Like most organisations, DATA is the most valuable asset for ILIC – ensuring that DATA is fully protected and available 24X7X365 is mandatory.

SkillBase worked with ILIC to ensure the business needs were met and the technology components were installed and fully operational according to business policies.

The solution selected was IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. The Project was installed in record time and within budget.

The objective of this project is to develop a strategic roadmap which will outline a set of program initiatives with timelines and dependencies that are critical to the realization of specific corporate goals.

The roadmap should aid in the planning and coordination of several project activities while highlighting opportunities for developing essential capabilities, training and staffing, technology partnerships and acquisitions, business process reengineering, IT transformations and other standard processes that are required to achieve objectives. Some of the benefits expected to achieve from this initiative include production optimization, workflow automation, reduced water cut, optimized use of limited resources, real-time modeling and decision support which will lead ultimately to increased production and recovery.

The increasing demand for cost effective and rapid development of oil and gas resources and the need to squeeze more reserves from fields have led to an industry-wide push to develop frameworks.

High Level: The intent and desire of the Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) is to embed the learning and reuse of best practices, ulti¬mately enabling performance improvements across the entire organization. The Project was delivered on-time and on-budget successfully meeting its business objectives.

Business Challenge: Finding a proven approach to tailoring and embedding a method¬ology for the effective transfer of best practices across the entire organisation.

• Applying proven project management and best practice transfer methods and following a disciplined approach for effective development and implementation
• Leveraging and building on relevant learning, practices, and programs that already exist within KPC (and subsidiaries) to accelerate understanding and buy-in
• Understanding the critical aspects of behavior and culture and tailoring the best practice methodology to fit KPC.
• Developing competency and ownership in the best practice methodology for repeatable imple¬mentation and sustainable results
• Using an integrated approach that leverages people, processes and technologies for best practice trans¬fer and aligns key stakeholders in the line and functions to maximize performance and minimize risk.

SkillBase value proposition: The partnership between SkillBase and SAIC is based on leveraging the best knowledge and experience of both companies to deliver the best value and ensure the success of the project. Both companies committed senior officers to be corporate offi¬cers-in-charge (COIC) to ensure the authority necessary for effective project execution and to quickly access any additional resources if the need arises. The COICs were also involved in the quality assurance and quality control of the entire project. Our approach was based on flat lines of authority that allow the program manager sufficient authority to organize and execute assigned responsi¬bilities efficiently and cost-effectively. The approach provided the flexibility necessary for efficient per¬formance of simultaneous tasks.

Quote from KPC Management:

KPC and the K-Companies have delivered remarkable business results to date. But the world and our business is rapidly changing. Our ability to learn quickly from each other is key to our continued growth and success. Sharing and transferring best practices routinely across our work teams and leaders will enable us to do things better, faster and cheaper, without having to spend even more time at work stay ahead in our marketplaces. This is what KPC and our consultants have teamed up to do:  “share and transfer the right things for the right reasons,” making your life easier in the process. “There is always a better way.”

KPC Management

SkillBase consultants installed and customised one of the leading solutions in the market - the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Product a few years ago. Since the implementation we have been involved in support and enhancements to the critical storage environment.

This storage management software from Tivoli protects from risks of data loss and helps reduce complexity, manage costs and address compliance with data retention and availability requirements.

The Solution from IBM

• Stores backup, archive, restore, compliance and disaster-recovery data in a hierarchy of offline storage
• Protects data on computers running a variety of different operating systems
• Provides storage management and data protection on hardware ranging from notebooks to mainframe computers and connected through the Internet, wide area networks, local area networks or storage area networks
• Combines Web-based storage management software, intelligent data move-and-store techniques and comprehensive policy-based automation to increase data protection and potentially decrease administration time
• Uses a progressive incremental methodology that backs up only new or changed versions of files, greatly reducing data redundancy, network bandwidth and storage pool consumption when compared to traditional methodologies based on periodic full backups 
• Works with storage hardware to exploit other data-reduction techniques such as subfile backup, client compression and device compression, so that you back up less data and save time, space and money

SkillBase has successfully deployed dozens of IBM Storage Solutions in the Middle East region and have a dedicated Team of certified consultants.

Today, more than ever, IT must tightly align with the business. IT performance is normally always tied to business performance: Every person-hour and all costs must be allocated to deliver maximum business value.

IT also must respond more quickly than ever to new and evolving business requirements. Two-year development cycles are not acceptable these days. So, alignment must be attained and maintained with agility.

Timely business alignment can be achieved with the right strategies and tools. The IT Information Library (ITIL), originally designed by the British government to codify best practices and approaches to systems management, provides some of the industry’s most important guidance for maintaining alignment.
 
ITIL v3 explicitly supports Quality Assurance (QA) strategies and the ITIL V3 Book on Continual Service Improvement (CPI) is focused on Quality.

To address the quality issue, ITIL v3 places increased emphasis on the Configuration Management System (CMS), which includes the creation and maintenance of Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs). One of the goals of the CMS with the CMDB implementation is to increase uptime by decreasing the time it takes to restore services.

The Session conducted by SkillBase was attended by senior KNPC IT management Team. SkillBase has several ITIL V3 certified resources.

SkillBase works closely with ConfirmIT, a leading EFM solution in the industry.

Over the past few years KPC and its subsidiaries have undertaken several good initiatives to facilitate Succession Planning. These initiatives have included identifying the right philosophy, exploring modern assessment techniques and forming teams to derive necessary efforts.

The Project deliverables included deploying and using several industry standard tools like 360 Degree Feedback, SuccessFactors etc.

360 degree feedback is a method and a tool that provides employees the opportunity to receive performance feedback from his or her supervisor and peers, reporting staff members, coworkers and customers. 360 degree feedback allows each individual to understand effectiveness as an employee, coworker, or staff member is viewed by others. The 360 degree feedback processes provide feedback that is based on behaviours that other employees can see.

SuccessFactors is the leader in on-demand Performance and Talent Management software positioned to help companies by providing integrated solutions that enable organizations to bridge strategy and execution gaps, cultivate top talent and optimize workforces, to drive business productivity and results.

The Project is expected to commence in July 2008 and be completed within 6 Months.

The intent and desire of the Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) is to embed the learning and reuse of best practices, ulti¬mately enabling performance improvements across the entire organization. The Project was delivered on-time and on-budget successfully meeting its business objectives.

Business Challenge: Finding a proven approach to tailoring and embedding a method¬ology for the effective transfer of best practices across the entire organization.

• Applying proven project management and best practice transfer methods and following a disciplined approach for effective development and implementation
• Leveraging and building on relevant learning, practices, and programs that already exist within KPC (and subsidiaries) to accelerate understanding and buy-in
• Understanding the critical aspects of behavior and culture and tailoring the best practice methodology to fit KPC.
• Developing competency and ownership in the best practice methodology for repeatable imple¬mentation and sustainable results
• Using an integrated approach that leverages people, processes and technologies for best practice trans¬fer and aligns key stakeholders in the line and functions to maximize performance and minimize risk.

SkillBase value proposition: The partnership between SkillBase and SAIC is based on leveraging the best knowledge and experience of both companies to deliver the best value and ensure the success of the project. Both companies committed senior officers to be corporate offi¬cers-in-charge (COIC) to ensure the authority necessary for effective project execution and to quickly access any additional resources if the need arises. The COICs were also involved in the quality assurance and quality control of the entire project. Our approach was based on flat lines of authority that allow the program manager sufficient authority to organize and execute assigned responsi¬bilities efficiently and cost-effectively. The approach provided the flexibility necessary for efficient per¬formance of simultaneous tasks.

Quote from KPC Management:
KPC and the K-Companies have delivered remarkable business results to date. But the world and our business is rapidly changing. Our ability to learn quickly from each other is key to our continued growth and success. Sharing and transferring best practices routinely across our work teams and leaders will enable us to do things better, faster and cheaper, without having to spend even more time at work stay ahead in our marketplaces. This is what KPC and our consultants have teamed up to do:  “share and transfer the right things for the right reasons,” making your life easier in the process. “There is always a better way.”

- KPC Management

The relationship between the two companies is the first of its kind for SAIC in Kuwait, teaming a local, well-known and respected technology services provider (SkillBase) with the knowledge management capabilities of SAIC.

“SAIC is very excited about working with SkillBase. They share our values, customer focus, enthusiasm for our business, and recognize the benefits of collaborations that result in exceptional delivery,” said Gary Mann, SAIC Senior Vice President and Operation Manager. “SkillBase complements our strengths and brings distinctive experiences and strategies that help meet special service demands within the region.”

“We believe that this alliance will further enhance our mission to determine and solve business challenges by exploiting appropriate technology components”, said Faisal Abdul Rahman, Director of SkillBase. “SkillBase has developed an innovative, flexible and personal approach to providing critical services. Working side by side with SAIC, we expect to double our contributions and efforts in meeting our clients’ needs.”

With over 25 years of sales marketing experience, predominantly with IBM and GBM, Mr. Rahman is also recognized for his extensive experience working with local government, Petroleum, Defense and Financial sectors in the region.

SAIC is home to a successful knowledge management (KM) capability as part of its consulting practice. SAIC’s approach to capturing and reusing knowledge has been refined through successful applications in many Fortune 500 companies and government organizations over the last seven years, and continues to lead the field in innovative KM techniques, providing its customers a competitive edge.

SAIC was named one of 2005 Global and North American Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE). SAIC was selected for the award by a panel of Global Fortune 500™ senior executives and internationally recognized knowledge management and intellectual capital experts.

SAIC is the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the United States, with more than 43,000 employees in over 150 cities worldwide. For the fiscal year ended January 31, 2005, the company reported annual revenues of $7.2 billion. SAIC engineers and scientists solve complex technical problems in national security, homeland security, energy, the environment, space, telecommunications, health care, and logistics. (www.saic.com)

SkillBase is a leading, trusted, and independent advisor to the business community in the Arabian Gulf. SkillBase provides a full range of business and IT management consulting services, including strategic planning, and business process engineering. (www.skill-base.com)

For further information, please contact:
Ms. Layla Smith
layla@skill-base.com