Abstract

At Mobil, technology is a traditional core strength. The application of technology is becoming even more crucial to realize our vision of becoming a great, global company where resources, people, knowledge and skills are shared effectively. Mobil's Technical Computing Strategy was created to provide all E&P professionals a seamless, integrated workflow environment. By putting better products, processes, and expertise in the hands of the people who find and produce oil and gas, Mobil will be using Technology to Create Success, and shaping a competitive advantage by becoming more effective and efficient.

The strategy, developed in the summer of 1995 and fully endorsed by Mobil's Information Technology Executive Council (ITEC), laid out a framework to advance technical computing and information management within Mobil. The strategy has four themes: Value to Cost to assess technology, Data Management, Integration, and Master Data Store. ITEC subsequently sponsored the next phase to select the vendors who would provide the technology and detailed project implementation planning for all business units.

During the vendor selection, Mobil leveraged its Global Procurement Organization group and their strategic sourcing process which allowed the selection to occur in a much shorter period. A Business Case was built for a global implementation. The resulting plan was fully endorsed by all of the Mobil E&P business units by the end of 1996, and Mobil senior management approved a three-year implementation. The TCS implementation, now several months old, will clearly move Mobil towards globalization, standards, and buying rather than building technical information management solutions.

A key element of TCS is the fact that vendor technologies are being delivered through the Enhanced Supplier Relationship agreements (ESR) negotiated between Mobil, Landmark Graphics and Geoquest. These agreements are reducing total system costs by seeking common objectives, mutual benefit and shared risk.