Leading energy company becomes first Infor SunSystems Cloud customer to go live, benefitting from enhanced security, speed and scale

Infor®, the industry cloud company, today announced that independent energy company, Gulfsands, has deployed Infor SunSystems Cloud as its financial platform via Infor Gold Channel Partner Progressive TSL. Gulfsands, as the first customer to be live on the multi-tenant cloud financial application, is already seeing benefits via increased security, reduced risk, and improved functionality and performance. The smaller IT footprint as a result of the multi-tenant model will minimise administration and task duplication, enabling easier, more consistent access across the world and a sharper and more informed focus on its core business goals, as well as eliminating the environmental impacts of maintaining an in-house IT infrastructure.

As part of a programme to modernise and digitalise its core systems, Gulfsands selected Infor SunSystems Cloud, having been a long-standing SunSystems user.  As an independent, public energy company with a growth strategy, having a robust platform from which to support its potential, scale and business expansion is crucial, as is the ability to handle the varying currency, taxation and legislative demands of a wider geographic reach.

The leading energy company, which is London based but recently opened an office in Abu Dhabi to help with its focus on the Middle East and North Africa region, opted for cloud deployment to take advantage of having no physical servers, with reduced risk, cost and improved security as a result, as well as the updated functionality and capabilities in the latest version of SunSystems. The cloud also delivers a much easier way of supporting an increasingly dispersed workforce. Users can now access the system seamlessly from wherever they are in the world, which will be a huge benefit as they scale.

Andrew Morris, Finance Director, Gulfsands, commented:
“Having been a long-standing user of Infor SunSystems and having moved our other core systems to the cloud, we are incredibly excited to be the first customer to go live with Infor SunSystems Cloud.

The deployment has surpassed our expectations, and was delivered on time and on budget. We are already seeing the benefits of speed of access and the improved security environment.

The collaborative approach taken across the three project teams at Infor, Progressive and Gulfsands, has allowed us to navigate obstacles pragmatically and quickly, while familiarity with the system has enabled our users to get on board much faster. The entire process has been so much smoother than we anticipated, and we are confident that we have the best system in place to support us as we get ready to scale-up our business.

Progressive TSL has supported us since 2013, providing in-depth experience and expertise from across the energy sector, in particular in oil & gas. Their approach is patient, pragmatic and consultative, and they’ve genuinely been a trusted partner in our quest to modernise and future-proof our business through deployment of the very best digital capabilities”

Joe Vargas, VP & General Manager of Infor SunSystems, said:
“We’re delighted to welcome Gulfsands as our first Infor SunSystems customer to embrace the benefits of a full cloud deployment. So much more than a modern accounting system, Infor SunSystems Cloud delivers improved collaboration, security and a lower total cost of ownership that puts this energy leader in the best position from which to pursue its expansion and scale the business.”

Chris Walcot, CEO, Progressive TSL, added:
“Powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Infor SunSystems Cloud provides added confidence from both a risk and security perspective, delivering resilient, world-class advanced cloud infrastructure in combination with modern, international financial capabilities. We’re delighted to be working closely with Infor to deliver these capabilities to our customers, and look forward to seeing Gulfsands embrace these to fulfil its potential in the coming years.”

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Progressive TSL