Upgrading Safety Solutions the Agile Way

Rolls-Royce R² Data Labs, a leading provider of asset risk management optimization products, offers its customers a web-based process safety solution called VisiumKMS. VisiumKMS is a fully automated, web-based suite of management tools used by some of the world’s largest oil and gas producers and refiners. It has a pedigree of almost 20 years, with over 65 customers and more than 500,000 combined end users.

Users of VisiumKMS in those organizations include staff in health and safety, and those with environmental focus, who are responsible for ensuring processes are adhered to by stakeholders. Since the launch of VisiumKMS Version 11 in 2012, demand had been building for a new version that included functionality customers wanted added to the tool. They approached SEP, who they had worked with previously on other projects, to assist them in developing Version 12 to meet demand.

VisiumKMS Clients Identified Four Key Features Requiring Updates:

• Security – SEP needed to update VisiumKMS from level-based security to a token-based security system.
• Hierarchy – SEP was asked to change the solution’s limited 4-tier hierarchy to an N-tier hierarchy, enabling companies to better define organizational levels.
• Workflows – SEP needed to adapt the system to include not just existing workflows based on OSHA standards, but also tailorable workflows that allow users to define steps and statuses.
• Lists – SEP was tasked with modifying an existing list of flat items that required users to cycle through every time to smart checklists, which allowed questions to be configured based on responses. As a result, only required questions would then show up in a list. For the VisiumKMS team, infrastructure was a core concern.

VisiumKMS team members are based around the world, so the overhead costs of sharing code were prohibitive. The company needed a system where everyone could contribute regardless of geography. “Team members in Houston, Texas, for example, were working with others in Sydney, Australia,” said Sean Gigremosa, Product Owner, KMS. “We approached SEP about creating a way to seamlessly connect all staff to one code base.”