With the assistance of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., SAP (ERP) system was implemented in the year 2010 for entire Petroleum Sector in Sri Lanka involving all the three oil companies viz Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL), Lanka IOC PLC (LIOC).

Under the guidance of Mr. Chandima Weerakkody, Hon. Minister of Petroleum Resources Development, it was decided in SAP ERP Steering Committee that the employees of CPC and CPSTL should be get refresher training in SAP. Since an efficient ERP system is an utmost necessity to take any company to newer heights, it was decided that concentrated efforts be made to further develop SAP and take the IT development forward.

Accordingly, during the bilateral meeting held between Hon. Minister of Petroleum Resources Development, GoSL and Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, GoI, it was decided that employees of CPC and CPSTL will be given fresh training by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. It was decided that aprx. 92 employees of CPC and CPSTL will be sent to India for training. The first batch of 28 employees led by Mr. A H S Wijesinghe, Additional Secretary (Development) and Mr. Anuj Jain, SVP(Finance) went to India to get training on SAP (ERP) system at IndianOil Institute of Petroleum Management (IiPM), India.

IiPM is the apex learning centre of IndianOil at Gurgaon, India. It conducts advanced management education programmes in collaboration with premier business schools and topline professionals. IiPM has been conducting global standard international business management programmes. IiPM is an ISO 9001-2000 certificate institute and has been awarded the Golden Peacock National Award for ‘Innovative Training Practices’ and other prestigious awards such as “Best Innovation in Teaching” award and ‘Innovative Training Practices’ award. Executive Director, IiPM personally coordinated the training at IiPM for Sri Lankan delegates.

IndianOil’s state of art ‘Corporate Business Technology Centre’ that provides SAP & other IS support across India is also located within the premises of IiPM. All the participants visited the Technology & Data Centre and magnitude of the Centre totally mesmerized all the participants.

The training programme was customized to the requirement of participants and various SAP modules were extensively covered by the faculty members. Executive Director, Information systems, IOC closely monitored the training programme and gave his valuable inputs to the participants.

Apart from learning various modules of the SAP, participants also visited IndianOil’s Corporate Office, New Delhi. At the SAP training closing event, Mr. Wijesinghe thanked Mr. Shyam Bohra MD, LIOC and IndianOil Management for arranging this training and stated that this sort of training will strengthen the relationship between CPC, CPSTL, LIOC and IOC. While giving their feedback, participants stated that this training programme will not only improve their day-to-day efficiency but will also help them to enhance their knowledge for future technological upgradation of SAP (ERP) system. Next batch of the training is being planned in the month of June 2017.

Chairman, IOC also addressed the participants & shared his fond memories of the time when he was on the Board of LIOC and conveyed his best wishes to the participants.