Letter of Transmittal

To,

Mr. Nasir Ayub,

Institute of Business Management,

Korangi Creek

Karachi

Dear Sir,

This term report is submitted to you after a thorough analysis of the

given responsibility. It deals with ITD analysis of Shell , covers the

major areas of notification and takes you through the background of

the industry to its performance indication findings in a concise

manner.

We sincerely hope this effort fulfills the requirements and

expectations.

Respectfully,

Syed Kashif Jafri

Faraz Razzaq

Reena Ibrahim

Zainab Meher

Aysha Younus

Shezad Ismail

L etter of Acknowledgement

Dear Sir

We would want to highly acknowledge Mr. Nasir Ayub, our ISM

professor, tutor, counselor who has been highly influential in the

development of our understanding of strategic IT and analytical skills.

His trust and teachings made us confident in one area, IT, where We

lacked expertise.

His continuous support during the project and in explanations of

lectures were the two key motivators for us to do this extensive

project which required a lot of thinking , team work , intellect and

guidance which was provided by Mr Nasir Ayub when ever we

needed.

Thanking you with warm regards,

Syed Kashif Jafri

Faraz Razzaq

Reena Ibrahim

Zainab Meher

Aysha Younus

Shezad Ismail

A BRIEF HISTORY

The Shell brand name enjoys a 100-year history in this part of the

world, dating back to 1899 when Asiatic Petroleum, the far eastern

marketing arm of two companies: Shell Transport Company and

Royal Dutch Petroleum Company began importing kerosene oil

from Azerbaijan into the subcontinent. Even today, the legacy of

the past is visible in a storage tank carrying the date - 1898.

In 1928, to enhance their distribution capabilities, the marketing interest of Royal Dutch Shell plc

and the Burmah Oil Company Limited in India were merged and Burmah Shell Oil Storage &

Distribution Company of India was born. After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, the name

was changed to the Burmah Shell Oil Distribution Company of Pakistan. In 1970, when 51% of

the shareholding was transferred to Pakistani investors, the name of changed to Pakistan Burmah

Shell (PBS) Limited. The Shell and the Burmah Groups retained the remaining 49% in equal

propostions. In February of 1993, as economic liberalisation began to take root and the Burmah

divested from PBS, Shell Petroleum stepped into raise its stake to 51%. The years 2001-2 have

seen the Shell Petroleum Company successively increasing its share, with the Group now having

a 76% stake in Shell Pakistan Ltd (SPL)- an expression of confidence.

Responsibilities

Shell Pakistan Ltd. recognizes five areas of responsibility.  It is the duty of management

continuously to assess the priorities and discharge these inseparable responsibilities on the basis

of that assessment.

a. To shareholders

To protect shareholders’ investment, and provide a long-term return competitive with those of

other leading companies in the industry.

b.   To customers

To win and maintain customers by developing and providing products and services which offer

value in terms of price, quality, safety and environmental impact, which are supported by the

requisite technological, environmental and commercial expertise.

c.   To employees

To respect the human rights of our employees and to provide them with good and safe working

conditions and competitive terms and conditions of employment.

To promote the development and best use of the talents of our employees; to create an inclusive

work environment where every employee has an equal opportunity to develop his or her skills

and talents.

To encourage the involvement of employees in the planning and direction of their work; to

provide them with channels to report concerns.

We recognize that commercial success depends on the full commitment of all employees.

d.   To those with whom we do business

To seek mutually beneficial relationships with contractors, suppliers and in joint ventures and to

promote the application of these Shell Pakistan Ltd. General Business Principles or equivalent

principles in such relationships.  The ability to promote these principles effectively will be an

important factor in the decision to enter into or remain in such relationship.

e.   To society

To conduct business as responsible corporate members of society, to comply with applicable laws

and regulations, to support fundamental human rights in line with the legitimate role of business,

and to give proper regard to health, safety, security and the environment.

Principle No. 1: Economic

Long-term profitability is essential to achieving our business goals and to our continued growth.  

It is a measure both of efficiency and of the value that customers place on Shell Pakistan Ltd.

products and services.  It supplies the necessary corporate resources for the continuing investment

that is required to develop and produce future energy supplies to meet customer needs.  Without

profits and a strong financial foundation, it would not be possible to fulfill our responsibilities.

Criteria for investment and divestment decisions include sustainable development considerations

(economic, social and environmental) and an appraisal of the risks of the investment.

Principle No 2: Competition

Shell Pakistan Ltd. supports free enterprise.  We seek to compete fairly and ethically and within

the framework of applicable competition laws; we will not prevent others from competing freely

with us.

Principle No 3: Business Integrity

Shell Pakistan Ltd. insists on honesty, integrity and fairness in all aspects of our business and

expects the same in our relationships with all those with whom we do business.  The direct or

indirect offer, payment, soliciting or acceptance of bribes in any form is unacceptable.  

Facilitation payments are also bribes and should not be made.   Employees must avoid conflicts

of interest between their private activities and their part in the conduct of company business.

Employees must also declare to their employing company potential conflicts of interest.   All

business transactions on behalf of Shell Pakistan Ltd. must be reflected accurately and fairly in

the accounts of the company in accordance with established procedures and are subject to audit

and disclosure.

Principle No 4: Political Activities

a.   Of companies

Shell Pakistan Ltd. acts in a socially responsible manner within the laws of the countries in which

we operate in pursuit of our legitimate commercial objectives.

Shell Pakistan Ltd. does not make payments to political parties, organizations or their

representatives.  Shell Pakistan Ltd. does not take part in party politics. However, when dealing

with the government, Shell Pakistan Ltd. has the right and the responsibility to make our position

known on any matters which affect us, our employees, our customers, our shareholders or local

communities in a manner which is in accordance with our value and the Business Principles.

b.   Of employees

Where individuals wish to engage in activities in the community, including standing for election

to public office, they will be given the opportunity to do so where this is appropriate in the light

of local circumstances.

Principle 5: Health, Safety, Security and the Environment

Shell Pakistan Ltd. has a systematic approach to health, safety, security and environmental

management in order to achieve continuous performance improvement.

To this end, Shell Pakistan Ltd. manages these matters as critical business activities, sets

standards and targets for improvement, and measures, appraises and reports performance

externally.

We continually look for ways to reduce the environmental impact of our operations, products and

services.

Principle 6: Local Communities

Shell Pakistan Ltd. aims to be good neighbors by continuously improving the ways in which we

contribute directly or indirectly to the general well-being of the communities within which we

work.

We manage the social impacts of our business activities carefully and work with others to

enhance the benefits to local communities, and to mitigate any negative impacts from our

activities.

In addition, Shell Pakistan Ltd. takes a constructive interest in societal matters, directly or

indirectly related to our business.

Principle 7: Communication and Engagement

Shell Pakistan Ltd. recognizes that regular dialogue and engagement with our stakeholders is

essential.  We are committed to reporting of our performance by providing full relevant

information to legitimately interested parties, subject to any overriding considerations of business

confidentiality.

In our interactions with employees, business partners and local communities, we seek to listen

and respond to them honestly and responsibly.

Principle 8: Compliance

We comply with all applicable laws and regulations of the counties in which we operate.

Living by our Principles

Our shared core values of honesty, integrity and respect for people, underpin all the work we do

and are the foundation of our Business Principles.

The Business Principles apply to all transactions, large or small, and drive the behavior expected

of every employee in Shell Pakistan Ltd. in the conduct of its business at all times.

We are judged by how we act.  Our reputation will be upheld if we act in accordance with the law

and the Business Principles.  We encourage our business partners to live by them or by equivalent

principles.

We encourage our employees to demonstrate leadership, accountability and teamwork, and

through these behaviors, to contribute to the overall success of Shell Pakistan Ltd.

It is the responsibility of management to lead by example, to ensure that all employees are aware

of these principles, and behave in accordance with the spirit as well as with the letter of this

statement.

The application of these principles is underpinned by a comprehensive set of assurance

procedures which are designed to make sure that our employees understand the principles and

confirm that they act in accordance with them.

As part of the assurance system, it is also the responsibility of management to provide employees

with safe and confidential channels to raise concerns and report instances of non-compliance.  In

turn, it is the responsibility of Shell Pakistan Ltd. employees to report suspected breaches of the

Business Principles to Shell Pakistan Ltd.

The Business Principles have for many years been fundamental to how we conduct our business

and living by them is crucial to our continued success.

IT STRUCTURE AT SHELL

Unlike other organizations, shell has a very different organo gram as far as IT department is concerned. They don’t have a concept of CIO (chief information officer), rather they have the concept of LIAM (Local integration and assurance manager). LIAM is considered to be the top management for IT structure at shell, which is involved in decision making, configuration management, network management, problem management, capacity planning, storage management and other critical areas of planning and decision making.

LIAM is further divided into three areas of IT that is; infrastructure LIAM, application LIAM and infrastructure demand LIAM. Infrastructure LIAM is responsible for all the designing of IT structure, which includes network designing of PCs’, resource allocation in terms of personnel, facility allocation etc.

In order to find out the demands and requirements of a robust infrastructure, LIAM infrastructure demand plays a vital role. They have a concept of IT service and all problems, queries and requirement are listed down and these are then cascaded to LIAM infrastructure so that amendments and improvements can be made accordingly on regular intervals. Trend analysis is one technique they do in order to see the growing or declining patterns of customer requirements and queries. Through this technique, infrastructure LIAM gets to know where to focus.

The third division under LIAM clusters is application LIAM, which is connected to all application related issues at shell.

Other than LIAM there are other two departments namely, BAM (Business Application management) and service delivery.

BAM is responsible for ERPs’ (Enterprise Resource Planning), which includes planning of business related programs according to their growing usage and frequency of use. Retail IT is yet another area of shell, which comes under BAM. Retail IT includes point of sale technology (automatic pumps) and back office support.

Service delivery is another department which caters the needs of all system and networking related issues. Issues related to network infrastructure, support programs are looked after by this department. Service delivery department is globally headed with offices in different continents. MESA (Middle East South Asia) offices are in 4 countries namely Pakistan, Dubai, Oman and India.

There are 7000 employees working at shell as far as IT is concerned out of which only 10 are recruited in Pakistan.

Graphical Representation of IT Structure at Shell

LIAM Clusters (Irfan Hyder)

Infrastructure LIAM Application LIAM Infrastructure demand LIAM (Haseeb Khan) (Saulat) (Sibtain)

BAM (Kamran Hussain)

Service Deliver (MESA) (Sadequain Khoja)

Pakistan Oman Dubai India

ITD Responsibilities

LIAM CLUSTERS ( Process Owner) Responsible for delivering the IT, financial, sales application

services & infrastructure availability assurances for IT Control sign-off

Continuous correspondence with the region. Must response to Audit requirements Delivery & support of SOX IT controls IT budget demands due to compliance efforts Can be a significant component of IT budget Leverage for IT benefit and company competitive advantage

ITD Roles

Managing assessment of internal controls(1) state the responsibility of management for establishing and maintaining an adequate internal control structure and procedures for efficient reporting; and(2) contain an assessment, as of the end of the most recent fiscal year of the issuer, of the effectiveness of the internal control structure and procedures of the issuer for financial reportingManaging assessment of internal controlsManaging customers and suppliers network.

Providing effective solutions and robust systems intact.

PROGRAMS USED AT SHELL

Different organizations use different utilities to run their business. For example Standard Chartered Bank use Lotus Notes for e-mail, ebbs for account inquiries, cards 400 for credit card customer inquiries.

Shell uses different programs to run their BAU’s (Business as usual). The most important program that shell uses, on which their entire business is dependent is JD-Edward. The most peculiar aspect of this program is that rights to use this program are limited for particular use. For example, finance person will only be accessible to finance related areas, same goes for cash management and so on and so forth. This way availability issues are minimum as there is no load of users on the whole program.

For email purpose shell uses Outlook express.

There is another very interesting technology used at shell as far as computers are concerned. This technology is known as GI-D technology. It is card with a chip attached to it and every employee is awarded with there own. The amazing feature about this technology is that wherever you want to access a computer at shell within Pakistan you just have to clip the chip and you’ll be able to access all your emails and data stored in “My documents”.

As far as operating system is concerned shell is operating on windows 2000 NT server.

POLICY STATEMENT @ Shell Pakistan.

1. Building trust between colleagues to enable our information to be safely shared as widely as possible across SPL and group companies

2. Safeguarding our sensitive information and essential IT services from potential security threats.

3. preparing ourselves for maintaining “business as usual” throughout IT failures or disasters affecting the office environment

4. ensure that all external services are provided in accordance with the group standards

5. protect local communications and local machines in lined with group recommended baseline controls by placing them in restrictive areas, with physically separated duplication and independent power sources for critical devices

6. Rely on building parameter security to control access to the building, augmented by restriceted access to the statusquo floors and further access control on sensitive rooms

7. develop and control LAN backup facility for PC data and programs, and proide safe storage facilities for disks.

8. check all incoming disks and files from outside STASCO for any possible viral threat

9. assigning owners to all business systems who will be responsible for determining the risk classification and authorizing access, based on the potential impact of the disclosure, modification, or loss

10. Operating formal access control procedures for main frame, local area network and other multi-users services which include user registration and de-registration, user identity and password management. Access controls will differentiate those with authority

11. extending access control to PCs (for all machines holding sensitive or critical data)

12. avoiding the electronic storage or communication of MOST CONFIDENTIAL information (as defined in the group classification system)

13. make explicit to the staff that they use unauthorized/unlicensed software is not permitted

14. provide virus scanning facilities to ensure that PC diskettes and files have not been “Infected”

15. ensure that group guidelines and other relevant information security standards are applied at each stage in the development

16. separate development and operational system environment

17. operate formal change control and software test and release procedures, including procedure for the recovery of the previous operational version

18. ensure that group guidelines and other relevant information security standards are applied at each stage in the development

19. separate development and operational environments20. operate formal change control and software test and

release procedures, including procedures for the recovery of the previous operational versions

21. STASCO’s training programs include the topics of the information security and confidentiality

22. staff are kept informed of the threats, counter-measures and control procedures, and good practice

23. Information transferred on the internet is neither secured not confidential. Never transfer any information where loss of privacy could have an adverse business impact

24. when planning to make use of information retrieved over the internet for business purposes, always assess the risk of losing access to that information for a significant period of time

25. always make sure you know the source, and have assessed carefully how reliable and accurate their information will be

OBJECTIVES OF THE IT NETOWORKThe three key objectives of Service Management are:

To align IT services with the current and future needs of the business and its CustomersTo improve the quality of the IT services deliveredTo reduce the long-term cost of service provision

“IT is the business” and “The business is IT”

OTHER PRACTICES @ Shell Pakistan

GOALS AND MISSION ON SERVICE LEVEL MANAGEMENT

To maintain and improve IT service quality, through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring and reporting upon IT service achievements and through instigating actions to eradicate unacceptable levels of service.

For this purpose the IT staff responsible , continouslly goes through logs and metrices on daily basis , so that service delivery in any way is not affected

Delivering IT

Services

SupportingIT Services

The BusinessPerspective

Managing TheInfrastructure

ManagingApplication

s

APPLICATION OF IT DISCIPLINES

1. Change Management‘A process to control and coordinate all changes to an IT production environment”

All the changes small or big are aligned especially with the regional changes in the IT infrastructure since the system is integrated with

Fire Fighting

Reactive

Proactive

Service

Value

Objective: “Mature as quickly as possible to the Value Phase.”

Capacity Planning and Service Level Management

IT and Business Metric Linkage (Maximum ROI)

Fault Management (Red Light - Green Light); Single Console; Trouble Tickets

Multiple Help Desks, Minimal Operational Standards, Users Report Problems

the international system all the requirements and approval for funds are based on regional approvals. Permission before making any change is taken from the user and the process owner. There is database from where changes made are log and can be view by the Shell Pakistan employees too

A Recent Example:To ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes, in order to minimise the impact of change related problems upon IT service quality and consequently to improve the day to day operations of the organization a new change system was introduced JDE.

A recent change made was implementing the JDE , so in order to streamline the JDE change management process , the scenario was to setup Backup AS/400 system for changing JDE objects and to implement it on live AS/400 computers.

Following is the way in which it was implemented. 1. On the backup machine a library was created and the programs

which were to be changed were copied .2. Necessary changes which were to be made were complied and

copied into the library3. Then for doing a system test the object were complied and put

in a new library.4. After that to perform a user test, the source was recompiled and

put in the new library5. Once the user test turned out to be successful , the object was

copied back to the library6. In order to implement the same for Live AS/400 , the source was

copied in the L5501src library and recompiled the source and placed in the object library

7. And last but not least a form was developed to capture change management process and logged in a safe place. So that it can be used by users.

Other then this following considerations are taken in general practice, At Shell they Manage, schedule, and document all planned

changes , Includes modification of system infrastructure components - servers, ERP platforms, …

Ensure that only authorized, tested, and documented changes are made and the regional team is kept in loop if the change being made is of a greater sensitivity.

High and often change rates could indicate risk Focal point for IT/Business Alignment

Unauthorized changes is likely a key risk indicator to the effectiveness of this internal control

2. Availability

The process of optimizing the readiness of production systems by accurately measuring, analyzing and reducing outages to those production systems”

At Shell it is made sure that the availability is 24 * 7 , the support is on going and it is made sure that downtime does not occur , how ever at times due to heavy load the speed slows down. It is the job of LIAM application and infrastructure to make sure that

Problem management logs are reviewed and analyzed monthly.Feedback from the operating personnel is taken

The two measures which Shell Pakistan takes to ensure its availability

1. Key Performance Indicators (KPI)2. Monthly meetings to review the availability of the system.How Shell Pakistan measure availabilityThe responsibilities have been assign to the stakeholders to monitor the availability of the systems on regular basis, the availability in Shell Pakistan is 100%.To ensure 100% availability Shell Pakistan applies 7 R’s of high availability which are:RedundancyReputationReliabilityReparabilityRecoverabilityResponsivenessRobustnessReputationHow Shell Pakistan Ensures Components reliabilityProblem management logs are reviewed and analyzed monthly.Feedback from the operating personnel is takenAcquire feedback from supplier personnel.Study reports from industry analyzed

PERFORMANCE AND TUNING

“Performance and tuning is a methodology to maximize throughput

and minimize response times of batch jobs, online transactions and

internet activities”

Service deliver head for MESA, Mr. Sadeqain Khoja claims that shell’s

availability is 24/7 that is 100%. There are cases of slow response but

their system is never down. This is due to their close checks on the

level of performance and tuning. They have separate team under

BAM, which ensure regular tunings so that performance is not

affected in critical times.

Shell’s service level agreements are with hp and IBm along with

supernet as far as internet connectivity is concerned. They manage

these SLA’s very smoothly and are able to provide their customer with

maximum availability and uptime.

Applications

Devices

Operating Systems / Infrastructure

Compilers / APIs Virtual Machines

Operating System Tuning

CPU(s) GP Memory Display Disk Network

Inst

rum

ent

ati

onAna

lys

is

Tool

s

Be

nc h m ar ki ng

4. Incident / Problem Management

At Shell they have they have dividd problem into incident and problem management to tackle with both in a much more strategic and planned manner, the objective of incident management is to restore “normal service operation as quickly as possible and minimize the adverse impact on business operations, thus ensuring that the best possible levels of service quality and availability are maintained.”

Any event which is not part of the standard operation of a service and which causes, or may cause, an interruption to, or a reduction in, the quality of that service. The course of action in such a situation is to restore the service as soon as possible.

For dealing with such issues and incidents at Shell , they maintain regular logs and monitoring is done on regular baisis, how ever if a problem occurs and

Incident Detection & Recording

Classification & initial support

Service Request

Investigation & Diagnosis

Resolution & Recovery

Incident Closure

OwnershipMonitoringTracking

andCommunication

Serive RequirementProceudre

Problem ManagementTo maximise IT services by putting right what is wrong and preventing recurrences.To cure reactively and prevent proactively.a condition identified as a result of multiple Incidents exhibiting common symptoms,or a single significant Incident, the cause of which is unknown but which has significant impact.

STORAGE MANAGEMENT

• RAID IS USED • Logical volume group.• Hard drive space is constantly monitored.• Robotic tape drives are used to store the data which is updated

daily

IT CustomerRelationshipManagement

Release Management

Change Management

Configuration Management

Capacity Management

Financial Managementfor IT Services

Security Management

IT ServiceContinuity Management

Service Level Management

Incident Management

Problem Management

Availability Management

Service delivey

Service Support

Service Desk

• KPI: The hard rive space should not be occupied more than 70 %.

“A process to optimize the use of storage devices and to protect the

integrity of data for any media on which it resides”.

As business grows, more facilities and resources are required to keep

up the pace. Oil companies in Pakistan are growing at an increasing

rate mainly because of the fact that we are an oil importing country

and moreover consumer banking is also playing a vital role for their

success. Shell is increasing its market share in the retail section of

our economy and hence more resources in terms of facilities are

required.

Shell uses the technique of trend analysis and by using relevant

metrics they predict the increased capacity required in terms of

storage on quarterly basis. Currently Pentium III and 4 systems are

being used at shell with a disk space of 40 and 80 GB respectively.

Pentium 4 was introduced year back after analyzing the growing need

of disk space. They are again planning to increase disk space for

particular people who are indulged in databases and other disk

occupying activities.

Shell being a proactive organization takes relevant actions in terms of

increasing disk space before customer’s request. Customer

emergency requests are also entertained if they are justified.

The storage devices used by them are:

USB drives

GI-D

Proper carry drives

Re-writable disks CD

Back up System

Shell has an offsite for data back up at KEMARI, where they transfer

data through robotic tape drive. Data is stored at daily basis. It’s an

ongoing process, which facilitates data backup of every second that

passes. Backup audit is also conducted to ensure that backup tapes

are well labeled and are in working condition. Moreover, proper

facilities are provided at the offsite to ensure that backup data is

stored properly and carefully and can be retrieved easily when

required.

7. Disaster Recovery

As such to date Shell Pakistan has not faced any disaster but they do have a disaster recovery contingency plan which they plan to implement if some disaster takes place.

Storage budgetsOperational effectiveness

BC/DRResponsiveness and agility

Increasing storage capacity requirements

Higher standards for business availability

Data retention

Complexity and lack of

specialized expertise

Back Up Strategy

Shell Pakistan uses Tape Drives to store its data, everyday at 5 pm the back up is made on tape drives.

They store the data on a plant at Kemari Incase if system break down in afternoon time which has not yet happened at Shell Pakistan then the data of the whole day is lost.

For this purpose Shell Pakistan has set certain benchmarking standards as to which processes are most crictical so that in time of recovery, data is recovered in order of the priorities but that only if a major break down happens or a major disaster take place.

Business Risks

Technology Vulnerability Assessment

Five Steps to Recovery Confidence

REVENUES

SERVICES

Confidence To Recover

1. Mission- Critical Processes2. Customer Service- Critical Processes3. Business- Critical Processes 4. Support System Processes

DepartmentVulnerabilityAssessment

BusinessContinuity

Plan

DisasterRecovery

Plan

EnvironmentAssessment

#1

#4

BusinessImpact

Analysis

Technology Vulnerability

Audit

#5

#2

#3

Copyright @ 2002

Turnbull Consulting, Inc.

Business Risks

Technology Vulnerability Assessment

Five Steps to Recovery Confidence

REVENUES

SERVICES

Confidence To Recover

1. Mission- Critical Processes2. Customer Service- Critical Processes3. Business- Critical Processes 4. Support System Processes

DepartmentVulnerabilityAssessment

BusinessContinuity

Plan

DisasterRecovery

Plan

EnvironmentAssessment

#1

#4

BusinessImpact

Analysis

Technology Vulnerability

Audit

#5

#2

#3

Copyright @ 2002

Turnbull Consulting, Inc.

11. Capacity Planning

• Capacity planning is done effectively at Shell Pakistan IT Department through determining KPI’s, which consistently identifies the resources and then measures it performance accordingly. These KPI’s are designed around the current capacity and the capacity being used and are reported to region on timely basis. if any change in these KPI’s occurs, then the

process owners updates the workload forecasts and implements the required capacity planning as per the approval of the region.

Data interpretation is one of the most important stages of capacity planning. It enables them to:

profile current resource demands characterize workloads discover trends from historical data collections

This stage focuses on performance analysis and can be used to locate current as well as potential bottlenecks

Then a base line is created, the benefit of which are – A measure of the capacity of the system.– A point of reference from which to measure.– A way to discuss what it can do.– A measure of its reliability.

l Then they compare it to itself over time– Did something change?– Where did the change occur?– How much did it change?

2. After that the IT representatives can compare it to something else

– Another segment or infrastructure. – Another server or network technology.– A different configuration

–.

FACILITIES MANAGEMENT

A process to ensure that an appropriate physical environment is consistently supplied to enable the continuous operation of all critical infrastructure equipment

Facilities management is a vital and integral part to ensure optimal

performance and maximum availability at shell. The management is

confronted with a challenge to ensure that appropriate physical

environment is consistently supplied to enable the continuous

operation of all infrastructure support.

Reliability Reliability

PlanPlan

AcceptancAcceptanceeTestTest

Change Change PlanningPlanning

BaselineBaseline

The Major elements that are looked upon to protect, secure and

assess the control of the data centers/ data communication rooms

include the fixing of the:

Cooling through the air conditioners so that excess heat cannot

damage the servers.

The humidity level should be low to protect the equipments

The electrical power is made secure so as any electric shock or

circuit breakdown is avoided.

Backup generators are kept so as to transfer loads, also ups

batteries are always charged.

Fire alarms, smoke detectors and other security alerts are placed.

Static Charge Neutralizers. Discharging Copper strips are embossed on the floor tiles and all of them are properly earthed.

Since, servers are placed at the shell house in Karachi; they are well placed in a glass room so that regular checks can be made without entering into the room. Concerned staff is well trained so that error rate becomes negligible.

The concept of performance and tuning can be very well incorporated as far as maintaining the facility is concerned. Service quality checks are done at regular intervals so that facilities can’t be taken for granted. Moreover, internal and external audit compels the concern staff to stay alert and agile during and after office hours.

Configuration Management

Effective configuration Management is one of the most vital

challenges that are faced by almost every organization in today’s era,

Shell being a part of this very arena pays special attention on the

configuration management at all levels. From network infrastructure

to change and problem management, from big size servers to desktop

PC’s and laptops everything is documented at the level of LIAM in

accordance with the shell IT standards set by LIAM itself.

Configurations are primarily done on

Servers

Routers

Switches

Computers of users via a state of the art Modem that automatically

configures with the main server to ensure security and connectivity

Shell evaluates their configuration management through their

Processes and procedures

Testing of the applications(Done periodically)

User testing(of modems and PCs free of charge)

PRODUCTION ACCEPTANCE

“It’s a methodology to consistently and successfully deploy application systems into a production environment regardless of platform”

An application used at organization should be such that it should be

well designed and well-structured which must perform to give

maximum output and satisfy customer’s need beyond expectations.

Shell being one of the advance organizations of Pakistan in terms of

technology can be quoted for a good example of production

acceptance. They are now switched to a completely new technology in

the business application namely JD Edward and it’s a big success in

terms of user acceptance and availability.

When this idea was routed their was an air of non-acceptance among

users as they thought it will disturb their routine jobs but everything

was done so nicely and calmly that no body got to know when testing

happened and when JDE was launched. Testing was short, simple and

happened mostly during off hours so that availability is not affected.

6. Network Management

“A process to maximize the reliability and utilization of network

components in order to optimize network availability and

responsiveness”

Networks may evolve, but they should always follow sound network

design fundamentals. Shell believe only then can a network meet the

specific business needs of an organization, and provide reliable,

secure, fast and efficient business communication.

LIAN manager infrastructure and Cluster is responsible for managing

the network issues, who has been assigned with full authority.

• Who manages it?

– LIAM Manager infrastructure

• What are the aspects of the entire network?

– CISCO for network based supernet; backup links: 5

megabites exchange.

– 3 plants (1lhr/ 1 in Khi/ 1 ISB).

• Redundancy have been insured by providing back-up lines

• 5 MB speed is ensured for fast communication .

• NM is measured through MRTG and other corporate tools are

used to measure the issues like traffic on network etc

• KPI: 99.9% Availabilty.

12. Strategic Security

• Security is one area of focus where Shell has paid a great importance , For security purpose a new system JDE has been launched , i.e. a personal secured chip is allotted to every body which has all there data , and provides them the flexibility to move around any where and access data from any where by just inserting that chip. Every employee has a unique individual login Id and passwords through which they can access, but if they want to access it from an outside location they can also use it .

Plus for security reasons few steps are mandatory by all employees- Changing login password after every 90 days- Changing JDE passwords after every 2 months- Removing the JDE chip while loggin out each time. , JDE is

responsibility of the individual to which it is allotted.

SWOT ANALYSIS

An analysis for the Strengths, weaknesses , opportunities, and threats for Shell Pakistan , how ever it is a MNC and has more strengths but still ITD is not being considered as a competitive advantage.

STRENGHTS OPPORTUNITIESTrained IT Staff Using the strong support to

make IT a competitive advantage

Well Set Processes and procedures

Potential local profitable investments

No Cultural obstacle to accept the new and dynamic changes

Huge potential on BAM and retail business

latest and updated software’s and hardware

 

High Customer satisfaction levels

 

WEEKNESSES THREATSTo centralizedTape backups at kamari

Competition , as in no track of how are they treating IT

If the JDE chip is lost , recovering data then becomes an issue

Mergers and deals of competion with the local parties

STRTEGIC ISSUES

-Too centralized as all the major decisions are made at the regional levels-Cant really make the most out of local deals available-Huge potential in terms of local investment opportunities related to Retail management IT side

RECOMMENDATIONS

Shell has a very strong and established IT setup , both hardware and software are updated , but certain areas where there concentration would result in better results are

- Shall Pakistan should treat IT as a opportunity and potential for having an edge on the retail and business side

- Shell Pakistan shall organize to focus on mission-critical systems.

- Shell Pakistan shall focus with the same intensity on organization, people, and process components as does on technology and development.

- Shell Pakistan shall honor time-tested disciplines (standards, processes, etc.).

- Shell Pakistan shall demonstrate and convey the value of IT throughout the enterprise.

- Last but not least pay more attention on the retail business side for achieving higher customer satisfaction

Improvements on ground level to uplift the corporate image