On March 1, 2005, Saudi Aramco's SAP Computer Centre (SCC), working with Oil Supply Planning & Scheduling Department (OSPAS), Finance, Sales & Marketing, implemented the Hydrocarbon Supply Chain Management (HSCM).

This is an integrated solution that has replaced 11 separate crude oil business systems including Crude Oil Tracking System (COTS), and Petroleum Analysis Refinancing Information System (PARIS).
The SAP HSCM system integrates business functions encapsulating three organisations; Sales & Marketing (contract and nomination creation and maintenance), OSPAS (scheduling functionality), and Finance (billing activities).
Locations encompassed include producing facilities, refineries, pipelines, terminals, and out-of-Kingdom locations
The SAP HSCM journey started in 2001, when a cross-functional team was formed comprising key members from Sales and Marketing, Finance, and OSPAS. 
This high-level team then started working with SAP AG (SAP Germany) to undertake extensive strategy definition, scoping, and feasibility studies to evaluate if and how SAP could provide a more efficient Hydrocarbon Export Sales solution. 
Starting in September 2002, the implementation team members from affected departments began working closely with SCC. 
Following the implementation road map, the implementation team blue printed current business processes to future business processes. Extensive and detailed project planning and preparation led to the formation of the SAP HSCM Steering Committee in August, 2003. 
The implementation of HSCM was finally approved in September, 2003.
By December, 2004, extensive preparation and support activities were carried out by the SCC implementation team to develop the HSCM system. Training and education were vital factors for the success of this project and more than 41 courses, 106 classes, and 250 exercises delivered to 308 unique users.
This included configuration, infrastructure planning and building, data migration, integration, custom development, comprehensive communication and awareness campaigns, documentation, online support services, pro-active user support, and testing.
All these activities were completed three months before HSCM, with integrated information from planning to marine management, went live.
The benefits of the solution lie primarily in the integration of the processes and information of the complete Hydrocarbon Supply-chain.
This enables streamlining of the processes across Refinery Supply & Distribution, International Operations, and Finance business lines by removing duplication of data and functions, whilst achieving data transparency and accuracy.
The system integrates Saudi Aramco's processes and covers critical requirements such as consistent reporting and consolidated display of worldwide inventory. This could not have been implemented with the legacy systems. HSCM also seamlessly integrates with the SAP system for Local Sales currently in production.
Joining information systems with HSCM provides Saudi Aramco with real time information to make the best strategic decisions, provides enhanced service to its customers, increases flexibility and capability to react to rapidly changing market conditions, and enhances Saudi Aramco's ability to supply oil to the world.
The successful implementation of the HSCM project has been achieved as a result of the dedication, determination, and hard work of the project team, and the management's commitment and continuous support.
As Ahmed Al-Zayyat, General Manager of the SAP Computer Center says, 'The most crucial contributions to SAP HSCM came from the people involved, from top management to all who worked on this project.  Without their hard work, expertise, and professionalism, success could not have been achieved.' 
Adel Doulab, Project Manager, also noted that 'Watching HSCM grow into an advanced oil & gas industry solution that Saudi Aramco can be proud of - is an exhilarating experience.'
All users were encouraged to reach a certain level of understanding before being able to execute highly critical actions on the system.
Some of the innovative training techniques used included classroom exercises and leading edge interactive screen simulations using e-learning techniques, ensuring that all users were comfortable completing multi-million dollar transactions on screen. 
Furthermore, the extensive database of demonstrations provides an invaluable tool for on-going understanding and support of the system. 
As a post go-live initiative on-line user documentation and a comprehensive help system was developed.
The scope of the implementation ensured the SAP R/3 system was used extensively.  Some of the cutting edge areas implemented included IS OIL with Traders and Schedulers Workbench (TSW), Advanced Planner and Optimizer (APO), Business Warehouse (BW) as well as the better known areas of Sales, Purchasing, and Billing.
To further justify Saudi Aramco's commitment to their users training was carried out in three separate continents, Asia, Europe and North America, thus making Change Management such an integral part of the process. 
In Saudi Arabia alone, Saudi Aramco made use of eight separate training locations each with the most state of the art equipment.