The fourth industrial revolution came with disruptive technologies and trends such as the

internet of things, robotics, virtual reality and artificial intelligence (AI) which have greatly
impacted the way businesses are run. Information systems (IS) are affecting most
management functions and have become essential to firms' competitive advantage and
survival in the “new global digital economy” (Watson, 2007). The tradition business
models where organizations controlled most of their supply chain, often referred to as
the vertical supply chain, gave way to the virtual supply chain model where organizations
work with other organizations to boost efficiency and effectiveness (Ajayi, 2013). Yeo and
Ning (2002) further describe this as a collaborative attitude among all of the chain
members. It is a new way of conceptualising business relationships to ensure success,
arising from effective cooperation between firms that have networked in the supply chain
(CIPS: Positions on practice, 2009).

Organizations require information to determine appropriate decision making, therefore,

rely on information systems which allow for processing and analysing information.
Information systems are a combination of five components which are designed to
accumulate information for the day to day activities of an organization and they are:

Hardware – physical computing devices

Software – applications which dictate the use of the hardware
Data – information bits manipulated by the software
People – made up of users, programmers, members of the IT department
Process – steps undertaken to accomplish a goal

According to Bourgeois (2014), information systems (IS) is the study of complementary

networks of hardware and software that people and organizations use to collect, filter,
process, create, and distribute data. Supply chain only forms a fragment of the networks
referred to by Bourgeois. Furthermore, he explains that one of the ways that information
systems have participated in competitive advantage is through integrating the supply
chain electronically. Similarly, Modgil and Sharma (2017) noted that with the changing
dynamics of accuracy and speed in operations and the target of achieving economies of
scale, the role of IS becomes critical in the entire supply chain. 

Supply chain management is a broad base function that encompasses all business and
operational services involved in procurement, manufacturing, transportation of finished
goods, warehousing and distribution of same, as well as inventory management.
Organizations’ ability to meet demand with supply remain very challenging, with the
rapidly evolving preferences of the final consumers. However, this becomes far less
cumbersome with the availability of information and adaptation of information systems
that work best for each organization. Information systems for SCM makes sense of the
commercial context of the business has with stakeholders and understands seasonality in
terms of demand of its own supply requirements
The information systems of an organization consist of the information technology
infrastructure, data, application systems, and personnel that employ IT to deliver
information and communications services in an organization (Davis 2000). According to
Kakhki & Gargeya (2019), information systems (IS) impact supply chain management
(SCM) on processes such as planning, sourcing, and delivering, and at levels ranging from
tactical operations to organisational strategy, which include all actions that culminate in
the fine prints of the organization’s long term goal(s). A complete information system is a
collection of subsystems defined by functional or organizational boundaries.
Implementing integrated electronic information systems between SC partners is
necessary to meet the future SC challenges and will help companies achieve the high
performance efficiency (Al-Odeh, 2016). While Mukaddes et al. (2010) view SCM from the
perspective of supplier and manufacturer integration in order to minimize system wide
cost, Birkeland et al. (2003) agree with integration but with the inclusion of the consumer,
into a single information network for smooth running of the organization’s operations.

The Nigerian oil and gas industry typically has three major sectors – upstream
(exploration and production or E & P), mainly concerned with drilling operations and
other field activities; midstream, converting drills petroleum into fuels and other
petroleum by-products; and downstream, chiefly saddled with the responsibility of
marketing and distribution (Harraz, 2016). Information systems link all three sectors in the
aspects of value creation, overhead cost reductions and storage management, among
others. This becomes challenging to wholesomely apply IS, seeing as the midstream
sector is near non-existent in Nigeria owing to lack of functional refineries. For instance,
information pertaining to production on demand would ripple into automation and
storages concerns, which only affect the upstream and downstream. However,
appropriate automation and adequate storage facilities may not match re-imported
finished petroleum products.

Harraz, 2016
The figure above explains in brief the process flow of the major sectors of the petroleum
industry.

ARIS Framework

With increasing size and complexity of the implementations of information systems, it is

necessary to use some logical construct (or architecture) for defining and controlling the
interfaces and the integration of all of the components of the system (Zachman, 1987).
The Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS) model, otherwise known as
ARIS house, was developed by Sheer (1999). This framework is based on a division of the
model into description views and levels, which allows a description of the individual
elements through specially designed methods, without having to include the entire
model. As business units increase within the O&G industry, information management is
on a higher demand and a substandard and manual information system will lead to
difficulty in information consolidation and dissemination.

Ada

pted from Sheer 1999

Technology has modernized supply chain in three ways. First and foremost is better
access to tools, which reduces dead time. It also allows ease of entry for smaller
businesses to enter new markets. Lastly, companies within the SCM space are able to
simplify processes and bridge the gaps between the different technologies for a
smoother, cost effective and efficient process.

The supply chain is a global network used to deliver products and services to customers
through an engineered flow of information (Chui, 2011)
 Adapted

Decision Support Systems

A Decision Support System (DSS) is a computer-based information system that supports

business or organizational decision-making activities which serve the management,
operations, and planning levels of an organization and help to make decisions, which
may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance (Jain and Raju, 2016).
According to Iakov and Igor. (2015), the structure of the DSS in the oil industry is not
different from the structures of systems used in other domains. Furthermore, they
explained that DSS offers a sequence of possible solutions in the descending order of
ranking, until the manager ranks several decisions by himself, as it does provide basic
characteristics of the possible grade scales and criteria weights of the selected solutions,
suitable to the manager ranking. The development of the ranking system was based on
familiar concepts from decision theory, specifically, multi-attribute models and the value
of information (Dyer et al., 1990). This was done to streamline the exploration teams of
geologists and geophysicist to oil and gas plays that are most potentially lucrative, based
on the budget.
Dependency of the IS – Operational, Strategic and infrastructural IS

The information systems create an indirect impact on operational (OP) performance

through supply chain practices, which results in OP in the form of reduction in number of
defects in operations, quality improvement in products, delivery of products or raw
material at right place, at right time and in right quantity (Modgil and Sharma, 2017).

Strategic Information Systems

The term Strategic means long term planning to achieve long term benefits (Turban et al.,
2006) although, some perceive it as the Plan of Action or Roadmap (Mintzberg, H. 1987)
without boxing it into any time frame. Since organizations around the world especially oil
and gas marketing companies, are in a continuous competitive environment (Arokodare
et al., 2020), there is a constant need strategic management information system. Strategic
information system is defined as the “information system that support or change the
enterprise’s strategy” (Hemmatfar, M., Salehi, M., & Bayat, M. 2010). The oil and gas
industry that is susceptible to dynamic policies and shock (Arokodare et al., 2020),
especially in Nigeria with a relatively slow response index to global technological
advancement.

Operational Information Systems

After the discovery of crude oil at Oloibiri, Bayelsa state, in 1956, the country’s revenue
shot up from N66mn in 1970 to N10bn only ten years after ( Atsegwasi, 2020). The industry
exploded exponentially in size and revenue, and so did the need for better operational
information systems.

Information Systems Infrastructure

IT infrastructure is the delivery by the information systems department of the core,

enabling IT services (Weill, 2003). He further explained the two distinct types of IT
infrastructure: Base infrastructure – which is the networks, data centre and non-specific IT
capacity; and shared systems – referring to the business systems that are provided
centrally for all business units in the company. The operational and strategic ISs display
some level of overlap while the infrastructural IS provides an enabling environment for
them to function.
 Information
System Types Functions
Operational Concerned with tracking basic day-to-day flows of business
activities and data
Strategic Identifies industrial trends to enable decision makers come up
novel methods and processes, or improve upon existing ones to
eliminate waste, manage inventory, improve client satisfaction,
increase productivity and raise profits.
Infrastructural Supplies the platform (hardware, software and people) upon which
the first two run.

For the exploration and production (E&P) sector of the oil and gas industry, they largely
depend on geographic information system. It provides precise, environmentally
conscious and non-invasive exploration process.