Changing the face and pace of procurement

For years the oil and gas supply chain has been navigating a complex system of manual and lengthy processes. Procurement can often be a slow, manual process with long lead times. There is little industry collaboration and poor management of asset data and information. And cash is being held in redundant or surplus material. Consequently, Worley decided to rethink how it did procurement.

Inspired by consumer platforms, the company set out to make its procurement process more efficient by creating an online marketplace for the oil and gas industry. The result, three years later, was Requis, an online supply chain platform built for supply chain professionals to buy, manage and sell industrial material and equipment.

“When we launched Requis, the vision was that it would help break silos between industries and enable people to work collaboratively instead of side by side,” said Ross McPherson, Director of Operations at Requis. “Sharing inventory on Requis can allow upstream oil and gas companies to connect to downstream or petrochemical companies who they wouldn’t normally interact with. The platform could also enable utility providers to share resources and critical parts in a transparent and traceable way based on their regions. And we’re pleased to report it does exactly that.”

The platform empowers buyers with superior datasets and transparent pricing, removing any uncertainty. In addition, all assets listed on the Requis platform are certified, so users know where the items are coming from.

From a seller’s point of view, this can be seen as a win/win situation in that companies need to dispose of their surplus material and return capital to their organisations.

“We’ve seen Requis help companies get five, 10 or 20 times more than what they’re used to by reselling surplus material rather than scrapping or storing them,” said McPherson. “And it’s the same with spares – why do operators have spares the way they do? Are they over purchasing or provisioning due to lack of data? Through Requis, users can begin to understand their excess and surplus and how they can optimise that.”

Requis also removes the sometimes manual and lengthy procurement processes by streamlining and digitizing the time-consuming transactional side of procurement. And for suppliers, it enables them to list and move inventory through a more efficient process and to a wider market.

Worley’s Contract and Procurement Manager, Alan Dunning, said: “Requis is efficient because it handles the standard processes efficiently, it is empowering because it enables procurement professionals to use their wider skills to add more value, and it is intuitive because you do not need days of expensive training to understand it. It is as simple as eBay to navigate, search, buy and sell. And the Requis team are always on hand to offer support.”

The vision of Requis does not stop with energy, chemicals and resources, and it does not end with buying and selling. The ultimate aim of Requis is to become the central nexus for all activity in creating or disposing of any product – efficiently managing the lifecycle of the assets that run the business.

Requis currently has over 1 million assets listed on its marketplace, including a US$100-million-dollar power plant, with over 305 companies registered on the platform. It has completed two successful online auctions in the Middle East and Australia for two oil and gas majors, with one lot receiving up to 266% more than market value.

Author: Hayley Sutton, Requis

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/special-reports/15102019/changing-the-face-and-pace-of-procurement/