IBS Software Services, a leading supplier of software services for the Travel, Transportation and Logistics industries, will provide GulfShare, a consortium of oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico, USA, IT solutions to its transportation and logistics needs. GulfShare is a consortium of oil companies comprising of Shell, British Petroleum and Conoco, who combine with other major oil companies. They own and jointly operate 4,000 plus offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, off the southern coast United States.GulfShare has been formed to optimize the sharing of resources, especially sharing of transportation and logistics services among the member companies and other participating companies, thus improving operational efficiencies and reducing cost of operation.
The logistics and transportation management would involve the operational management of movement of people, special equipment, special cargo and all other supplies by air and sea, using airplanes and a variety of vessels, for the exploration of oil, erection of rigs, drilling, oil production activities and operation of offshore platforms. IBS has been able to translate the ‘GulfShare Vision for Sharing and Optimizing’ into an integrated transportation & logistics management solution model, to be implemented in stages over a period of time.
The solution plan will initially cover reservations, scheduling and dispatch support for air transportation (helicopters) and marine transportation (voyage management for boats and vessels and tracking), port management, rig resource planning, people and cargo tracking, billing and so on. In other words, the solution plan envisages the automation of the entire transportation and logistics processes of the consortium, implemented using state-of-the-art technologies.
As the first stage of the overall solution implementation, IBS will be delivering the reservations and check-in system to support helicopter operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The helicopter system, which IBS will be delivering to GulfShare, will automate the scheduling of flights, reservation of passengers and cargo, check-in and flight dispatch functions. GulfShare operates over 1,000 flights per day in the Gulf of Mexico for the movement of people to the 4000 plus offshore platforms. GulfShare has a fleet strength of 600 helicopters and 800 boats/ships.The system will be delivered in two releases and will be implemented in June 2002. IBS has undertaken the development of the system as an end-to-end managed project, built on state-of-the-art technology platforms.
‘It is a strategic relationship for IBS and we will be committed to making it a big success. Transportation & Logisitcs is our domain of competence and we will be able to provide best-in-class solutions to GulfShare’ Mr V K Mathews, CEO IBS Software Services said.
Operating out of Technopark, Trivandrum, IBS is the largest exporter of software from Kerala, and is a leading supplier of IT services to the travel, transportation and logistics industries worldwide. IBS has its business operations in Europe, USA, Middle East and Asia Pacific.