BP AMOCO CANADA SAVES

MONEY AND TIME

OUTSOURCING TO XEROX

Concentrate on what you know – that’s

the profitable mantra of BP Amoco

Canada, part of the BP Amoco Group,

one of Canada’s largest energy-

producing companies.

Because the

thriving Calgary-

based group is

involved in so

many aspects of

the business –

including the exploration, production

and marketing of natural gas, natural

gas liquids, and petrochemicals –

there’s precious little time for handling

W O R L D W I D E I N D U S T R I A L B U S I N E S S

CASE STUDY

PETROLEUM AND

CHEMICAL

BP Amoco Canada

all the non-core but necessary tasks

that keep the business running

smoothly.

So in fall 1998, when British Petroleum

and Amoco announced that the two

companies planned to merge, BP

Amoco Canada seized the opportunity

to see if it could find a better way to

handle document management.

“We had been using Xerox copiers for

years,” says Joanne Aihoshi, Manager

of Office Services for BP Amoco

Canada. “And when we began

investigating our existing processes,

Xerox came to us and said, ‘We know

that you’re looking for solutions. Let’s

talk about outsourcing services.’“

With new corporate policies already

being established as the merger came

together, BP Amoco Canada knew that

this would be an opportune time to

introduce a new document

management model for employees.

Partnering With Xerox

After researching a number of different

competitors and print scenarios, BP

Amoco Canada hired Xerox to handle a

variety of internal services including

copier and printer fleet management,

central print management, mail and

courier services, records management,

fax services and electronic imaging.

But that was just the beginning.

What BP Amoco Canada was really

looking for was a document-

management partner, not just a vendor.

“One of our largest costs is managing

software,” Aihoshi explains. “It’s always

changing. It involves huge

infrastructure. And we didn’t want to

have to manage all the upgrades along

with the constant research needed to

stay on top of what was an appropriate

software tool.”

So Xerox agreed to establish a separate

and secure IT environment to support

BP Amoco Canada. This extranet has

allowed Xerox to offer a variety of

services that go far beyond what many

might consider Xerox’s “traditional”

areas of expertise.

“Xerox is currently managing

approximately 100 vendors for us,”

Aihoshi points out. “Xerox hires them,

pays them and then flows the costs

back to us. For example, Xerox

manages our scanning, records

management and mailroom.”

The ASP Model: A Total

Document Management

Solution

In offering such a wide range of

services, Xerox was exemplifying a

recent industry trend known as the

Application Service Provider (ASP)

model – a way of doing business that

holds tremendous opportunity for both

customers and vendors. It allows

customers to avoid the worries of large

technology investments, technology

refresh, and IT skill shortages. And it

gives vendors the opportunity to

provide more cost-effective solutions

and become more strategically relevant

to their customers.

One example of how Xerox has

implemented the ASP model at BP

Amoco Canada is its managing of the

company’s large – and growing –

inventory of engineering drawings.

“The drawings remain behind Xerox’s

firewall,” explains Aihoshi. “Our

employees can access and view them,

but they can’t modify the drawings.

Instead, employees redline the

drawings and send them back to Xerox

to have them modified.”

W O R L D W I D E I N D U S T R I A L B U S I N E S S

Perhaps nowhere is this capability more

important than in BP Amoco Canada’s

new Prairie Rose chemical plant,

located in Joffre, Alberta. As the two

companies discussed how best to

handle the thousands of engineering

drawings related to the project, Xerox

developed two scenarios. One was to

organize a traditional Documentum

Enterprise Document Management

System, in which Prairie Rose would

purchase and own the document

management software and necessary

hardware, and Xerox would be hired

only for development and

implementation. The second scenario –

based on the ASP model – focused on

Xerox providing a complete solution,

from hardware to software to Xerox on-

site know-how. BP Amoco Canada

chose the second option, resulting in an

associated cost savings of 50 percent.

Xerox is now on board with Prairie

Rose as its complete document-

management provider.

“What Xerox brings to the table is

expertise – especially with their ability

to drive document management tools

like Documentum and FileNet,” Aihoshi

points out. “And as a result, they’re

finding a lot of interested parties

throughout our company. After they

negotiated to work with Prairie Rose,

they began providing services to our

Natural Gas Liquids Unit. Now, Health

and Safety is talking to them as well.

And they’ve successfully negotiated a

mail and print service contract with

Price Waterhouse, to whom we

outsource accounting services. In every

case, Xerox has had to come in on its

own and negotiate as the experts. And, I

have to say, they’ve created quite a

network of connections here.”

Managing FileNet

Technology

Another way Xerox has implemented

the ASP model is in managing BP

Amoco Canada’s legacy FileNet

imaging system. Today, the FileNet

image server resides on the Xerox

network, with BP Amoco Canada’s 1200

employees accessing the FileNet server

through the secure firewall that exists

between the two computer networks.

Employees access the FileNet server

primarily for finance support, accounts

payable, and contract management on

projects such as surface land

agreements.

W O R L D W I D E I N D U S T R I A L B U S I N E S S

“For me, the

number one

benefit of

having Xerox

here is that

it lifts the

burden of

document

services off

my shoulders.

”

The process, says Aihoshi, has gone

well. As part of the outsourcing

agreement, Xerox hired 22 of BP

Amoco Canada’s existing employees, a

move which helped to maintain

continuity for the group. As with all

such complicated undertakings, there

have been obstacles along the way, but

everyone, notes Aihoshi, is willing to

shoulder the burden to make things

move ahead.

Clearly, outsourcing with Xerox has

proved a good business decision –

especially because BP Amoco Canada

no longer has to worry about large

capital investments, updating

technology or retaining knowledgeable

staff. In fact, Xerox can deliver a

document management application in

25 percent of the time it would normally

take a customer to handle the same

application.

Educating Internal

Customers

“But there’s something else Xerox

provides – that is, the kind of expertise

you may not even know you need until

a particular question presents itself,”

says Aihoshi.

“Their expertise is critical when there’s

an issue,” she points out. “Our internal

customers are constantly challenging

the outsourcing model. They’ll say, ‘We

can go across town and get this price.’

And Xerox has been good about

communicating with the customer.

Everyone is learning that walking copy

across the street to get it one cent

cheaper isn’t really less expensive,

once you factor in the time involved

getting it there and back – when you

could e-mail it over to Xerox and have it

taken care of.”

Future plans call for further enhancing

relationships with BP Amoco Canada’s

other outsource providers. BP Amoco

Canada also has asked Xerox to assess

the company’s field offices regarding

document management.

But for now, Aihoshi and her colleagues

are savoring being able to concentrate

on other pressing projects. “For me,”

she says, “the number one benefit of

having Xerox here is that it lifts the

burden of document services off my

shoulders. They’re the experts.

I rely on them.”

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