During the three-year scheme, BP’s retail division will renovate the IT systems used in its service stations across the UK, US, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Australia, industry publication PetrolWorld has reported.
The IT systems will be centralized on a global basis, with support centers in India and Bratislava, Slovakia, to oversee worldwide IT processes. BP expects to save GBP60 million through this IT initiative, after national systems have been phased out one by one.
In addition, BP is reorganizing the business activities within its service stations, through deploying SAP Merchandise Management software to order retail goods, and SAP Assortment Management to ensure that each store’s offerings are adapted for the local market.
BP will employ floor planning and floor space systems to improve the way that retail offerings are presented within its service stations, and is also installing a Retailix point of sale system across its networks to handle all of the new applications.
BP has already embarked upon the program in the UK, which is expected to cost GBP13 million. According to PetrolWorld, the UK standardization program will also involve the installation of UK retailer Marks & Spencer’s Simply Food outlets in some 200 BP service stations in the region.
In Germany, meanwhile, BP is outsourcing the development, support and maintenance of its software applications to international IT services company Atos Origin, for at least the next two years. These applications include all the SAP systems and special applications for the petrol station network.
Atos, which already supports almost all of Deutsche BP’s applications in its downstream business and some of its international applications, will employ staff in India to carry out some of these services.
