Strike Energy Services

The Customer 

Strike Energy Services is a leading energy service and construction company based in Calgary, Alberta, focused on servicing the oil and gas industry throughout the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Canadian and employee-owned, with more than 1,000 employees in 14 locations in Western Canada, Strike provides exceptional service to an impressive list of well-known energy clients. 

Since 2004, Strike has worked hard to become a trusted service provider, and as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies for the past five years, it takes pride in its strategic decision-making, superior customer service and quality craftsmanship. Strike provides construction services to the energy industry across five product areas: major projects, production services, fabrication and module assembly, electrical and instrumentation, and maintenance and turnarounds. Virtually any project related to surface facilities in the oil and gas industry falls within Strike’s expertise, including pipeline construction, production and process facility construction and maintenance, electrical construction, instrumentation services, module fabrication and assembly, plant maintenance, turnaround services and major project construction. 

The Challenge

To further establish its position as a prominent energy service and construction company, Strike has significant growth strategies in place for the next five years. However, the company’s outdated technology was holding it back in several ways. To make more strategic business decisions, Strike required timely and accurate information, a single source of information and better access to it. It did not have standardised processes across the organisation, so information was entered into different systems and spreadsheets, causing duplicate entries and problems getting an accurate read on company status. Strike also had no single system of record, with multiple systems performing the same functions, resulting in increased errors and duplicate entries. Because it was using an ERP that was over 10 years out of date, the company lacked transparency into activities in the field and had no accurate view of what was profitable, which projects were at risk, what its strengths and weaknesses were, or where opportunities existed. 

After extensive analysis, Strike concluded that Microsoft Dynamics AX was the right solution, and needed only to find the right Microsoft partner. Following previous failed attempts with other vendors, Strike engaged Hitachi Solutions because of the consultancy’s solid reputation and award-winning success implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX, and was also impressed with its customer focus, business acumen and flexible approach to each project. 

The Solution

In partnership with Strike, Hitachi Solutions successfully implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 on schedule, in record time, just six months, and within two percent of the planned budget. The project also included Hitachi Solutions’ Build//AX solution, built on Dynamics AX and tailored to the construction industry. Dubbed the POST (Process Optimization Standardization Technology) Program, the project was the largest non-construction initiative in Strike’s 10-year history and one of the most important strategic initiatives in the company’s 2014/2015 business plan. 

The POST Program comprises three main technologies: 

• Dynamics AX 2012 R2 CU7, with the Sales and Marketing, Human Resources, Finance, Project Management and Accounting, and Supply Chain Management modules 
• Hitachi Build//AX for Construction and Enterprise Asset Management 
• ADP Workforce Now for payroll 

In just six months, Hitachi Solutions and Strike worked collaboratively to meet a set of aggressive timelines: 

• 1 June: Sales and Marketing functionality implemented for the entire organisation 
• 15 June: HR functionality implemented for the entire organisation; payroll for all salaried employees migrated onto ADP Workforce Now, with partial demographic integration between AX and Workforce Now 
• 20 June: payroll for all hourly employees migrated onto Workforce Now, with full employee demographic integration between AX and Workforce Now 
• 1 August: Finance, Project Management and Accounting, Construction, Enterprise Asset Management and Supply Chain Management functionality implemented for corporate and 5 percent of operational business units 
• 1 September: the same functionality implemented for the remaining operational business units 

Why Hitachi Solutions

Following previous failed attempts with other vendors, Strike engaged Hitachi Solutions because of its solid reputation and award-winning success implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX. Just as important were Hitachi Solutions’ customer focus, business acumen and flexible approach to each project, which gave Strike the confidence to put the largest non-construction initiative in its history in the partner’s hands and deliver it in record time and close to budget. 

The Benefits 

With Microsoft Dynamics AX and Hitachi Solutions’ Build//AX solution, Strike Energy is far better prepared to reach its growth objectives. POST has been instrumental in providing real-time cost information on all projects, standardising processes across all business units, providing the groundwork for field execution and laying a strong foundation for Strike’s future rollout of mobile devices in the field. Specific benefits include: 

• Standardised processes for increased efficiency: previously Strike’s business units operated as silo offices, with employees performing the same functions in entirely different ways, causing inefficiencies, duplicated effort and inaccurate information. Dynamics AX embedded best practices, standardising processes, reducing duplication, allowing employees to move easily between business units and increasing the accuracy of information for decision-making. 
• Improved financial visibility and project controls, resulting in greater profitability: tracking operational activities used to be very labour-intensive and sometimes non-existent, with no easy way to know whether projects were losing money until well after completion. Now Strike has the information to know what is profitable and which projects are on track, and anticipates an additional 20 to 30 percent gain in revenue from the new technology and processes. 
• Real-time reporting capabilities: processes that used to take days and multiple steps can now be done in minutes, and Strike can produce a client invoice showing up-to-date project costs based on each customer’s unique breakdown structure, something most companies in its industry cannot do. 
• Comprehensive understanding of resource loading: Strike can now fully understand its resource loading from both a people and an equipment perspective, capturing all opportunities in the pipeline, understanding the status of current projects, and recognising whether it is over or under capacity in each area so it can balance workloads. 
• Technological advantage in a competitive landscape: Strike can now provide customers with an external view of project statuses and daily billing updates, giving a real-time understanding of project execution, while much of its competition is still focused on “paper and pen analysis”. 
• Efficiencies within the order-to-cash cycle: significant reductions in the manual effort to produce invoices have greatly improved their accuracy; capturing labour and equipment hours has moved from a multi-day month-end activity to real-time recording, allowing accurate, timely billing and reducing month-end effort. 
• Reduced errors and processing effort in procure-to-pay: previously procurement used hard-copy purchase orders, requiring manual input and considerable month-end adjustment; using AX for procurement sourcing and purchase orders has removed this manual effort and the after-the-fact adjustments. 
• Accuracy and efficiency in hire-to-retire: AX HR now provides accurate demographic information fully integrated with finance, IT and operations; previously HR was decentralised, complex and inconsistent, with information entered into multiple systems, whereas AX now provides a single source for employee details, improving reporting and management of hires, turnover, terminations, compensation and planning. 
• Proactive enterprise asset management: Dynamics AX with Build//AX provides a single source to manage all equipment, owned or third-party, giving a better understanding of utilisation and enabling proactive maintenance plans that reduce downtime. 
• Better customer lifecycle management: previously sales were managed by individual agents in Excel or on paper, consolidated monthly and already outdated by the time they reached management; AX provides a single source for customer information and follows the entire customer lifecycle in real time, from pre-sales and opportunities through quotes and projects to invoicing. 

What’s Next? 

POST lays the groundwork for field execution and a future rollout of mobile devices in the field. Strike is now better positioned to respond to customer demands and to create a more dynamic workforce by optimising and standardising processes, and is able to provide customers with a real-time external view of project execution, a level of service that sets it apart in its industry.