December 1, 2010 – BP is seeking to provide consistency in their knowledge-sharing processes across the many merged corporations they have acquired in past decades by creating a central department, Engineering Technical Practices (ETP), to create and maintain BP engineering practices for both the exploration and production segments of the corporation.

We found this information on Automation World in their article, “Standardized Document Management Improves Knowledge Sharing.” The ETP department set out to develop a technical document management system to manage the ETP documents and enable the associated processes. Metadata, such as document number, key words, title and taxonomy category provided users with multiple search options and the ability to navigate via the taxonomy by which the documents had been stored. BP chose to leverage the collaboration capabilities of its existing Lotus Domino application to address these document-related communication needs with only minimal customization required.

Their process, from beginning to end, resulted in a framework for shared learnings across the corporation. Perhaps these shared learnings will help prevent future ecological disasters, along with providing other benefits to BP.

Melody K. Smith

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