Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited goes live on Oracle’s online DBA Service for its customer loyalty program ‘PetroCard’

Optimizes staff and training costs with Oracle Infrastructure and Monitoring service

India, New Delhi, 14 May, 2009

News Facts
§ Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) one of India’s largest PSU’s, with Global Fortune 500 rank has successfully gone live on Oracle’s Online Database Application (DBA) service for its customer loyalty program, PetroCard. The PetroCard smart card application runs on Oracle Database, Oracle Application Server and Oracle Real Application Clusters. The online service constantly monitors BPCL’s database and application infrastructure to ensure smooth running of the loyalty program.
§ The PetroCard customer loyalty program represents 25% of the BPCL’s total sales spread across 2.2 million customers in India and 1,60,000 transactions per day. BPCL selected Oracle on the basis of its technology and service that could handle high transaction loads without any disruption in customer satisfaction. Oracle’s online DBA service provides round-the-clock maintenance and infrastructure support.
§ Oracle online DBA service available through Advanced Customer Services (ACS) provides optimized system performance, and availability for BPCL, by proactively monitoring the Oracle environment and reducing the cost of the DBA. The service identifies and responds to issues that may impact the availability and performance by reducing maintenance downtime. It offers highly skilled and professional 24×7 expert services at a cost well below in-house staffing costs.
§ The team at Oracle reviewed BPCL’s architecture and devised a plan to roll out the online service where data from 7,000 terminals was uploaded and alert parameters were set. At the same time simple settings were changed on BPCL firewall to allow Oracle staff to access remotely to company’s servers while maintaining a high level of security.
§ With the implementation of Oracle online DBA service, BPCL is saving around 2 million rupees (close to US $42,000) annually in costs associated with database monitoring. The online service has helped BPCL reduce its staffing costs and eliminate the burden of implementing shifts and special compensation plans.

Details
· PetroCard, supported by Oracle’s Online DBA service is an innovative customer loyalty program run by BPCL launched in 2000. The program offers customers greater convenience, security and speed of transaction. It provides rewarding opportunities to earn points with lots of gifts and benefits when they shop at a Bharat Petroleum outlet.
· Oracle Consulting offers a complete range of application and technology management services that leverage an innovative and flexible approach to service delivery. Oracle’s consulting services can be delivered from anywhere in the world on a 24×7 basis. Oracle online DBA service helps in reducing the planned downtime during operating business hours; eliminate the need to recruit, train and retain Oracle DBA’s with global resources to handle peak workloads.
· Oracle is required to adhere to set service level agreements (SLAs) and has set up database thresholds which automatically send alerts in case any infrastructure issue arises. These could be related to a simple issue such as the availability of disk space or something that requires a minimal amount of downtime to repair.

Supporting Quotes
· “PetroCard is BPCL’s unique offering and we wanted a service which can handle the high transaction load without any disruption or compromise in customer service. Therefore, it was crucial for us to have a solid maintenance and support infrastructure in place which we found in Oracle’s Online DBA solution” said Mr. Ajay Nigam, Senior Manager, BPCL (DB). “By using Oracle’s Online DBA solution, we are assured that our loyalty program is always available. We would normally have to hire and train staff to perform this, but now this extra cost has been eliminated, as we have found a strong and reliable partner in Oracle.”
· “We are delighted to further our partnership with BPCL and support their customer loyalty program through the Oracle Online DBA service,” said Mr. Sanjay Mathur, Senior Director, Oracle Customer Services, Oracle India. “We have supported BPCL for over 5 years and understand the importance of the loyalty program. We offered BPCL direct access to a team of experts who would be available to address any issues in the system on a 24X7 basis. The service has played a key role in helping them to optimize system performance, minimize the downtime and meet budget constraints.”

Supporting Resources
· Oracle DBA Services fact sheet
· Oracle BPCL Case study

About BPCL
Established in 1977, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is an oil refining and marketing company based in Mumbai, India. The company manufactures petroleum and lubricants for domestic and industrial markets. It sells to 7,000 dealers and corporate customers throughout the country. The Government of India holds a 66.2% share of the company, with the balance owned by foreign institutional investors, financial institutions, employees, and private investors. BPCL is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange in India.

About Oracle India
Oracle entered India in 1987 and set up an India Development Centre in 1994. Today, Oracle has two India Development Centres as well as Indian hubs for Oracle’s global support, consulting and financial services operations. Through its extensive network of more than 400 channel and alliance partners under the Oracle PartnerNetwork, Oracle India markets the complete range of Oracle products and services across India. Oracle India has more than 7000 customers in the telecommunications, banking, insurance, manufacturing and utilities industries, across the government and private sector. Oracle India is a major partner for E-Governance initiatives of Central and State Government bodies in India. The Oracle-HP E-Governance Centre of Excellence, Oracle Asia R & D Centre and Partner Solution Center are located at Oracle India’s head office in Gurgaon, near New Delhi. Oracle’s Retail Centre of Excellence is located in Bangalore.

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