Confirmit Transforms StatoilHydro's Research

"Confirmit's internet-based software offered a level of flexibility which would enable the company to integrate data from a web-based survey engine, directly into a custom developed reporting portal, which we had failed to do with our original supplier."
- Øystein Aase, Project Manager at StatoilHydro

Executive Summary

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StatoilHydro is one of the world's largest integrated oil and gas producers.

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Annual research program transformed from a paper-based survey into a web-based solution in under three months.

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16,000 employees, spanning 25 countries and speaking 9 core languages.

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Successful integration of seven years of historical data from Statoil's SAS database.

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Dynamic survey generation capabilities dramatically improved the relevance of every question on the survey to every employee.

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85 percent of employees respond within the first few weeks, compared to previous years in which responses filtered in over 3 months.

Statoil, one of the world's largest integrated oil and gas producers, turned to Confirmit in June 2002 to modernize its annual workplace, environment and organization survey.

The Fortune 1000 listed company wanted to increase response rates and significantly reduce the implementation time of the annual research program, which was undertaken amongst its growing global workforce. StatoilHydro had unsuccessfully tried a previous supplier's software and as a result they had only three months to transform a paper-based survey into a web-based solution. Armed with a long list of challenges and a tight deadline, they asked Confirmit to help. The result was a bespoke solution that was delivered on time, on budget and has enabled management at StatoilHydro to meet key business objectives.

If a business wants to succeed, understanding its employees is second only in importance to understanding its customers. Many companies have spent millions of dollars on complex CRM software packages in recent years; a large number are now also starting to use technology to understand the challenges and needs of their employees. As a result of technology's ability to deliver information faster, and more efficiently than previous research methods and deliver instant analysis, StatoilHydro, Norway's state energy company and one of the world's largest suppliers of crude oil, from exploration to retail sales has focused on building strong employee relationships in order to drive their business forward. Over the last two decades this has resulted in high levels of workforce empathy and buy-in and is now a key part of their business success.

The company has been conducting an annual paper-based "Workplace and Environment" survey for more than 15 years to take regular temperature checks and to enable them to adapt their business strategy accordingly. In 2001 the organization decided that with the workforce, now numbering more than 16,000 employees, spanning 25 countries and speaking 9 core languages, it was time to change the way they conducted their employee research. Covering a range of topics from leadership, the environment and employee perceptions of the organization, the annual survey is an essential tool for driving the business forward. It provides the company with an invaluable temperature check of employee perceptions of the business and the environment and helps it to fulfill its corporate social responsibility obligations.

The drive to automate its survey generation, data collection and reporting function, would not only enable real time access to data. In addition, it would reduce the time spent re-keying responses into the company's existing database and maximize the value that the research delivers to the business.

Championed by the board, the success of the modernization project was imperative. However, having worked on the implementation of the project with their previous supplier for almost a year, problems surfaced when StatoilHydro started to import the survey data into its existing SAS formatted database. The reports which the company needed to generate in order to deliver essential business information were not forthcoming. It was then that StatoilHydro turned to Confirmit for help.

Having evaluated Confirmit in 2001, StatoilHydro knew the flexibility and capabilities the software offered. When they started the search for a new partner in Spring 2002, the fact that they had already evaluated Confirmit meant that it offered the chance for the company to meet their September implementation date. While rapid deployment was an obvious benefit, StatoilHydro's Project Manager, Øystein Aase says that it was far from the only reason they selected Confirmit. "Confirmit's internet-based software offered a level of flexibility which would enable the company to integrate data from a web-based survey engine, directly into a custom developed reporting portal, which we had failed to do with our original supplier."

"We were also aware that our solution would require a lot of custom development work to enable us to generate the complex annual survey and the wealth of reports which we needed to create."

Having used the reporting functions of an existing SAS application to evaluate the response from the paper-based surveys, StatoilHydro realized that we needed to start with a blank canvas and create a bespoke reporting portal. "This is something which we were only too happy to assist with", says Kjell Øksendal, Vice President of Marketing at Confirmit. "StatoilHydro didn't need to develop a replacement for its existing portal - the new version had to be better in every way than its predecessor and following a one month trial period, in which we proved the viability of using Confirmit, StatoilHydro began work to generate their annual workforce and environment survey using the software."

According to StatoilHydro's Grethe Stødle, StatoilHydro's Change Management Support Manager, Confirmit's open architecture and technical support team has played a significant role in the overall success of the project. "Confirmit has supported us from day one, working with us on every aspect of our data collection, evaluation and reporting activity using the Confirmit software. We have undertaken extensive usage of Confirmit and utilized every element of its flexible functionality and have achieved the perfect solution for our requirements."

"Our paper-based surveys had a rating system which allowed us to rate questions by importance on a scale of 1 to 6; with responses being color-coded red, yellow and green. Custom use of Confirmit functionality has enabled us to retain these, which has provided us continuity from our old paper survey. From a reporting perspective this is invaluable as it allows us to assess the business value that the latest survey results deliver."

Another element of the extensive customization project required the integration of seven years of historical data from StatoilHydro's SAS database, into the new portal to enable it to compare historical results with current trends. This was achieved by customizing the reporting functions of Confirmit, which are based on the Microsoft .NET reporting Application Programming Interface (API), to ensure that the data from both current and historical surveys had the same structure.

Confirmit's open architecture and questionnaire logic definition have, according to Stødle, dramatically improved the relevance of every question on the survey to every employee. "Previously every employee had to work through pages and pages of questions, answering the relevant ones and ignoring the rest. Using Confirmit's dynamic survey generation capabilities, employees answer questions based on their existing employee profile as well as responses provided in preceding years - everyone has commented on the difference it has made to the user experience and improved relevance."

"In our first year using Confirmit, we feel that this has contributed to considerable improvements in response speeds. While not all of our employees have internet access due to their remote location, we have seen around 85 percent of employees respond within the first few weeks. Previously, responses had filtered in over a 3 month period, and while some responses still take a while to arrive, we now have access to real time progress reports and reporting, which is a real benefit."

For an organization with such a diversely located workforce, access to the real-time business information via the internet, which Confirmit delivers, is a significant advantage. "One concern of using a web-based survey application was security", admits Øystein Aase. "But, once again, Confirmit has delivered. It provides a totally secure ASP environment hosted by AT&T in New York for all elements of the survey process, from data collection to reporting and result delivery. This enables employees to respond in confidence and allows the company to rest-assured that our data is not being accessed by competitors." This security has been the corner stone for Confirmit's work with a number of Fortune 5000 companies.

Having created a state-of-the-art custom-reporting portal, StatoilHydro currently employs around 70 members of staff working full time to deliver a range of business critical data for the company's seven business units. Grethe Stødle explains, "StatoilHydro sees research as an invaluable business tool - and evaluates every aspect of employee responses. It helps us to derive considerable competitive advantage and ensures that we meet the expectations of our employees."

With such a focus placed on evaluation - one requisite data mart (a repository of data gathered from operational data and other sources) is built for every department, of which StatoilHydro has 1200 - ensuring that every member of the reporting team was able to use the new portal was essential to the success of the project. StatoilHydro's Stødle continues, "From the very first week of the project a team of 5 users were trained to use Confirmit within days and began to generate the 70 question survey in 6 core languages. Confirmit has delivered subsequent training with all of our portal users, to ensure that the business benefits from every element of our new portals functionality."

While it is too early to calculate ROI after just one year, Øystein Aase says that "since the delivery of the first annual survey via Confirmit in August 2002, the company has undertaken more than 100 internal and external surveys using the software and the new corporate reporting portal. This he says leaves him in "no doubt that the long term ROI will be proven."

This sentiment is echoed by Grethe Stødle, who sums up the success of the project as "fantastic". She continues, "Confirmit has enabled us to achieve critical business objectives and it has supported us throughout the entire process - something which could not have been predicted just twelve months ago."

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