ARO Drilling, an offshore drilling contractor that owns, operates and manages a fleet of premium jack-up rigs in Saudi Arabia, has signed a deal with global enterprise applications company IFS to deploy its key solutions to unify mission-critical business processes across its headquarters and fleet of 16 offshore drilling rigs.

A joint venture between state oil giant Saudi Aramco and Valaris, an industry-leading, global drilling contractor, ARO Drilling said with this deployment the company eyes to consolidate its legacy business software, comprising several disparate systems that were complex and difficult to scale.

“From streamlined procurement and inventory management to more efficient maintenance of critical equipment on our rigs, IFS Applications has made a actual difference in how we operate,” remarked Anas Mosa, the IT Director at ARO Drilling.

Moving towards a competitive bid process involving several major ERP vendors, the Saudi group chose IFS Applications based on the platform’s industry-specific functionality and fully integrated architecture.

The IFS solution was transmitted, on time and on budget in nine months, to some 400 full users and 2,000 self-service users across ARO Drilling’s onshore and offshore operations, he stated.

The IFS solution was deployed to support critical processes including maintenance, supply chain management, finance, and human capital management (HCM) - all fully integrated to the company’s best-of-breed systems.

By controlling a fully integrated solution the company has been able to accomplish a centralised view of the entire business, driving quicker and better-informed decision-making, he added.

IFS Managing Director (Middle East) Mehmood Khan said: "There are few industries where project control and asset maintenance and safety are more critical than in the oil and gas sector. Working with some of the world’s leading offshore companies, we have developed a broad set of industry-specific capabilities that is unique in the market."

"We are very proud to declare ARO Drilling as the latest addition to our growing list of world-renowned oil and gas customers and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership," he added.