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Fast-rising consultancy aims to be at core of the energy efficiency revolution

Friday, October 16, 2015

AS OIL and gas companies rise to the challenge of reducing costs and increasing efficiency to cope with sub $50 oil, a small consultancy is offering solutions that will see the dramatic growth of the fledgling firm.

Business improvement consultancy, Core 29, is on track to increase turnover by 50% to £500,000 in the current financial year after successful contracts with Ashtead Technology, Peterson, PD&MS and Qinterra Technologies has led to a stream of new business leads.

The consultancy helps organisations to boost profit margins by improving operational efficiency through better use of IT systems. Set up in 2012 by Sarah Forbes, 35, Core 29 evaluates existing processes and systems and recommends improvements which will make organisations much more profitable.

With a decade of project management and IT experience, Ms Forbes said: 'With the industry focused on efficiency there are huge opportunities for companies like us who can demonstrate immediate, tangible results.

"Oil & Gas UK is taking the lead on pan-industry initiatives to make the sector more competitive and its efficiency task force has identified business process as a key theme. This chimes with what we have been doing with clients for the last couple of years: reviewing day to day operations to see how they can be done much more efficiently and then design the IT systems and processes to achieve the efficiencies or savings.

'IT departments are already under pressure to ensure existing infrastructure, software and processes remain functional, and often do not have the time or resources available to look at potential improvements to the overall system.

"We now have a track record of delivering improvements achieving a return of more than three times their initial investment, through process optimisation and efficiency gains - this is very appealing to oilfield services companies looking to deliver efficiency and add value."

Projects which Core29's has delivered include the creation of a paperless cargo management and reporting application and shipping handling in offshore logistics, online customer service portals, and transitioning between outdated data and communications processes to more efficient, easier-to-manage systems.

Core29's senior project manager, Jaye Deighton, who leads on project management activities for clients says: 'IT systems and process management are treated like some kind of dark art.

'For SMEs, the big-name systems providers offer packages which are often too complex and expensive for what they need to do - when what they already have could simply be re-evaluated and tweaked to work better for them.

'Rather than asking them to completely rebuild their systems at huge expense, it's key that we collaborate with our clients to develop new processes, train the team and then hand over to them knowing the efficiency improvements we've achieved will improve profitability, and facilitate growth where they may have previously found they had ground to a halt keeping their existing services running.'

Core29 also specialises in supporting businesses through major transactions by carrying out ICT diligence, developing IT improvement strategies and providing independent contract management across the sector.

Associated Companies
» Core29

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