OREANDA-NEWS. November 13, 2009. Led by Natalia Borisenko, Head of the Information Analysis Systems Directorate of the Finance and Economics Department, a Gazprom delegation paid a working visit to Germany and France as part of the Company’s Informatization Strategy execution.

The delegation held a number of meetings with top managers of SAP AG and SAP Competence Centers of SUN Microsystems and IBM. During the meetings the parties exchanged opinions on the crucial issues with regard to introducing information technologies (IT), namely designing the appropriate hardware configuration for SAP Business Suite solutions, building data processing centers and providing support for maintenance and expansion of SAP applications and products.

Gazprom’s delegation also met with Gerhard Oswald, Member of SAP AG Executive Board. The parties discussed the cooperation deepening prospects and the issues of interaction within the Gazprom Informatization Strategy. Gerhard Oswald underlined that SAP AG leadership was highly interested in meeting the challenges faced by Gazprom as a global energy company relevant to introducing state-of-the IT solutions. The agreements were reached to arrange in Moscow a meeting between Andrey Kruglov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee – Head of the Finance and Economics Department of Gazprom and Leo Apotheker, Chief Executive Officer of SAP AG.

Working meetings were also held with top managers of BASF IT Services GmbH and Patrick Hereng, Chief Information Officer of Total. The participants exchanged experience in creating IT enterprise architecture, arranging IT control and interaction between IT services and business subdivisions. The parties were unanimous about the expediency of furthering the interaction in the crucial areas of IT introduction in large international energy companies.