ConocoPhillips is the largest oil refiner in the United States and the fourth-largest globally. It operates in more than 40 countries with over 35,000 employees and assets of $86 billion.

Challenge: Merging companies, merging intranets

In 2002, Phillips Petroleum Company and Conoco completed their merger. The new management team of ConocoPhillips deemed it critical to centralize the two companies’ servers and move towards “self-serve” intranet portals. This posed numerous front-end usability challenges. Many existing intranet applications were overly complex and had inconsistent, unorganized navigation. Such was the case with its HR Express intranet site: ConocoPhillips inherited a disparate set of HR-related applications loosely connected by a single menu.

HFI’s Approach: A user-centered design standard

• Create an expandable architecture that could accommodate new functionality and tools in the future

• Provide one location for employees to view information and respond to alerts

• Give managers a simple dashboard to monitor their teams

ConocoPhillips’ new HR Express intranet site provides users with summary views that answer their most frequent questions

After conducting data-gathering sessions with the affected user groups, HFI led a committee-driven standards project, which helped secure acceptance from ConocoPhillips’ diverse teams. This user interface standard was delivered in the form of reusable templates, promoting consistent page designs within the new, simplified navigational framework.

Outcome: Timely completion, immediate ROI

HFI has observed that typical corporate standards projects last over one year—and the standards rarely get implemented! By contrast, the standards project at ConocoPhillips took just three months to complete and was put to use immediately in the HR Express redesign.

Everyone benefited from the new HR site, which offered:

• Summary screens that answered the majority of people’s questions

• Easy access to all functions

• Simplified data entry/editing

• Related information automatically displayed (based on users’ location on the site)

• Reduced number of secondary browsers opened ConocoPhillips’ HR Express help desk historically received 300 calls per week.

Immediately after the redesigned site launched, help desk calls literally disappeared—zero calls/week for the first three months running. Plus, ConocoPhillips enjoyed the ongoing benefits of a user-centered design standard:

• Developers save time: Instead of revisiting the same design decisions, developers can simply refer to the standard; ongoing maintenance and content management are also simplified.

• Users are more efficient: Because designs are consistent, users can generalize their knowledge of how one screen works to all the other screens of the same type.

You could say ConocoPhillips struck the biggest “oil well” of the digital age: usability!

1. How important was this project for ConocoPhillips? Why?

2. Why was the project so successful? What management, organization, and technology issues were addressed?

Transcribed Image Text:

HRExpress ConocoPhillips John Smith Employee # 123123 Manager GIS 1234 Johnstone Street Emergency Contact: Jane Smith Buiding 1 Bartlesville, OK 74004 Log Out Summary Total Compensation Current Annual Salary: Bonus: Insurance: Need help? * Quick Tour • FAQS Contact Us How Do I. $43,603.00 $4,840.00 $750.00 $3,052 00 $5,222.00 $3,850.00 $1,555.00 $58,055.00 Annual Salary Benefits Bonus Total Compensation FICA Insurance Adjust Savings % Retirement plan name): Savings (4%) Stock Options: Total Compens ation: Total Wealth Vacation FICA Show Savings Retirement Retirement Savings Stock Program Stock Options Announcements Deferred Comp Total Wealth Check Overview Insurance Vacation Savings: Retirement: $34,929.00 $125,000.00 $74,500.00 $234,429.00 Check Dated: Earnings Adjustments Deductions Taxes Net pay: 07/30/2003 $4,269.51 (5562.15) $20.69 $864.07 $2,822.60 Payroll Portfolio: Total Wealth: Check Overview Enrollment 2004 Training Manage Taxes Duplicate W-2 Direct Deposit Insurance Medical: Dental: Basic life: Supp. life: Dep life: CAT PPO CP Dental $65,000 $200,000 $800,000 My.. My. Last training: Emergency Drills Life Events Just got hired Maried Divorced Had.a baby Leaxing the company Personal Info Last review 1201/2002 Training Resume updated: 10/15/2002 Performance Vacation (In Hours) Resume Available: Used: 125 85 HRExpress ConocoPhillips John Smith Employee # 123123 Manager GIS 1234 Johnstone Street Emergency Contact: Jane Smith Buiding 1 Bartlesville, OK 74004 Log Out Summary Total Compensation Current Annual Salary: Bonus: Insurance: Need help? * Quick Tour • FAQS Contact Us How Do I. $43,603.00 $4,840.00 $750.00 $3,052 00 $5,222.00 $3,850.00 $1,555.00 $58,055.00 Annual Salary Benefits Bonus Total Compensation FICA Insurance Adjust Savings % Retirement plan name): Savings (4%) Stock Options: Total Compens ation: Total Wealth Vacation FICA Show Savings Retirement Retirement Savings Stock Program Stock Options Announcements Deferred Comp Total Wealth Check Overview Insurance Vacation Savings: Retirement: $34,929.00 $125,000.00 $74,500.00 $234,429.00 Check Dated: Earnings Adjustments Deductions Taxes Net pay: 07/30/2003 $4,269.51 (5562.15) $20.69 $864.07 $2,822.60 Payroll Portfolio: Total Wealth: Check Overview Enrollment 2004 Training Manage Taxes Duplicate W-2 Direct Deposit Insurance Medical: Dental: Basic life: Supp. life: Dep life: CAT PPO CP Dental $65,000 $200,000 $800,000 My.. My. Last training: Emergency Drills Life Events Just got hired Maried Divorced Had.a baby Leaxing the company Personal Info Last review 1201/2002 Training Resume updated: 10/15/2002 Performance Vacation (In Hours) Resume Available: Used: 125 85

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

ConocoPhillips Case Study 1 Every organization desires to have a successful project It is through the management organizational and technological structures that firms can out their projects with ease ... View the full answer