and it also reduces the risk of
obsolescence and manufacturing operations. It also reduces the oil and energy products
range.
5. Innovation: The Company needs to do innovation in terms of technology and resources
to beat the competitors in the international market. Cloud computing is one of the
foremost needs to the business that shall be used by the firm. The cloud renders a
platform for different software vendors and suppliers to provide magnificent products
that sum up and extend the ability of Hana. It needs to focus on the business process to
7

Enterprise resource planning
stand out against the competitors in the competitive market (Weiblen and Chesbrough,
2015).
6. Resume operations: It has been found that the company needs to resume the operations
and activities to attain satisfactory ROI within the organization. This will also help the
firm to determine and analyze the performance gaps in the organization.
7. Training: It is the basic requirements of the business that can help Shell Company to
train the employees for performing roles and responsibilities effectively and efficiently.
Training is also significant to ensure that employees are comfortable with the new and
innovative process, procedures, approaches, new report requirements and capabilities and
new software. The training sessions and programs also are good place to promote and
encourage the advantages of the changes. Hana platform will help the company to
provide training and coaching to the workers at the workplace. At Hana platform, the
leaders will provide a road map to the employees for developing their careers. The
company has been able to conduct training and development sessions with the help of
Hana platform. This platform helps in saving the time and cost of the company easily.
Training programs help in providing ample of knowledge and experience to the
employees. Shell Company can hold training and development sessions, seminars and
programs by using Hana platform (Pande and Padwalkar, 2014).
8. Well functioning EU emissions trading system: This is an effective requirement of the
business. The company needs to focus on EU emissions trading system to stand out
against the competitors in the global market. This step will also protect the environment
of the country (Kolieb, 2014). Along with this, sustainability can be maintained with the
help of well functioning EU emission trading system. It will also help in mobilizing low
carbon investment and also enables the energy technologies to compete on the basis of a
meaningful carbon price. The ETS is a cost effective way to decline the emissions. The
HANA platform will help in well functioning EU emission trading system. It is noted that
the company is helping to meet growing and leading global energy demand and limit
CO2 emission by producing more cleaner burning natural gas (Erasmus and Daneva,
2013).
9. Decisive policy support: The Company needs to make effective and unique decisive
policies to run the business activities and operations successfully and effectively. The
8

Enterprise resource planning
decisive policy support is needed for the industrial demonstration of emerging low carbon
technologies like storage, carbon capture and renewable that would be essential to fulfill
the EU’s climate and energy objectives. The HAND platform helps in making effective
and unique policies and strategies to grow and expand the business globally (May et al,
2015).
10. Customer relationship management: It is another foremost requirement of the business
at Shell Company. The company should focus on the customer relationship management
to handle the queries and complaints of the customers in the marketplace. Hana platform
also helps in maintaining reciprocal and strong relationship with customers. This platform
provides right and adequate information related to the energy and oil products. Quick
decisions are taken by the company with help of Hana platform. No company can survive
and grow its business activities and function without using customer relationship
management (Baboo and Kumar, 2013). All these business requirements need to be
fulfilled by the company to attain desired goals and objectives. It will also help Shell
company to make a dynamic and effective image and goodwill in the eyes of the
customers. The customer relationship management also helps to set the appropriate prices
of the oil and energy products (Morrison, 2018).
It has been noted that Shell is using SAP ERP system since a long time period to attain mission
and vision. It uses SAP HANA to increase agility and productivity in the competitive market. At
Shell, ERP system integrates business processes across the departments into a single enterprise
wide information system. ERP system provides support in strategic planning and controlling.
Conclusion
On the above mentioned analysis it can be concluded that Shell is one of the leading companies
in oil and energy sector. The company is complying all the safety protocols to fulfill the needs
and requirements of the business and customers as well. The management of the firm is unique
and effective that helps Shell to understand the demands of the customers. It is analyzed that the
firm is rapidly improving the reliability and safety of the chemical plants, and distribution
facilities. It also analyzed that the organization is fulfilling its corporate social responsibilities
towards the community in the best manner. The above mentioned analysis show that how Shell
9

Enterprise resource planning
Company is facing plenty of issues in today’s competitive world. Various issues related to
management, operations and technology are being faced by the company in today’s modern
world. All these challenges affect the sustainability and CSR practices of the firm adversely. In
addition, here is the discussion about the business requirements that need to be fulfilled by the
company while conducting the business operations and activities. Apart from this, HANA
platform also has been explained in the task.
10

Enterprise resource planning
References
Baboo, L.D.S. and Kumar, P.R., 2013. Next generation data warehouse design with big data for
big analytics and better insights. Global Journal of Computer Science and Technology.
Ben-Menahem, S.M., Kwee, Z., Volberda, H.W. and Van Den Bosch, F.A., 2013. Strategic
renewal over time: the enabling role of potential absorptive capacity in aligning internal and
external rates of change. Long Range Planning, 46(3), pp.216-235.
Charles Jr, O.H., Schmidheiny, S. and Watts, P., 2017. Walking the talk: The business case for
sustainable development. Routledge.
Davies, A., 2016. The globalisation of corporate governance: The challenge of clashing
cultures. Routledge.
de Ruijter, P., 2016. Scenario based strategy: navigate the future. Routledge.
Epstein, M.J. and Buhovac, A.R., 2014. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing
and measuring corporate social, environmental, and economic impacts. Berrett-Koehler
Publishers.
Erasmus, I.P. and Daneva, M., 2013, October. ERP effort estimation based on expert judgments.
In Software Measurement and the 2013 Eighth International Conference on Software Process
and Product Measurement (IWSM-MENSURA), 2013 Joint Conference of the 23rd International
Workshop on (pp. 104-109). IEEE.
Ermida, G., 2014. Strategic decisions of international oil companies: Arctic versus other
regions. Energy Strategy Reviews, 2(3-4), pp.265-272.
Hahn, G.J. and Packowski, J., 2015. A perspective on applications of in-memory analytics in
supply chain management. Decision Support Systems, 76, pp.45-52.
11

Enterprise resource planning
Hennchen, E., 2015. Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria: where do responsibilities end?. Journal of
Business Ethics, 129(1), pp.1-25.
Kolieb, J., 2014. Kiobel v Royal Dutch Shell: A Challenge for Transitional Justice. Macquarie
LJ, 13, p.169.
May, N., Böhm, A., Block, M. and Lehner, W., 2015. Managed Query Processing within the
SAP HANA Database Platform. Datenbank-Spektrum, 15(2), pp.141-152.
Morrison.A. 2018. The 6 key business benefits of SAP HANA[Online], Available from
http://www.zarantech.com/blog/the-6-key-business-benefits-of-sap-hana/, [Accessed as on 13th
June 2018].
Pande, P. and Padwalkar, A.R., 2014. Internet of Things–A Future of Internet: A
Survey. International Journal, 2(2).
Rasmussen, T. and Ulrich, D., 2015. Learning from practice: how HR analytics avoids being a
management fad. Organizational Dynamics, 44(3), pp.236-242.
Sandberg, M. and Holmlund, M., 2015. Impression management tactics in sustainability
reporting. Social Responsibility Journal, 11(4), pp.677-689.
Sharman, J., 2013. Preventing the misuse of shell companies by regulating corporate service
providers. U4 Brief.
Shell.2018. About us[Online], Available from https://www.shell.com/about-us.html, [Accessed
as on 13th June 2016].
Vertigans, S., 2013. Royal Dutch Shell (RDS). Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility,
pp.2102-2105.
Weiblen, T. and Chesbrough, H.W., 2015. Engaging with startups to enhance corporate
innovation. California Management Review, 57(2), pp.66-90.
12