Engagement Overview

Six Years Transforming Contract Management & BI Across Canada's Oil Sands

Cenovus Energy is one of Canada's largest integrated oil and natural gas companies, operating significant oil sands assets in northern Alberta and conventional operations across western Canada. Capital project management at this scale — managing contracts, purchase orders, cost actuals, and supplier invoices across dozens of simultaneous construction and maintenance projects — demands enterprise-grade systems and data integration that can match operational complexity.

Shabih's engagement with Cenovus spanned two connected phases. The first, from 2012 to 2015, was through Accenture as Business Analyst and Data Conversion Analyst on the Cenovus account — designing and implementing Contracts Management solutions using Oracle BI Reporting and Publisher, consolidating AFEs, contracts, purchase orders, vouchers, receipts, and invoices into a unified system. The second phase, from 2016 to 2018, was directly at Cenovus Energy as Sr. Business Analyst on the Supply Chain Management Transformation (SCMT) program — architecting an 8-feed data integration between Maximo and Oracle Contract Management that reduced monthly reconciliation from weeks to 2–3 hours.

Context: Cenovus operates capital projects in some of Canada's most demanding environments — remote oil sands sites with complex contractor interfaces, high-value contracts, and strict financial reporting requirements. The cost of manual data management at this scale wasn't just inefficiency — it was material risk. Errors in contract reconciliation on a multi-billion dollar capital program carry real financial and compliance consequences.

Engagement Phases

Two Roles · Two Organisations · One Continuous Mission

Phase 1
Accenture / Cenovus Energy
Sep 2012 – Sep 2015 · 3 Years

Business Analyst and Data Conversion Analyst on the Cenovus account — designing a comprehensive Contracts Management solution using Oracle BI Reporting and Publisher. Consolidated management of AFEs, contracts, purchase orders, standard vouchers, receipts, and invoices into a unified, queryable system for the Project Controls department.

Phase 2
Cenovus Energy (Direct)
Apr 2016 – Nov 2018 · 2.5 Years

Sr. Business Analyst on the Supply Chain Management Transformation (SCMT) program — implementing Oracle Contract Management across all oil sands projects, and architecting an 8-feed bidirectional data integration with Maximo that automated the entire monthly contract reconciliation cycle and saved 40–50 hours per week for Cost Engineers.

Before vs. After

What Changed

40–50 hrs
Manual extraction / week
→
0 hrs
Fully automated
Weeks
Monthly reconciliation time
→
2–3 hrs
Automated cycle
Access / Excel
Legacy data sources
→
Oracle CM
Single source of truth
Manual
Maximo ↔ Oracle sync
→
8 Live Feeds
Bidirectional integration
Work Timeline

Sep 2012 – Nov 2018 · Six Years

Sep 2012 — Accenture / Cenovus · Phase 1 Start
Contracts Management Solution Design
Engaged as Business Analyst on the Cenovus account through Accenture. Began designing the Contracts Management solution for the Project Controls department — mapping the full contract lifecycle from AFE approval through to invoice processing, and identifying the data structures needed to consolidate everything into Oracle BI.
2013–2014 — Oracle BI Implementation
Oracle BI Reporting & Publisher Build-Out
Designed and implemented Oracle BI Reporting and Publisher templates consolidating AFEs, contracts, POs, standard vouchers, receipts, and invoices into a single unified reporting system for Cenovus Project Controls. Cost Engineers gained for the first time a single, queryable view of all contract financial data across the portfolio.
2014–2015 — Data Conversion
System & Data Conversion Analysis
Took on the Data Conversion Analyst role — responsible for analysing legacy data structures across Cenovus's existing systems, defining conversion mapping rules, and validating data quality through the migration of historical contract and cost records into the new Oracle environment.
Apr 2016 — Cenovus Direct · Phase 2 Start
Supply Chain Management Transformation (SCMT) Program
Joined Cenovus Energy directly as Sr. Business Analyst on the SCMT program. The mandate: implement Oracle Contract Management across all oil sands projects and eliminate the 40–50 hours per week Cost Engineers were spending on manual data extraction from Microsoft Access and Excel legacy systems.
2016–2017 — Oracle CM Implementation
Oracle Contract Management Across All Oil Sands Projects
Designed and implemented Oracle Contract Management across Cenovus's complete oil sands capital project portfolio — configuring the system to automate cost reporting, eliminating manual extraction from Access/Excel, and providing Cost Engineers with always-current contract cost visibility.
2017–2018 — Maximo Integration
8-Feed Maximo ↔ Oracle Integration Architecture
Architected and built an 8-feed bidirectional data integration between IBM Maximo and Oracle Contract Management — mapping hundreds of fields across both systems covering AFEs, Contracts, Purchase Orders, Standard Vouchers, Receipts, Invoices, Cost Actuals, and Commitments. Monthly reconciliation dropped from several weeks to 2–3 hours.
Nov 2018 — Close
SCMT Program Complete
SCMT program objectives fully delivered — Oracle CM live across all projects, 8-feed Maximo integration operational, and 40–50 hours per week of Cost Engineer manual effort permanently eliminated. Monthly reconciliation reduced from weeks to 2–3 hours, with Oracle CM established as the single source of truth for all contract financials.
Key Deliverables

What Was Delivered Across Both Phases

☁️

Oracle Contract Management Implementation

Full Oracle CM deployment across all Cenovus oil sands projects — replacing manual Access/Excel extraction with an always-current automated cost management system.

✅ 40–50 hrs/week recovered for Cost Engineers
🔌

8-Feed Maximo Integration

Architected a bidirectional 8-feed integration between IBM Maximo and Oracle CM mapping hundreds of fields across AFEs, contracts, POs, vouchers, receipts, invoices, actuals, and commitments.

✅ Monthly reconciliation: weeks → 2–3 hours
📊

Oracle BI Reporting & Publisher

Designed and built comprehensive Oracle BI reporting and Publisher templates consolidating all contract financial data types into a unified, queryable reporting system.

✅ Single view across AFEs, contracts, POs, invoices
🗄️

Data Conversion & Migration

Analysed legacy data structures, defined conversion mapping rules, and validated quality through migration of historical contract and cost records into the new Oracle environment.

✅ Clean historical data in Oracle from day one
🔄

Agile / Scrum SCMT Delivery

Managed project schedules and team tasks using Agile/Scrum methodology throughout the SCMT program — ensuring structured sprint-based delivery aligned to business priorities.

✅ On-time delivery across all SCMT sprints
📋

Contract Lifecycle Unification

Consolidated management of AFEs, contracts, purchase orders, standard vouchers, receipts, and invoices into a single Oracle system — replacing a fragmented multi-tool landscape.

✅ Six document types unified into one system
Full Scope of Work
Oracle Contract Management
IBM Maximo Integration
8-Feed Data Architecture
Oracle BI Reporting
Oracle BI Publisher
AFE Management
PO & Invoice Tracking
Data Conversion Analysis
Requirements Analysis
Agile / Scrum Delivery
Field Mapping (100s)
Cost Reporting Automation
SQL Data Modelling
Supply Chain Transformation
Stakeholder Management
Process Optimisation
Technology Stack
☁️Oracle Contract Management 🔧IBM Maximo 📊Oracle BI Reporting 📄Oracle BI Publisher 🔌8-Feed Data Integration 🗄️SQL 🔄Agile / Scrum 💰AFE & Cost Management 📋Contract Lifecycle Mgmt
Engagement Outcomes
✅
40–50 hours per week permanently recovered for Cost Engineers — manual extraction from Microsoft Access and Excel eliminated entirely, replaced by always-current Oracle CM visibility.
✅
Monthly contract reconciliation from weeks to 2–3 hours — the 8-feed Maximo integration automated a process that previously consumed most of Finance's monthly cycle.
✅
Oracle CM established as the single source of truth — all contract financials across Cenovus's oil sands capital projects portfolio now in one authoritative system.
✅
Six contract document types unified — AFEs, contracts, purchase orders, standard vouchers, receipts, and invoices all consolidated into a single Oracle BI reporting environment.
✅
8-feed bidirectional Maximo integration built and live — hundreds of fields mapped across both systems, handling every major contract cost data type in real time.
✅
Clean historical data from day one — data conversion analysis and quality validation ensured legacy contract records were accurately migrated into the new Oracle environment without data debt.