Business Times (Malaysia): Shell to add high-value IT services: “THE Royal Dutch/Shell group plans to include several new high-value information technology (IT) services to Cyberjaya-based Shell Information Technology International Sdn Bhd (SITI) this year…” (ShellNews.net) 24 March 05
Mar 24, 2005
THE Royal Dutch/Shell group plans to include several new high-value information technology (IT) services to Cyberjaya-based Shell Information Technology International Sdn Bhd (SITI) this year, following the company's success in supporting the group's technology requirements.
"Shell has adopted a shared service model when it comes to its IT requirements, and SITI has been identified as a suitable vehicle to deliver IT services to Shell's global operations," said SITI country manager Steve Clearwater.
SITI, 100 per cent owned by Shell, is a Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC)-status company. It is an IT delivery centre, employing over 1,200 people and contractors. The company manages one of three IT support locations worldwide.
Over the past few years, Shell has increased the staff strength of SITI while maintaining the number of employees in its US and Europe IT support centres.
"The move is part of our service efficiency programme where we intend to achieve more with less. The more efficient we become through standardisation and rationalisation, the fewer employees we will have," Clearwater explained.
This does not mean that Shell is cutting its workforce in its US and Europe IT support centres.
"So it is not a case of taking a set number of jobs from one location and transferring the same number elsewhere. It's just that for its future IT requirements, Cyberjaya is the preferred location," Clearwater said.
The Shell group is in the midst of an ongoing effort to achieve world-class IT by 2008.
This involves rationalising its applications portfolio, standardising infrastructure, transferring work to cost-advantage countries like Malaysia and procurement leverage.
Shell will not outsource to Malaysia but has transferred, and will continue doing so, the jobs under its service efficiency programme, providing a boost for the locals to find more jobs.
Jobs that have been, and will be, transferred to Malaysia are infrastructure-related, such as applications hosting like server support and first level help-desk activities, including password resets and access management.
According to Clearwater, Cyberjaya was chosen because the location has the right combination of a lot of factors.
It has the right type of labour at the right price, a robust IT infrastructure, and is politically and geographically stable. As long as these factors remain, Shell will remain. "As a standard practice, we will probably review the location in a few years, but there are no plans to relocate Shell's Cyberjaya facility," Clearwater said.
"We are quite comfortable in Cyberjaya. If we have a problem with, say, the transportation system, we refer the matter to the Multimedia Development Corp and they help us sort the matter out," Clearwater said, adding that if SITI was not located in Cyberjaya, it would have to deal with the problem by itself.
FACT FILE * Sector: IT Shared Services * Activity: Infrastructure service development for Shell Group * Year of approval: 1998 * Employees: 1,200 *URL: www.shell.com
Copyright © Asia Intelligence Wire
Click here for ShellNews.net HOME PAGE