CXO Accent

“If IT stops at Aker Kvaerner, business stops”

Aker Kvaerner has a strong IT set-up, including an engineering document management system and IP VPN connectivity. These help the company carry out its core business activities efficiently.

All business sectors have made significant efforts to develop IT in accordance with global advancements. Aker Kvaerner Powergas India (AKPI), an engineering company with multinational presence, has set up a strong IT infrastructure to support its growth across the world.

To realise its long-term vision, the IT department of the company had to depend on the team effort of colleagues, enthusiastic co-operation of its IT users, and pragmatic support of the management.

The success of IT implementation in a domain involves the management of resources, policy formation and attaining the business objectives of the company. It also involves budget control, staff skill development and technology upgradation through a team of experienced people.

Going in for the best

Earlier the company had only SN-23 (PDP-11 Generation) mainframe system utilities with hardly any terminals for computer application. However, due to the realisation of the need for better systems and integration of the same with business process, the company decided to get the best in technology.

We are presently working on knowledge management with Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server, intranet development, and access of library information electronically in a seamless manner. The various functions of the company are integrated, and the convergence of technology is being harnessed for a competitive edge.

Today, seamless collaborative work and an electronic way of life is part of the AKPI work culture. We have upgraded our few workstations to a system consisting of hundreds of PCs in LAN and thousands of group IT intranet workstations.

The systems at AKPI also include strategic software tools such as a project control system, engineering database, engineering document management system (EDMS) and intelligent P&ID multi-office plant design tools.

IT is the oxygen

Kvaerner's mainline business, which is the backbone of its engineering knowledge pool, consists of engineering consultancy and documentation of project details and processes. Hence, the IT team has to work closely with other employees.

Further, the IT team has embarked on a digitisation spree encompassing all aspects of the company's inward and outward processes. In order to lend support to the engineers working on different projects, an EDMS was developed to store, share, locate and monitor information (on progress) which was held in documents.

I believe that IT is the oxygen of today's business world. Hence, if IT stops at AKPI, business stops. From the security officer at the gate to the chairman of the company, all are dependent on the IT system to carry out their functions.

We have spearheaded many in-house software development programmes to align IT with functional business needs. The company has deployed a range of software systems used for processes such as electronic document management; PDMS; PDS for 3D design; the VANTAGE plant engineering and procurement management system from AVEVA; Pro II; Hysis; HTRI; Caesar II and PVElite. The structural design is handled by Staadpro.

All in-house process licensors and vendor documents are stored and retrieved through EDMS, a system based on client/server architecture with Windows 98 clients and Oracle database on the Windows NT/Unix-based server. A number of reports, in-house drawings, specifications, and licensor and vendor documents are generated from the system.

Hardware installed
Workstations for PDS, PDMS		115
Desktops		885
Servers		25
Total storage capacity		2.5 Terabytes
Network printers/ laserjet/ plotters		40
Scanners		6
Video-conferencing equipment		1

Getting connected

The company on the whole uses 1 Mbps leased lines for its intranet link, whereas its Pune location uses 256 Kbps leased line connectivity. Access to its global network is ensured through IP VPN connectivity. Last year, close to Rs 5 crore was spent on various IT initiatives, of which 35 percent was on software.

The connectivity between Mumbai and Pune is used for transaction of data, drawings and e-mail. The ISDN facility at Mumbai is used for video-conferencing. In future the company plans to extend the ISDN connectivity to Pune for video/voice/data transfer.

Data security is another crucial element for us as we are connected globally and would not like any data to be compromised. All data is protected by the native security functions of Windows. E-mail traffic is secured by Trend Micro Scan Mail, and Trend Micro Anti-virus is installed on all the servers and workstations.

The intranet server is secured by IIS 5.0 security measures, and all the network packets are managed by PacketShaper 1500. Critical data is backed up everyday using NAS and the Robotic Library, and the servers pertaining to them by utilising RAID 5 technology.

The e-way of life

I feel that IT has a bigger role to play than just being part of business processes. To further that concept, we want to achieve the e-way of life or a paperless working environment. One of the initiatives in this regard is the employee self service (ESS) portal. It is an effort from our side to reduce the use of paper. The portal home page is connected to the MS SQL database. The ESS along with the Workflow e-forms for leave, travel and the like has been implemented. Online reports are available for the same. Employee salary information, perquisite register and tax liability are also made available online.

The knowledge management portal on Microsoft's SharePoint is being done by collating information from the engineering department. The portal will offer guidance, equipment design, specifications and so on.

The author is Associate Director, Computer Integrated Engineering Dept. Aker Kvaerner Powergas India.
He can be reached at ashok.adhikary@akerkvaerner.com