The ICT environment in oil and gas sector

The industry today places a high degree of importance on 24/7 availability of technology infrastructure, which is no longer a luxury but a mandatory requirement. There is also a need to cope with revolutionary technological changes and remain competitive, a need to enhance information security posture to mitigate intensifying risks and to comply with regulatory requirements, and a drive to grow business regionally and globally necessitating a robust global network infrastructure.

Companies in the sector today are making deliberate decisions to focus on core business activities while seeking strategic partnership with best-in-class ICT providers that can work closely with them to facilitate achievement of business goals consistently and diligently. Etisalat offers a comprehensive suite of ICT solutions that can cater to the evolving technology requirements of oil and gas companies. From a service provider perspective, the company is geared to offer world-class communication services (voice, data, video and internet), robust infrastructure outsourcing, managed services, a range of mobility solutions to enhance productivity, and risk mitigation and compliance services. A range of consulting and integration services facilitate delivery of solutions that can help achieve business goals in the most optimal manner.

The value of ICT

A variety of voice solutions help enhance productivity and customer satisfaction. Etisalat’s portfolio of solutions includes fixed lines, international direct dialing (IDD), local and international calls, audio conferencing, toll-free services and a variety of value added solutions.

The company’s data solutions cater to diverse requirements of energy and oil service customers. IP Connect, which is the flagship IP VPN service, caters to local and international connectivity requirements of customers. The international connectivity services are offered as one-stop arrangement partnership with number of international and regional providers such as BT, AT&T, MCI, Saavis, SingTel and others. The service is offered with different speeds and service quality levels to cater to diverse customer requirements. Etisalat Internet leased line services deliver high-speed internet access to customers with speeds varying from 256Kbps to 155 Mbps. A comprehensive portfolio of other data and Internet access solutions offered by Etisalat can address specific customer needs.

Etisalat’s mobility solutions aim to enhance customer satisfaction while delivering productivity gains to oil and gas customers. The solutions includes VSAT (DVB deployment by Q1 of 2008), fleet management services, mobile audio and video conferencing, value SMS, Blackberry, email and data access, GPRS and numerous other solutions to enhance service delivery options for energy and oil services customers.

In addition, the company can provide a variety of services targeted toward electronic payment processing for the oil and gas industry. These include managed payment solutions for online credit card processing with the Etisalat Payment Gateway, direct debit processing with BizDirect, and payment collection through the eZeepay service.

Etisalat also offers comprehensive outsourcing of data centre requirements. The company operates several state-of-the-art data centres across the country providing robust, reliable, fully redundant, scalable and highly secure infrastructures to host mission critical applications. A number of companies from the sector today rely on Etisalat for co-locating their e-business and other mission critical applications. Data centres are equipped to provide back-up and storage solutions as well as 24/7 monitoring and support services.

Etisalat managed services offer outsourced solutions to ensure high availability of network infrastructure. The team proactively monitors routers for network availability and security on a 24/7 basis, and the onsite installation and support services are provided in accordance with agreed service levels. As part of a managed services portfolio, Etisalat can also work with customers to identify and meet requirements for managing other infrastructure and application components.

The company’s risk and compliance management services aim to help companies enhance their security posture, minimize risks to business continuity and comply with international standards such as ISO 27001. The range of solutions offered by Etisalat includes identity management, security audits and managed vulnerability assessment.

Finally, Etisalat consulting and integration services are geared to understand complex customer problems and articulate effective solutions. Etisalat ICT solutions team is a focused group of highly professional resources equipped to deliver expert advisory services and effective and optimal solutions for diverse ICT requirements.

Key benefits
Partnering with Etisalat delivers several benefits to oil and gas customers:

• One-Stop-Shop for an extensive range of solutions
• Strategic customer partnership approach
• Predictable and optimal costs
• State-of-the-art IP based infrastructure facilitating voice and data convergence
• Understanding customer problems and articulating effective and optimal solutions
• Dedicated relationship managers for our strategic partners
• Service levels agreement (SLA)
• Commitment to facilitating achievement of goals