Shell Outsourcing 3,000 IT Jobs

In one of the biggest outsourcing deals in the last five years Royal Dutch Shell partnered with EDS, T-Systems and AT&T giving Shell greater ability to respond to the growing demands of their businesses. It allows Shell IT to focus on Information Technology that drives competitive position in the oil & gas market, whilst suppliers focus on improving essential IT capability.
Could this be the future trend in the oil industry? Keeping in mind the oil & gas industry has few competitors Shell could perhaps enjoy first mover advantages. As noted elsewhere in the blog, typically in the oil industry companies spend 1% of their total revenue on IT, how much are they really saving? Shell also promises few layoffs but will spread their current IT force throughout the companies in the partnership.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Outsourcing/Shell-Outsourcing-3000-IT-Jobs/

How Big Oil Uses XML

It is interesting to note that integration of legacy systems and the new systems is a challenge to almost all industries including the pharmaceutical and financial services sector. The oil industry has approached it by suggesting standardization across the industry and getting all of the parties to play at the same table, oil companies will be able to spend less time on integration and more time on developing oil and gas.
The reality is, data has to be moved between multiple applications and multiple vendors, and because there is no standard, a good amount of money and effort is spent making custom linkages between those applications.
The big question still remains whether the savings will translate to consumers paying less for gas at the pump. This will likely confirm the theory that the oil industry is run like a cartel.........they are guilty of colluding with each other to set standards including prices.
http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Projects-Security/How-Big-Oil-Uses-XML/

RFID policy panel raises privacy concerns

Beware if you have your info ingrained in your Speedpass or the contactless major credit cards. It is easily accessible by anyone with an RFID tag reader. RFID labels don't check readers for authentication, so identity thieves could set up their own readers that impersonate legitimate ones. Like anyother technology the hackers and thieves are sitting waiting patiently to exploit the weakness that comes packaged as a convinience. BEWARE!!!!!!

http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/04/06/HNrfidprivacy_1.html

Exxon Mobil: Focus on Flexibility

Exxon Mobils's ultimate payoff from standardization isn’t just cost savings from achieving economies of scale but, also from the efficiencies made possible by adopting consistent platforms and business processes add flexibility to the business by allowing rapid movement into new markets. Exxon Mobil is also able to adjust workloads among offices worldwidewhich offers the company a competitive advantage.
However, with a profit of 20-40 billion since 2006 Exxon has the ability to add flexibility to its IT and can move away from it's fixation of standardization. Exxon Mobil does support the use of leading-edge, best-of-breed technology when the business value is high and the technology can be narrowly deployed. It is a constant balance you have between sustaining these standards that give you the flexibilities and economies of scale also being responsive to the needs of the different business lines. This has been one of the reasons Exxon Mobil has continued to be the industry leader.
What is interesting is the fact that most companies in the oil industry invest 1% of their total revenue in supporting IT. A small value compared to other industries that are up to 6-8%.

http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,69187,00.html

Exxon Mobil Plans to Extend Use of Speedpass Technology

Exxon Mobil Corp. said it plans to keep its focus on extending the reach and utility of its own, simpler Speedpass technology. The Speedpass offers a retailer a very efficient way to handle cashless payments, in a very secure and very privacy-sensitive manner. Speedpass has also started to diversify the kind of wireless tokens it uses beyond the radio frequency identification key-ring tags. Other devices that could eventually sport Speedpass modules include cell phones and personal digital assistants.
This offers a personalized way to communicate with customers compared to other softwares that communicate with the vehicle itself such as the DSRC systems.
http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,69187,00.html