Yemen Petroleum Company relies on Microsoft technology to streamline new business processes

The sole distributor for petroleum in Yemen, YPC will roll out a wide range of solutions, including ERP, office productivity, communications and network infrastructure solutions from Microsoft.

YPC is currently undergoing a complete restructure, and the new technology platform will help the company to manage all aspects of its business. The solution includes Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains 8.0, which provides the core ERP functions, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Office 2003 and SQL Server 2000.

"As part of our restructuring, and our aim of enabling YPC to meet international standards, YPC was looking for a powerful and reliable solution that would be able to automate all of our different business processes - Great Plains 8.0 matched our requirements perfectly," said Omar Al-Arhabi, General Manager, YPC.

"YPC undertook a professional, technology-neutral evaluation of the solutions on offer, and the choice of Microsoft technologies was a result of this and the strong support services available. Great Plains tight integration with the rest of the Microsoft solutions that we are deploying, will also give us a much more powerful, cost effective, reliable and easily maintained solution," added Hizam Gamoom, Senior IT Consultant, YPC.

The deployment will utilize many of the features of Great Plains 8.0, the latest version of the popular ERP solution. The whole financial backbone of the company will be automated, with enhanced controls extended to human resources, supply chain management, inventory control, advanced distribution control, online requisition and field sales. Management will be able to keep up-to-date with performance and processes through FRX analytics, reporting and forecasting.

The project design was carried out by Al-Salam Establishment - IT Division, part of the Al-Ahmar Group (Contractor), Microsoft's key and largest partner in Yemen, and will be rolled out in co-operation with Dubai-based E-Solutions, another Microsoft partner. E-Solutions is also providing customization of the payroll module of Great Plains to meet local requirements.

"YPC had assessed a wide range of ERP solutions, but only Great Plains was able to offer them the complete solution they were looking for to help streamline their business," said Majdi Al-Masri, General Manager of Al-Salam Establishment - IT Division. "Alongside of this, the fact that Microsoft is able to offer superior technical support and the complete platform to base the solution on, were deciding factors in YPC choosing Microsoft."

The deal includes a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement to license software, which will give YPC rights to free upgrades of all of their Microsoft software for two years, under the Software Assurance scheme, as well as enhanced support and a closer working relationship with Microsoft.

"One of the key benefits of an Enterprise Agreement is that it brings a much closer relationship with Microsoft which enables the customer to get the most out of their technology investment," said Abdullatif Al Mulla, General Manager of Microsoft South Gulf.

"More and more organizations in Yemen are beginning to appreciate the business benefits of licensed, legalized software, and we are very pleased that YPC have chosen to use our leading Microsoft Business Solutions applications running on top of a Microsoft technology platform, all covered by an Enterprise Agreement. This agreement will bring a world of benefits and added value to YPC, that will give them a very positive return on investment and we look forward to working with them to maximize the value of that investment in future," Al Mulla added.