Oryx Energies uses Smartsheet to enhance project visibility, streamline operations and expansion across Africa

 Oryx Energies is one of Africa's largest independent providers of Energies. Thanks to its integrated platform, Oryx Energies controls the supply chain from product purchase to the point of sale. Founded in 1987, its 30-years history has seen it expand across 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, building a powerful reputation for quality, reliability and operational excellence. Oryx Energies continually adapts to the evolving fuel needs of the region, while continuing to serve its consumers, businesses, and maritime operations reliably.

Managing strategic success

Planning, deploying and delivering strategic growth initiatives is always a challenging process. As part of a three-years business plan - called ORYZON22 put in action by CEO Moussa Diao –   Oryx Energies sought to streamline operations, increase profits,  reallocate revenue across its investment portfolio and draw the path to success. This operational model was named ENERGIZE and, given its scale and complexity, Oryx Energies needed a comprehensive collaboration platform that offered visibility over the status of projects, along with the ability to allocate tasks and manage resource priorities. Previously, Oryx Energies’ staff managed work through multiple Excel spreadsheets, which could sometimes lead to unwieldy situations. The need for a more powerful tool was clear. And when Legal and Compliance Manager Fateme Weyeneth was charged with setting up and running the ENERGIZE PMO (Project Management Office) for communicating progress across all areas of business to ensure countries were aligned, she knew that any new tool used at Oryx Energies had to be intuitive and easy to use for all employees. 

An intuitive platform for collaboration 

Oryx Energies chose Smartsheet to enable the initial planning stages of ENERGIZE, its new business strategy project management tool. Smartsheet was used to provide insight into how the projects were performing and bring into light projects’ performances and team achievements at any given time, with automated dashboards to ensure executives and employees alike could map their progress. 

“In addressing the deployment of the B2C strategy across the Group, we were assured that we would have to deal with a huge amount of data and processes with several deadlines to be monitored,” says Sidy Bane, Group B2C Business Line Manager, Oryx Energies. “Smartsheet rightfully happened to be the relevant tool to keep all our issues in one place and at sight in a few clicks.” 

This early deployment quickly demonstrated the wide-ranging value of Smartsheet. Guillaume Desenne, Lubricants Business Line Manager, agreed, saying, “Smartsheet allowed us to set up a centralised and easy-to-use reporting system to identify delays and communicate successes, through a clear project performance dashboard.”

So, with the help of Agile Management Experts (AMX) – a Smartsheet Platinum Partner based in Europe – Oryx Energies has used Smartsheet to overhaul certain major internal project management processes. 

Fateme Weyeneth, in collaboration with project managers and sponsors, oversaw the rollout, noting that Smartsheet’s intuitive look and feel helped to encourage employee uptake and prevent complications, while dashboards created visibility and alignment across teams and locations. 

“For each country, you know exactly what has to be done. This allows everyone to have a good view of company performance at any given time,” adds Blaise Edja. “Now we fully understand our projects: where we are going, and our progress at any stage.” 

Improved business visibility

A key factor in the success of ENERGIZE   was the ability to track business decisions and action plans as quickly and accurately as possible. With Smartsheet, Oryx Energies has gained clear insight into how certain strategic projects in ORYZON22 were performing at any given time, in a range of markets. Real-time dashboards ensure executives and employees alike have access to business success metrics. This enhanced visibility has been particularly valuable in lockdown; as Group HR Manager Haja Rajaonarivo says, “we have been able to better work with colleagues remotely, yet in a very coordinated way.”

Measuring success against planning and objectives has also been greatly improved. Oryx Energies has so far  run over 25 projects through ENERGIZE, which have all been standardised. Work plans and dashboards with traffic lights, tasks, and owner dates can be managed across 14-day periods tailored to fit Oryx Group project structure. 

Streamlining operations

With Smartsheet, Oryx Energies has streamlined operations and made it easier to address issues before they happen, while key performance indicators (KPIs) and timelines are far easier to visualise.

While Smartsheet was rolled out from Geneva headquarters, the flexibility of the solution has brought all of the different Oryx Energies‘ offices, in Switzerland and in Africa closer together, quickly getting everybody  on the same page. In addition, having fortnightly cadences to understand any potential issues and hear feedback, has created unity between the HQ and affiliates – all of which has given a major boost to operations and teamwork.

Meeting strategic goals

Oryx Energies’ aim is to respond to the energy needs of consumers and businesses across sub-Saharan Africa and with a growing customer base, Oryx Energies is fully prepared to undertake the challenge of increased demand – meaning strategic initiatives like ORYZON22 and ENERGIZE are more crucial than ever. Fortunately, the clear view of progress delivered through Smartsheet helps to find and address any issue that could block achievement or progress during a major project. 

“To respond to the growing energy need in Africa, we need to be organised and well-prepared. Now, we are on a good track,” says Moussa Diao. “We have a consistent approach, along with standard KPIs and metrics for each affiliate to achieve, which benefits the overall performance of the company.”

And for him Smartsheet has been key to delivering against Oryx Energies’ strategic goals: “As we defined new processes and tools, we leveraged Smartsheet’s ability to manage precisely specific actions and milestones, clear ownership, and systematic progress tracking… Beyond providing a very efficient operational project management solution, Smartsheet was instrumental to promote our group and team engagement in a large-scale project.” 

Coordination for innovation

With the successful deployment of Smartsheet to support ORYZON22 and ENERGIZE, other solutions have now been put in place across different locations and departments, each with their own dashboards, projects, reports, and sheets. This included, for example, a new retail visual identity launch, Operational Excellence improvement, IT solution management, and even HR process optimisation. The platform’s versatility and ability to continually deliver against new use cases has become apparent across all of these departments – as AMX Solutions Consultant, Vlera Hetemi, has noted. 

"We've been implementing solutions for all business lines, through which we've been able to automate reporting, approvals and mundane tasks, create more visibility, and drive efficiency across the organisation,” says Vlera. “We're happy to be supporting Oryx Energies in unlocking the full capabilities of Smartsheet." 

Oryx Energies now has a solution that can simplify complex processes and standardise work plans, communication, and processes for all projects. The automation offered by Smartsheet has brought people together across the organisation, regardless of the language they use and their territory.

Blaise Edja says, “Smartsheet allows us to manage and monitor many projects simultaneously. Without the platform, this would be difficult. Before, using Excel, we had to manage multiple spreadsheets coming from various stakeholders with different views. Coordination was more complex, as we had to consolidate multiple sources of information. Now with one simple tool, everyone can follow the status of the project.” 

For more information about this story, please see our case study.