Botswana Oil leverages SAP’s ERP tech and knowledge to scale

Botswana Oil Limited (BOL) was established to support the Government of Botswana with achieving three broad national economic objectives, namely ensuring the security and efficiency of fuel supply to Botswana, managing Botswana Government’s petroleum strategic reserves and promoting active citizen involvement in the petroleum industry. Botswana Oil is wholly owned by the Government of Botswana, represented by the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security and incorporated under the Companies Act of Botswana.

According to Galeboe Mmelesi, ICT Manager at BOL, the company recognised that it had to improve its operating model – including processes, data and information management – if it was to drive its performance to new levels. “Our company is set for tremendous growth over the coming years. However, we had to be ready to scale quickly and efficiently and for this we needed to establish best-practice processes specific to the oil and gas industry. Our SAP solution now allows us to not only scale our business, but expand into other mid to downstream oil and gas activities, helping us realise our vision of becoming a leader in the integrated oil and gas sector in Africa.”

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For Mmelesi, it was critical that an optimum time-to-value for the project was achieved. “We made value management part of our project management meetings from the outset, helping us continuously align our activities to the broader business objectives. A key part of improving the time-to-value was the use of SAP’s oil-in-one template solution, which allowed us to adapt an existing best-practice solution to our specific business needs. However, we needed experienced partners to help us leverage the power of this solution.”

As a relatively new company, BOL made a concerted effort to contract business process specialists that were experienced not only with the oil and gas industry, but in SAP solutions as well. “Having this kind of experience on board reduced the overall pressure on the team during the implementation period. We also chose an implementation partner that could bring deep experience and expertise in the mid to downstream oil and gas industry.”

Francois van Heerden, Executive Technology Advisor at Adapt IT, the SAP partner that implemented the project, said the six-month project unlocked immediate benefits for BOL. “Following the successful implementation of the new SAP solution, the client was able to improve accuracy of data and pricing, gain immediate visibility of critical business data and automate key controls and processes. We were also able to fast-track the implementation timeline by relying on standard best practice and brought in senior experienced SAP resources in all areas of the implementation, which minimised development time and overall project costs.”

A change management strategy was implemented to on-board users and prepare them for the new system and associated processes. “By the time the project went live, users were ready and eager to use the new system, which made the switchover from the legacy system that much easier. Key to this was the effective stakeholder engagement strategy that ensured all stakeholders were informed of changes and clear in terms of expectations from the executive team. In this, effective training and adequate support mechanisms ensured a seamless switchover to the new system,” said van Heerden.

Lawrence Kandaswami, Managing Director: South Africa at SAP Africa, said: “By implementing a best-practice suite of technology solutions and leveraging SAP’s global expertise in the oil and gas sector, BOL is now in the enviable position of being able to scale quickly and efficiently as the company continues its remarkable growth trajectory. This is a great example of how digital transformation can create a solid platform for the growth and success of economically-critical industries across the African continent.”