Reid Smith, Enterprise Content Management Director, Marathon Oil Corporation

“[ O Microsoft Customer Solution ur Manufacturing Industry Case Study

Energy Firm Uses Content Management to Connect People to Information and Expertise

enterprise content management solution] helps us find Customer: Marathon Oil Corporation Web Site: www.marathon.com the information that we need to do our jobs or, if it Customer Size: 30,000 employees Country or Region: United States doesn’t exist, helps us find the people who know.” Industry: Manufacturing—Oil and gas Reid Smith, Enterprise Content Management Director, Marathon Oil Corporation Partner: Gimmal Group Marathon Oil Corporation found itself managing a mountain of Partner Web Site: www.gimmal.com information that was difficult to search and expensive to Customer Profile maintain. So the company created an enterprise content Houston, Texas–based Marathon Oil Corporation is an international integrated management team and implemented a solution based on energy company engaged in exploration Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 that employees can use and production; oil sands mining; integrated gas; and refining, marketing, to find and share information and expertise. Marathon has and transportation. slowed the rate of information growth and can now better meet

Software and Services operational, legal, and regulatory requirements.  Microsoft Office − Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Business Needs Marathon estimated that it had 2007 Oil and gas producers face multiple accumulated nearly 400 terabytes of data; challenges today: more restricted access left unchecked, the mountain of to oil and gas resources, significant price information was expected to double every volatility, a changing work force, increased 18 months. This information was stored in regulations, and heightened concern e-mail inboxes and folders, Web sites and about climate change. To better compete Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server in this tough environment, Marathon Oil 2003 sites, file shares, individual PCs, Corporation, an integrated energy removable media, and other electronic company based in Houston, Texas, sought and physical storage repositories. to drive costs and inefficiencies out of its business by better managing one of its Marathon executives recognized the need most important assets—information. for increased focus on consistent records management practices so that out-of-date Marathon is the fourth-largest integrated information could be purged with oil company based in the United States, assurance that legal and regulatory For more information about other according to Petroleum Intelligence requirements were honored. Microsoft customer successes, please visit: Weekly. In running its global business, www.microsoft.com/casestudies Marathon also saw opportunities to procedures, and so forth. Project teams more quickly and easily meet legal improve employee productivity and building a refinery or laying a pipeline, discovery demands. effectiveness. “Employees spent a good deal or Communities of Practice developing of time searching for, validating, or re- knowledge assets, use TeamView sites  Slower information growth rate. creating information to ensure that their where members collaborate in a single Marathon now has companywide decisions were based on the best shared place. As of January 2010, document retention rules that govern information,” says Reid Smith, Enterprise Marathon had implemented which documents, both electronic and Content Management Director for approximately 250 TeamView sites, a physical, are saved and for how long. Marathon Oil Corporation. “One senior number expected to grow substantially “We are slowing the rate of information manager told me, ‘I want half the time of over the next few years. growth by having a more disciplined my engineers back.’” retention management strategy,” Smith  MyView sites present information that says. “In addition, people are now quite Solution is customized for each individual. aware of the risks associated with hav- These challenges motivated Marathon to Employees can personalize their MyView ing multiple copies of the same launch an enterprise content management sites to their liking. While MaraView, information.” (ECM) program in early 2007. Information TeamView, and MyView sites all connect management professionals within Marathon people to information, MyView sites also An information management focus makes worked with Houston-based Gimmal Group, connect people to people. These sites Marathon a more efficient, productive a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that contain profile information and serve as company that can better compete in specializes in ECM and records the company’s skills and expertise today’s tough energy markets. management solutions using Microsoft inventory. If a team is looking for technologies. “We consulted with many engineers with deep-water drilling other companies in the energy industry and experience, it can search MyView sites to beyond and found that Microsoft Office quickly find those individuals. SharePoint Server 2007 was the common denominator of their ECM systems,” Smith Benefits says. With its enterprise content management solution, Marathon has slowed the rate of The Marathon team focused on building an growth of the information mountain. While ECM policy framework, defining information still a work in progress—enterprise management governance roles, simplifying adoption is expected to continue through and standardizing the company’s 2011—thus far, Marathon has achieved: classification and records retention process, and implementing the technology  Faster location of information. infrastructure. Gimmal provided strategic Marathon now has a central repository content management guidance, ECM of information from which employees design, and development assistance. can make sound decisions. “MaraView helps us find the information that we In 2009, Marathon introduced MaraView™, need to do our jobs or, if it doesn’t exist, its ECM solution for creating, finding, and helps us find the people who know,” sharing relevant, up-to-date, and trusted says Smith. “Also, shining a light on our information. MaraView has three tiers: information stores reveals if we have inconsistent, redundant, and out-of-date  MaraView front page serves as the information, which enables us to fix corporate intranet home page and these problems, makes our searches provides employees with a consistent, faster and more accurate, and improves companywide communication channel, our ability to make high-quality displaying company and industry news, decisions.” key business indicators, and links to enterprise information sources.  Improved compliance and discovery Information is filtered and presented efficiency. Because Marathon now has a based on logon credentials to meet the structured way to clean up its infor- needs of employees and contractors. mation, employees can better align with internal policies and regulatory require-  TeamView sites provide company teams ments. With more streamlined informa- with publishing sites or private online tion stores and the ability to search for collaboration sites to upload, store, share, information down to the individual and refine project data, schedules, TeamView or MyView, Marathon can

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Document published February 2010