The Customer
BP Australia is engaged in the exploration for and production of oil, natural gas, liquefied natural gas and the refining, transportation and marketing of petroleum and lubricant products, as well as power trading and the supply of solar photovoltaic products.
BP manages over 3000 staff using Ascender HRIS by Talent2.
The Challenge – Upgrade Ascender to a supported version
BP had not upgraded Ascender since their implementation and was using an unsupported version. This added additional costs to their support as any new legislative changes had to be retrofitted into the old software. Additionally BP did not have access to many of the new features available in the current Ascender version.
BP was experiencing performance and stability problems with Alesco and Discoverer. Incorrectly configured technical infrastructure coupled with poor maintenance was causing outages and slow system performance, putting extra pressure on already tight payroll deadlines.
The Solution
BP needed to upgrade to Ascender V11. They selected Navigo to configure the technical environment and provide the expertise and tools to manage the upgrade.
Working with BP’s IT department, Navigo designed the Ascender infrastructure and configured the Oracle mid-tiers for Ascender and Discoverer.
Navigo’s Ascender consultants also provided advice in the testing and go-live plan strategy to work within the tight three month project time-frame.
Navigo developed tools and scripts to fast track testing, create production snapshots and perform upgrade-process testing, allowing BP to concentrate on change management and user training.
The Results
“We successfully completed a significant technical upgrade within tight time constraints … The Navigo team were pivotal in their help and expertise in all areas of the technical infrastructure for the Ascender upgrade.”
– Gayle Stewart, HRIS Advisor, BP Australia
BP went live with Ascender V11 in 2009, just three months after commencing the upgrade project. Report processing and system response times have shown significant improvement, increasing staff efficiency and the time window for payroll.
BP has reduced their technical support costs, and can take advantage of new features available in the current Ascender version.
