Managing information correctly is crucial for any industry. The Energy & Engineering (E&E) sector is no different. With changing oil prices and increasing regulatory and environmental pressures, information management is a powerful tool to keep operations lean, achieve compliance and mitigate the risk of unnecessary work, rework and financial losses.
As with most other industries, the E&E sector has been managing information the traditional way: choosing a Content Management platform, designing and implementing an object model (comprising object types, workflows, lifecycles, security model, retention policies, etc.) over and over again, varying only slightly, for each new project.
However, this industry has some key characteristics with the potential to transform Information Management solutions. For instance:
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The information model substantially repeats itself across different projects, since the operational and regulatory challenges are very similar.
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The communication between Engineering, Procurement and Construction (“EPC“) contractors and Owner-Operators usually happens in a standard way.
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The use of heavy file formats, such as AutoCAD, is commonplace.
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Rich document commenting functionalities are usually a requirement.
As a response, Content Management vendors are delivering a complete Information Management solution on top of their platforms. Experience has proven the value of this approach in other sectors, and it is particularly worthwhile for Energy & Engineering.
A complete solution delivers a template addressing these requirements. Initiating a new project can then be done in a matter of hours, instead of weeks. This saves important time during the project start since the application can be deployed at speed. Not to mention that the template reflects invaluable industry expertise.
This move among Content Management vendors is very welcome. As it evolves and matures, new sectors will be embraced. Such is the case with Life Sciences. It's an industry bound by similar characteristics (high regulation, well defined information lifecycle, etc.) for which there are complete IM products available in the market.
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