Company: BP

Company Description: BP is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, serving about 13 million customers every day in more than 100 countries. BP�s business segments are Exploration and Production; Refining and Marketing; and Gas, Power and Renewables. Through these business segments, BP provides fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services, and petrochemicals products.

Nomination Category: Team Awards Categories

Nomination Sub Category: Best MIS & IT Team

Nomination Title: BP Sensory Networks Team

   1. Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Background:

Sometimes a new technology emerges that has the potential to transform business processes in remarkable and unexpected ways. One such technology is sensory networks, enabling business to cost effectively sense the physical world at a distance, providing a clearer picture of inventories, assets and activity. In late 2004 the IT Sensory Network Team was formed to assess this technology and possible uses at BP.

Nomination Detail:

The IT Sensory Network team is enabling BP to fundamentally transform business

processes and operations, customer offers, environmental impact, and the very nature of work through the application of the latest sensory networks, which allow real-time or near-real time monitoring of physical assets, products, people and the environment. The team has generated an ever increasing range of projects and trials, each more far reaching than the last, achieving significant tangible results.

As examples:

�         The Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) business has successfully deployed remote monitoring of retailer tank fill levels at over 2000 tanks in the UK using battery powered ultra-sonic sensors transmitting information via radio to Low Earth Orbit satellite. As a result, retailers no longer worry about running out of fuel and business delivery efficiency improved by 34 percent.

�         Petrochemicals Nitriles has deployed a telemetry and satellite sensory net to monitor rail car temperature, weight, acceleration (impact) and location, allowing BP to closely monitor safety data on hazardous cargoes and increase turns.

�         BP Shipping has installed a system to monitor pump and engine conditions in the harsh environment of BP�s oil tanker Loch Rannoch, improving tuned maintenance regimes.

�         BP is installing the world's first RFID-based solution to locate people in industrial areas, with a goal to improve safety and operations efficiency at refineries, exploration and production facilities and chemical plants.

�         A robust wireless system for the capture and communication of completion signoffs during major plant maintenance cycles is now being used.
�         RFID tags on propane gas bottles have enabled supply chain efficiencies.

�         Pipeline corrosion on the North Slope is being monitored using mote (sensor device with a self-configuring wireless mesh network) systems.

In addition to acting as a catalyst to these changes, evangelizing the possibilities and serving as a source of technical expertise, The Sensory Networks Team brings to bear a wide ecosystem of external resources, providing a larger Group context to what otherwise might be viewed as isolated local projects to help create momentum and gain greater adoption across the Group. Each of the above projects is run by BP businesses because without their ownership, business process change would be impossible.

About BP:

BP is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, serving about 13 million customers every day in more than 100 countries across six continents. BP's business segments are Exploration and Production; Refining and Marketing; and Gas, Power and Renewables. Through these business segments, BP provides fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services, and petrochemicals products.

   2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, http://www.youraddress.com:

http://www.intel.com/research/exploratory/wireless_sensors.htm

http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/story/0,10801,99962,00.html

http://www.millennial.net/newsandevents/pressreleases/041130.asp

http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/1481/1/53/

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/3709826/3/c_2984312?f=archives

http://www.misweb.com/mis100viewprofile.aspby=rank&rgid=7&pid=1467&year=2004

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of this nominated team:

The IT Sensory Network Team is co-led by Curt Smith and Ken Douglas. Curt is the Applications Director in BP's Chief Technology Office.  He is the leader of the current game-changer "Clipboard-to-computer" aimed at empowering the field workforce through mobile computing solutions in the industrial sites.  Ken is the Director of Mobility and Wireless for BP's CTO office.  He has helped BP take early advantage of developments in this field. His current focus is around mobile applications, wireless sensors, and in particular, how business processes can radically change when better connected to the physical world, operating in real time.