TM

Enterprise-class Data Management

Case Study
Mastering master data maintenance in SAP

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“Working with Innowera was a very positive experience.

We have seen a positive return on investment from this
software… the biggest benefit Shell has realized is sheer
business responsiveness… turning around data changes
in a few days, as opposed to a few months, helps make
the entire global enterprise more agile and competitive”
Peter McKay
Business Systems Manager – Data
Shell International Limited

Summary View

Challenges & Objectives

Shell
Shell deploys Innowera’s Process Runner to streamline and improve its
In the last several years, there has been a major push within Shell to
crucial master data maintenance activities.
move transaction processing to the most efficient and effective worldwide
locations; this included activities focused on master data maintenance and
About Shell
data quality, assessment and reporting. The master data maintenance
process at Shell can be complex and speed and efficiency with which Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies,
large data changes, often exceeding 10,000 items, could be handled headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands. The company’s
via the standard IT routes was a significant challenge. New, more upstream activities focus on exploring for new oil and gas reserves.
complex updates often took several months to implement and Shell’s downstream emphasis is on refining, supplying, trading and
the business wanted implementation within 3 days. shipping crude oil worldwide, and on manufacturing and marking of a
range of products, and on producing petrochemicals for industrial
companies. Shell also delivers major projects and drives research and
Why Process Runner innovation to create technology solutions.

Process Runner was selected for its power, ease of use, and direct
In 2011, Shell
applicability to Shell’s business process requirements. Process Runner’s
point, click, and drag-n–drop interface enabled users with basic Excel • Did business in more than 80 countries
and SAP knowledge to perform the mass create or update tasks without
• Employed approximately 90,000 people
writing any code.
• Operated 43,000 Shell service stations worldwide
Because Process Runner uses standard SAP security, deployment of the
• Produced 3.2 million barrels of gas and oil every day
tool was greatly simplified. A user with an SAP log-on can use Process
Runner with the same permission levels, allowing Shell to deploy the • Sold 18.8 million tons of liquid natural gas during the year
tool without making any changes to its internal security model. • Operated more than 30 refineries and chemical plants

Measurable Results
• 6.3 million records loaded using Process Runner across more than Shell Business Centers provide multiple services, including master data
100 different SAP transaction codes. management for Shell businesses worldwide.

• For first time changes, implementation time reduced from as much

three months to just three to five days.

• LSMW costs dropped by 95%.

• Reduced the number of touch points on some master data

management processes from an average of 45 to just 15 by
eliminating the need for direct IT participation.

TM

Enterprise-class Data Management

Data Maintenance Organization
In the last several years, there has been a major push within Shell to
move transaction processing to the most efficient and effective worldwide
locations. According to Peter McKay, Business Systems Manager - Data
for Shell International, that shift included key activities focused on
master data maintenance, as well as on processes related to data
quality, assessment and reporting.
As part of that initiative, Shell operates a number of business service
centers around the world to bring common activities across various
functions and businesses into specialized locations.
The company’s business service center in Manila, Philippines provides
processing services related to finance, human resources, procurement,
customer service and other business needs to Shell companies
worldwide. Other major Shell business service centers exist in
Chennai, India, and Krakow, Poland.
Within the business services centers, one sub-group focuses on the
maintenance of master data, including data used to support finance,
customer, technical assets such as refineries and pipelines, products,
and marketing. That master data is used in both upstream and
downstream activities for Shell businesses worldwide.
Data Maintenance Process
The master data maintenance process at Shell can be complex
and demanding depending upon the criticality of the data involved.
If the business wants to make a change to master data, it fills out a
change form and forwards that request to the Operations Data group.
The request is validated for required approvals, completed fields,
conformity with standard business rules and other requirements. The
data is then entered into the appropriate SAP system, either
manually or using SAP tools.
Shell’s Manila business service center received about 80,000 master
data maintenance requests per month. If small changes were required,
manual methods were used to update the master data. If a large bulk
request was made – such as a change in branding affecting tens of
thousands of products, or a maintenance change on equipment in
numerous refineries – the staff made use of SAP update tools across a
wide range of modules.
“When high volume updates were required the business support staff
went to the relevant part of the Shell IT community for assistance” says
McKay, “This required many more people to be involved in the
process, often significantly extending the turnaround time and cost.”
Significant Data Management Challenges
Those business process requirements, and the limitations of the
previous manually-intense methods, presented significant challenges
to Shell.
• When a change in master data was being made for the first time,
with no previously-written scripts, it would take anywhere from one
to three months on average for that change to be implemented.
• The company spent significant amounts of money writing, running
and changing LSMW scripts in the IT organization.
• To meet internal controls requirements, and the demands of
Sarbanes-Oxley and other external regulations, many master data
maintenance processes involved as many as 45 individual touch
points using previous methods – from initial request through
validation, forwarding to IT, IT quote and acceptance, scheduling,
script development and testing, confirmation and so on.
“When high volume updates were required the business
support staff went to the relevant part of the Shell IT
community for assistance. This required many more
people to be involved in the process, often significantly
extending the turnaround time and cost.”
Peter McKay, Business Systems Manager – Data
Shell International Limited
On a number of critical occasions, Shell had to assign four or five staff
members to manually enter up to 10,000 records over a period of up to
two weeks – a situation the company sought to remedy through the use
of improved processes and technology.
A Proven Solution
In 2009, when Shell addressed automation requirements in its master
data maintenance activities, the company evaluated several potential
software tools. According to McKay, the Process Runner tool from
Innowera was selected for its power, ease of use, and direct
applicability to Shell’s business process requirements.
Shell selected the Process Runner automation software tool from
Innowera to address its critical master data management
requirements. Business users within organizations can use Process
Runner to upload and download information between SAP and Excel
without writing code. The solution offers deep automation capabilities
for all SAP modules, including FI/CO, SD, HR/HCM, MM, PP, SM, QM, PS
and others, and works smoothly with ECC, CRM, SCM, APO and other
new dimension systems.
Shell leveraged Process Runner’s Transaction (TX) as well as GUI
Scripting (GS) technologies to handle key SAP business processes.
Process Runner’s point, click, and drag-n–drop interface enabled users
with basic Excel and SAP knowledge to perform the mass create or
update tasks without writing any code.
Because Process Runner uses standard SAP security, deployment of the
tool was greatly simplified. A user with an SAP log-on can use Process
Runner with the same permission levels, allowing Shell to deploy the
tool without making any changes to its internal security model. The
only difference, according to McKay, is that user can now handle
10,000 records if needed, instead of just 10. This also built a lot of trust
within the ERP support communities, providing confidence that end
users where not being given “super user” privileges.
 Measurable Results About Innowera

Shell Business Service Centers realized positive and documented
improvements in their ability to maintain critical master data:
• In the first two years, Shell loaded 6.3 million records using Process
Runner across more than 100 different transaction codes.
• For first time changes, with no previously written scripts, Shell
leverages Process Runner to reduce implementation time from as
much as one to three months to just three to five days.
• The Shell Business Service Center also reduced its SAP Legacy
System Migration Workbench (LSMW) cost – the SAP tool used to
handle scripting and bulk loading – by 95%.
• The company also reduced the number of touch points on some of
their master data management processes from an average of 45 to
just 15 by eliminating the need for direct IT participation.
Innowera makes SAP easier for users on all levels of business by
simplifying complex problems and driving efficiencies via automation.
Innowera's Process Runner dramatically reduces total cost of ownership
(TCO) of SAP systems by enabling business and IT users. Innowera
Control Panel, Dashboard and Enterprise Share applications provide a
complete set of functionality for SAP data management with enterprise
grade governance, reporting, sharing and collaboration for an agile
enterprise. Some of Innowera's current clients include Sony, Shell,
Heineken, Richemont, ABB, KPMG, Swarovski, Boston Scientific, City of
Dallas, Itau Unibanco, Telefonica, Deloitte, Liverpool, Toyota
Financials, and others.
Innowera is based in Las Colinas near Dallas, Texas, USA and maintains
presence via re-seller and distribution channels in Europe, Africa,
Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. For more information, to download an
evaluation copy of the software, a white paper, or to schedule a product
demo, visit www.innowera.com.

“When our business people can do it themselves, you eliminate the About Process Runner
need for IT involvement and for many duplicate controls,” says
Innowera Process Runner dramatically reduces on-going costs and
McKay. “The business person who is authorized to make the change,
enables SAP users by automating day-to-day data creation and
makes the change. That eliminates the IT cycle, which can be very
maintenance for your SAP systems without needing to write any
extensive.”
programs. Process Runner works without needing to modify or install
anything in your SAP system while it automatically complies to existing
Perhaps the biggest benefit Shell has realized is sheer business
SAP security. You can use various data sources such as Microsoft Excel,
responsiveness. Because they can now turn records around in a few
SQL, Oracle, Sybase, DB2, Access, SharePoint, etc. to perform drag
days, as opposed to a few months, they help make the entire global
and drop operation between these sources and your SAP system.
enterprise more agile and competitive. Inaccurate and out-of-date
data is corrected more quickly. Business units are more effective, and
For Shell and other forward-looking organizations, Process Runner can
more satisfied.
be the ideal tool for SAP data cleansing, monitoring, downloading and
uploading. The solution can also be used to load test data during
“When our business people can do it themselves, you
process simulation or training preparation.
eliminate the need for IT involvement and for many
duplicate controls. The business person who is authorized
About Innowera Enterprise Applications
to make the change, makes the change. That eliminates the
IT cycle, which can be very extensive.” Innowera’s enterprise application suite includes Innowera Control
Peter McKay, Business Systems Manager - Data Panel, Innowera Dashboard and Innowera EShare. These Innowera
Shell International Limited applications bring all around productivity and agility while providing
simplified data management, collaboration, publishing, reporting,
governance and monitoring capabilities in SAP data management for an
Because Process Runner is a client-only tool, Shell could load it on user
agile enterprise.
desktop PC’s and start working. Shell did one week of training with
Innowera, and had employees using Process Runner in full production
mode within a week. Originally deployed to the Manila business service
center, today Shell has about 70 Process Runner users.

“The staff at Innowera are very responsive. If we have an issue, they

take care of things quickly,” says McKay. The business service centers
have both regular users and super users, and require very little IT support for
the Process Runner tool. McKay sums up: “Shell has had a very
positive experience working with Innowera. We have realized good ROI
from Process Runner and other areas in Shell are starting to adopt the
software. Very beneficial overall”

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