Fueling Procurement Efficiency in Oil and Gas: An Infosys Success Story

In an era where digital transformation is reshaping businesses, optimization of procurement processes remains a key priority for enterprises. A leading oil and gas company partnered with Infosys to enhance their procurement efficiency by leveraging process mining and advanced analytics. This collaboration resulted in a significant increase in digital buying channel adoption, a marked reduction in purchase order (PO) reworks, and substantial cost savings. This case study demonstrates how data-driven procurement optimization can drive operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness in large-scale global enterprises.

Client Background

The client, a global leader in the oil and gas industry, operates with an annual revenue of over US $200 billion and procurement expenditures of more than US $2 billion across parts of the Pacific and Europe. Recognizing inefficiencies in its procure-to-pay (P2P) process, the company aimed to optimize costs and improve procurement efficiency. Challenges such as high procurement costs, PO reworks, and prolonged cycle times underscored the need for a structured digital transformation initiative.

Business Context and Challenges

Strategic procurement relies on the effective selection and management of buying channels. The channels serve as the pathways through which organizations source and acquire goods and services. As companies scale and handle multiple channels with high transaction volumes, procurement operations become increasingly complex. Without a structured approach, organizations risk inefficiencies, limited visibility and control, missed cost-saving opportunities, and challenges in contract compliance. Optimizing buying channels streamlines procurement, increases cost efficiency, and strengthens governance. This optimization had become crucial for the client as they were facing several procurement-related challenges:

• Lack of process visibility and KPI tracking: Multiple procurement systems across different business units was making it difficult to track key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Low adoption of catalog-based buying channels: Limited user engagement with digital procurement methods had reduced overall productivity
• Manual and fragmented supplier selection processes: Reliance on disparate applications such as Excel, email, and request for quote (RFQ) templates were resulting in frequent PO reworks and errors
• Inefficient buying channel selection: The absence of standardized procurement processes was leading to missed cost-saving opportunities
• Limited contract data integration across ERP systems: Poor data connectivity had increased turnaround times and compliance risks

Infosys as a Strategic Partner

Infosys empowered the client with greater visibility, efficiency, and control across their procurement processes by integrating Celonis for process mining, Microsoft Power BI for analytics, and AssistEdge for automation. Infosys delivered an end-to-end solution tailored to address key challenges, including procurement inefficiencies, high costs, and compliance gaps.

As a strategic partner, Infosys played a pivotal role in the client’s procurement transformation by delivering comprehensive project execution from functional consulting to platform implementation and execution. Leveraging Celonis’ automated workflows, Infosys optimized processes and tasks with trigger-based notifications, improving efficiency across procurement operations. To enhance decision-making, Infosys implemented tail spend management, buying channel management, and buy desk analytics for faster, data-driven insights. Ready-to-deploy frameworks ensured rapid implementation, minimizing disruptions. With hands-on expertise and deep knowledge of process intelligence tools, Infosys enabled the oil and gas major to achieve improved procurement outcomes.

Infosys Solution

Infosys implemented a structured, two-pronged approach integrating process mining and advanced analytics to optimize procurement workflows:

1. Process mining

Infosys followed a structured four-step methodology to analyze, refine, and automate procurement processes:

• Process discovery: Leveraging Celonis, Infosys analyzed the client's as-is P2P process, identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies. This assessment provided a foundation for targeted optimizations.
• Process conformance and analysis: A conformance check against existing processes highlighted gaps in visibility across buying channels. The analysis identified 200+ process variations across 74 activities. It showed 37% of cases deviating from standard process flow, while 48% of PO changes were linked to price and quantity fluctuations. This emphasized the need for standardization.
• Insights and recommendations: The study revealed that only four conventional buying channels were routinely used, limiting efficiency. Infosys developed a comprehensive buying channel framework, introducing nine new buying channels to optimize procurement. Granular visibility was established across 45 P2P process activities, spanning nine key performance metrics. Strategic recommendations were proposed to minimize PO rework and enhance catalogue adoption compliance.
• Real-time action flows: To enable real-time decision-making, Infosys integrated Celonis insights with Azure Data Lake Storage, allowing activity-level insights from 50+ procurement characteristics. Additionally, six automation workflows were developed to streamline processes and reduce procurement inefficiencies.

2. Advanced analytics

Infosys applied advanced analytics to transform procurement insights into actionable strategies using:

• Power BI: Infosys developed Microsoft Power BI dashboards to provide deep analytical insights into key process mining metrics. This included procurement cycle time, PO rework rates, and full-time equivalent (FTE) involvement. These dashboards offered real-time visibility to category managers, enabling data-driven decision-making and ensuring compliance with procurement best practices. They also provided insights into sourcing activities to ensure the right choice of buying channel.
• Power Automate: Infosys leveraged process mining insights to generate buying channel recommendations through Microsoft Power Automate. By analyzing six online analytical processing (OLAP) tables developed in Celonis, Infosys identified optimal buying channels for various materials and services. This led to the design of 13 digital buying channels, based on predefined decision nodes. Additionally, proactive cost-avoidance measures were implemented to enhance procurement efficiency.

Benefits

The Infosys-led transformation delivered measurable business benefits:

• Potential cost savings of US $11 million by streamlining procurement processes
• 69% reduction in PO reworks, minimizing inefficiencies and improving accuracy
• 32% increase in the adoption of digital buying channels, enhancing procurement speed and visibility
• Over 15% growth in touchless POs, accelerating procurement automation
• 40% reduction in the purchase requisition to purchase order (PR to PO) cycle time, shrinking it from 11 days to an average of just 7 days