Shell International Exploration and Production: Share Knowledge (Ignorance Costs Millions)

Wong Chee Yong, a petroleum engineer with Shell Malaysia, was changing out a turbine when the unit locked up, rendering it useless. Earlier, in Australia, engineers changing the same kind of turbine had encountered the same problem. They'd lost days of valuable time seeking a fix. But because Wong Chee Yong had seen the problem—and the solution—posted on Shell's Surface Global Network, part of an intranet-based knowledge sharing system Shell has set up, he had his turbine running again within hours instead of days.

Oil exploration can cost millions of dollars a day, and anything that makes it more efficient has magnified value. By setting up discussion groups and knowledge bases where 15,000 engineers can share ideas and solve problems, Shell determined that it saved $200 million in 2000, mostly in cost avoidance. (Though the review for 2001 isn't complete yet, Shell expects to see savings close to $1 billion.) The software Shell uses—for an initial investment of $100,000—is SiteScape Forum. Shell derived its savings figure partly by looking at the content on SiteScape and discovering stories like Wong Chee Yong's around the world.

Copyright © 2002 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Ziff Davis Smart Business.