Technip FMC is a world leader in project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry. Its projects range from the deepest subsea oil & gas developments to the largest and most complex offshore and onshore infrastructures. Pisys was selected to develop a complex multi-vessel management system for their global fleet.
Most of the work carried out by Pisys for Technip has related to offshore
construction, diving and pipelay vessels – innovative technology to support
offshore operations.
One of Technip’s main vessel management tools is an Offshore Reporting and
POB (personnel on board) system. Key functional elements within the system
include:
• daily asset delivery (marine operations) reporting;
• project operational reporting;
• POB capability – tracking people embarking on, and disembarking
from, vessels.
Pete Henderson, Pisys’ Director responsible for the Technip relationship, adds his perspective: “The system has changed a lot through the years. Its role was to assemble details of Personnel on Board and other aspects of vessel operations, and attach them to an email. Nowadays, the greatly improved reliability of the satellite network means that the communications management task is much more straightforward. It all works pretty seamlessly”.
Pisys' specialist services
The understanding that Pete Henderson refers to naturally runs both ways. Ian Hindmarsh, Digital Projects Portfolio Manager in fact cites Pisys’ understanding of Technip FMC's relevant activities as a key strength, along with its responsiveness and consistency: “We find Pisys both responsible and responsive, with a range of HSE products and experience which give us confidence. And it’s clear that this culture comes from the Pisys Management, who we find highly approachable and reasonable to deal with”. Ian adds: “Their understanding and approachability would of course be meaningless without a solid technical basis. Their adeptness at solving technical challenges is one of the reasons we have continued using them through the years. We rely on a robust suite of enterprise tools to keep our global vessel operations running smoothly day-in day-out, and Pisys’ understanding of the anatomy and potential weak spots of communications systems is just one of the foundations that has enabled us to evolve this”.
The Technip FMC/ Pisys Relationship
The strength of Pisys’ relationship with Technip has developed from several foundations. Not least of those is regular
communications – from weekly catch-up calls to high level discussions at key project stages. Pete Henderson comments:
“We work within a formal framework that Technip operate, involving both an IT project management team and a business
project management team. On top of that, I personally liaise regularly with the IT team, as well as meeting with stakeholders
in senior management. Maintaining contact at that level, in tandem with routine technical communication, is really important.
Ultimately that’s what ensures that the system does what the business needs it to do, in every sense including fitting in with
strategy. And it runs all the way through, from determination of requirements to installation and acceptance testing”.
Pete continues: “Don’t think I’m trying to take all the credit here for Pisys. It’s important that Ian and his colleagues understand what we’re doing. That’s never been an issue, because they’re very tech-savvy. And the way they deal with us as service providers is great as well. They behave like facilitators rather than gatekeepers, and we feel they trust us”.
Reliability and Integrity
…And finally. What would Ian Hindmarsh say to another company thinking of commissioning Pisys for its own IT system
development? “When all’s said and done, Pisys handle things pretty well. No software development project runs totally smoothly, and Pisys have certainly run up against challenges. But they’ve consistently risen to the occasion. Sometimes their flexibility in working with an evolving specification has enabled us to make extra progress towards satisfying a new requirement. And at those rare times when a new system didn’t perform as we needed it to, Pisys didn’t hesitate to do the rework required to meet the requirements in full.”