Engen set to optimise its management, control of documentation using portal, intranet technologies

ENGEN Petroleum Limited, a subsidiary of Petronas, will implement the Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server (SharePoint) nationwide to 1 800 users with the aim of improving the management and control of its documentation.

According to Lex Barker, IS Business Systems Manager for Engen, the company evaluated SharePoint as a potential solution in order to meet specific business requirements in the areas of health, safety, environment (HSE) and product quality management.

"Information will be available and accessible to employees wherever they are," says Barker. "Documents and data common to all business divisions, depots, refinery and manufacturing plants will be stored centrally. Those documents relevant to specific locations only will be stored at the nearest node. All documentation and data will, however, be centrally managed, controlled and standardised."

The implementation of SharePoint includes the Enterprise Solution for Intranets (ESI), a technology developed by local software developer Intervate. The ESI has been designed specifically to support SharePoint.

"Intervate enhanced SharePoint through its ESI offering to include out of the box intranet functionality, as well as enabling SharePoint to be used enterprise-wide with 'portal` capability," says Barker.

SharePoint and the ESI are expected to help streamline employee processes and provide easy and secure access to all company documentation.

David Ives, Business Productivity Advisor at Microsoft, says: "Intervate continues to innovate and leverage the Microsoft base applications to provide Microsoft customers with solutions that solve their specific business issues. The ESI addresses our clients` requirements from an enterprise portal perspective and is part of Microsoft`s PSO (Partner Solution Offering) directory."

According to Barker, Engen selected these solutions because they met most of the functionality requirements needed at an affordable price. "The ESI itself is locally developed and supported, and this is a plus."

Implementation will begin in April and is expected to be completed by December. SharePoint servers will be deployed at Engen offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg and at Engen`s Durban refinery.