Better business visibility on a global scale.

The challenge.

PETRONAS Lubricants International (PLI) is an oil industry giant – yet in some corners of the globe is surprisingly little known. This can prove a challenge for local salespeople and distributors competing with the Big 5 of the Oil & Gas sector. PLI’s expertise and innovation is world class. Their people have valuable local knowledge. Many of their products are not only superior to competitors’, they have the certification and customer endorsements to prove it. So, here was the issue – how to make all that information, know-how, and expertise accessible – and useable – to, say, a distributor in the middle of Dubai or a salesperson in Sao Paulo.

One strong, supportive central hub.

PLI knew a digital solution could provide the best answer, so we put our heads together and got to work. Torpedo began building out a proposal for an ambitious global hub. One that would be controlled centrally but bring together all those previously inaccessible pockets of local expertise.

The result not only delivers access to local knowledge, in-depth learning, customer certification and Proof of Performance documentation, but you can even create an entire Plant audit for all the lubricated machinery in a potential customer’s business.

Pushing beyond the boundaries of the brief, “to create a useful resource”, the finished hub is now an invaluable interactive tool for the whole business – one that offers unprecedented accessibility to information, knowledge and expertise, empowering and connecting employees and business partners anywhere in the world.

Bespoke permissions management.
One of the Portal’s most sophisticated elements is something its users don’t even see – security. Providing easy access to everything that a user needs to perform their job more effectively, while protecting sensitive information demanded real rigour, to ensure people could only access what we wanted them to.

We built the Portal on a bespoke multi-level permissions system which takes location, job function, seniority and line management into consideration to determine what information should be available to whom. The system also includes the ability for administrators to create custom rules for individual users and content assets. So not only is the Portal secure, it enhances the user experience via the ability to tailor which features and functions are most relevant, based on the needs of that user’s role. What’s more this applies equally to distributors and customers – PLI can profile their customers and provide them with tailored access to information that is relevant to their specific business.

The Expert Directory.
Imagine you’ve previously worked on a competitor product – you’ll have priceless knowledge you could share. So now we’ve created a kind of LinkedIn for lubrication experts. New users can set up their ‘expert’s profile’ the first time they log in to the Portal. Others can then use intelligent search and filtering tools to find and contact colleagues with the specific expertise they’re looking for, anywhere in the world. The Directory not only bring teams together, it creates a sense of community among them.

The Academy.
The more PLI people you can educate about the sophisticated area of lubricants, the more those people can demonstrate PLI’s expertise and know-how to customers. It’s that that gives PLI an edge over some pretty tough competition. Designed for PLI employees as well as customers and channel partners alike, the Portal includes the focused e-learning and interactive training courses you’d expect to find – and then some pretty neat stuff on top. There’s also a built-in certification programme that helps PLI make sure that knowledge and expertise are consistent, globally, across the business and partner channels.

Document hub.
Got a potential powergen customer in India that uses a particular generator in their plants? Search the portal and boom – an OEM Approval from a major generator manufacturer in Germany and an endorsement for the same equipment from a high profile customer – now that’s credibility. From safety and technical data sheets to OEM certifications and proof of performance documentation, users can access all of the latest business-critical information – in multiple languages we hasten to add. By creating a single, centralised repository, version control issues have been removed and the business can be sure that everyone has access to the most up-to-date information globally.

Line-manager analytics.
Empower your managers – let them see who’s using the hub, and how. Our Analytics Dashboard provides every manager with easy-to-understand insight into how employees are engaging with the tools and resources in the Portal. For example, they can see which e-learning modules have been completed and which tools their team are using regularly. Now managers can understand how the Portal’s resources are contributing to individual performance. It’s an opportunity to help their team members make the most of the platform.

E-tools.
Complex paper processes are now a thing of the past. New e-tools include essentials like a total cost of ownership calculator and a lubrication recommender. There’s even a digital plant audit tool – so now a non-technical person can offer a potential customer an entire audit that would have taken weeks to complete and analyse, but instead just requires easy and intuitive data input and the option to create a professional, branded PDF report that clearly shows the areas for implementation and improvement.

Before the Portal, there was no standardised way to perform these types of task. The e-tools have brought consistency and efficiency to common operation processes. Plus, with the ability to collate and analyse data that’s inputted globally, PLI can uncover insights that were previously hidden.

Knowledge management.
You can only effectively share knowledge if you can find it again and know who is looking for it in the first place. So, in designing the architecture behind the portal, we included the ability to tag everything with a powerful taxonomy of keywords. As a result, the search function is powerful and much more granular – users can search for information using key words for their specific industry sector, business use, geography, products or location and refresh the information to quickly find exactly what they need and benefit from finding answers across the business and the globe.

The results.

Collaborative working at its best.
We built and launched the original PLI Portal in 2017. Since then, we’ve continued to iterate and develop it in partnership with the PLI global leadership team, using regular feedback and user analytics to inform the development roadmap.

From initial pitch to delivery, this project has touched all services within Torpedo. It’s a perfect example of how our expertise can be utilised to maximum effect. Supported by a communications strategy pre- and post-launch, the PLI Portal gained an impressive adoption rate of 90% and is still actively used every day by employees and partners to support the business and its growth.

Today, we are proud to work on many digital and marketing initiatives for the Global and European teams at PETRONAS.

PETRONAS Lubricants International (PLI)

PETRONAS Lubricants International (PLI)

The challenge.

One strong, supportive central hub.

The PLI Portal’s top features.

The results.

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