Challenges faced for smaller non-ops and operators.

Small to medium size enterprises (SME) and new entrants in the energy sector, especially in Upstream Oil & Gas and Mining, face unique challenges when trying to adopt digital technology to generate operational efficiencies and transform their businesses. These are primarily based on a lack of will and funding to invest in ‘fit for purpose’ systems early in the value chain.

Consequently, at asset acquisition or the exploration stage, organisations will opt to deploy low cost solutions like Sage, Xero and QuickBooks. These are hugely popular but do not provide the scalable solution that can be configured to meet the future needs of the business as described and provided by the purpose built Lumos 365 platform.

In almost all cases this will result in significant work being undertaken by expensive staff outside of the accounting application, for example using spreadsheets for capturing budgets, tracking and reporting on spend and operational KPIs etc., all of which incur significant costs and wasted hours.

This perceived cost saving approach makes it very difficult to create a consistent approach to financial controls, process automation, reporting and KPI measurement. It also creates an inevitable migration project as the organisation moves across the value chain and is forced to adopt more robust and fit for purpose business applications to support the day to day operations.

This inevitable migration is hugely significant because, contrary to original intention, the organisation is actually increasing cost, business disruption and risk at a later date through time and effort spent in vendor and system selection, data migration and business process mapping with the chosen systems and vendors. This disruption usually takes place just when the business needs to scale, have good processes already in place and focus on operations, not system deployment at this critical stage.

Lumos 365, the cost effective solution.

The Lumos 365 platform has been designed to support most of your core business processes at all stages in the value chain in one single scalable platform (with the exception of specialist technical applications). We have taken the approach of providing for Finance, Procurement, Contracts, Inventory, Logistics, Plant Maintenance, Management Reporting and Information Management in a secure, single Microsoft cloud-based system. You can adopt the various modules as you move across the value chain, seamlessly.

Lumos 365 comprises of three pillars – business applications, reporting and information management.

This modular approach will enable you benefit from our built-in best practice from day one saving you significant time and resources for supporting your day to day operations.

Our pre-configured and configurable financial, operational and KPI management reporting will get you the information you need quickly, ably supported by our information management portal that combines business data, reports and documentation through a single portal with configurable user or departmental access.

The fact that all this is delivered through the Microsoft cloud and integrates fully with Office 365 creates a genuinely collaborative environment that includes mobile support, for example, approval workflows in line with your Delegation of Authority can be accessed through any connected device.

Lumos 365 integrates with the Microsoft products and services that you already use.

Many systems claim to support business outcomes and such claims are often rightly viewed as subjective or difficult to quantify.

Operational excellence – 80% ready.

The Lumos 365 platform however delivers tangible business and bottom-line benefits by its inherent design and functionality to support control, compliance and cost recovery through best practice.

The platform defines the way people work together and through effective process and better collaboration operational efficiencies are increased.  An example of this can be found in the mandatory cost allocation to the correct Approval for Expenditure (AFE) at source of spend or transaction. This means that a warehouse operative retrieving an inventory item is supporting the cost recovery process, which is just one example of why the Lumos 365 platform can generate a Joint Venture billing statement in just a few mouse clicks. Likewise, the ability to highlight an existing contract and facilitate a call off at the point of request creation alleviates the need to involve the supply chain team.

These very basic examples speak for the true benefits of designing a single platform to deliver business outcomes.

Short term savings will often prove highly expensive in the long term and increase business disruption and risk when you least need it.

Be up and running running fast with built in best practice and reduced cost.

The Lumos 365 platform will provide a framework that your business can grow into, not out of, at a very affordable entry point. Our 80% fit templated approach will reduce upfront CAPEX, increase speed of deployment and reduce costs whilst also introducing best practice.

Only pay for what you need.

You only pay for what you need, when you need it with our cost-effective subscription- based pricing. You decide when to introduce new modules as you move across the value chain with every stage benefitting from our 80% ready templated approach.

Please contact hello@lumos365.com for further information.

To find out more about our platform, please visit our website at www.lumos365.com