Oil and Gas

I want to thank the AIIM Oil and Gas Sig for allowing me to present information about the latest ECM tools allowing integration with GIS and Structured data to allow better access to unstructured content.

You will find my presentation at:  http://prezi.com/okvnl8nuz9oc/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share 

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Brad Nickle, Sr.
Executive Vice President
The Strickland Group
Fort Worth TX
(817)338-0800 (101)

bnickle@...
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One of the great questions from the first session was regarding the implementation of taxonomy that can be implemented with systems of record (structured data) and ECM's (Unstructured Content).

We have had success using information from the PPDM and their training materials with regard to Life Cycle of a Well and What is a Well to develop a common language which can be used in the oil and gas space.  In particular, the PPDM's work on Well Status and Classification is particularly good with their development of Well Facets. 

The latest ECM's will allow you to either configure the meta data taxonomy to be pulled from a implemented system of record, or to be custom built and entered into the ECM itself.

Thanks,

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Brad Nickle, Sr.
Executive Vice President
The Strickland Group
Fort Worth TX
(817)338-0800 (101)
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Brad,

thank you very much for your presentation that showed us how two different worlds (unstructured and structured information) can be joined up for oil & gas companies. When you implemented this in the case study you mentioned, what were the main issues that you had to address?

And did you find out whether the employees were able to cut down on search time after this was implemented?

Thanks,

Dennie
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Dennie Heye
Business Analyst Information Management
Royal Dutch Shell
The Hague
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Dennie,

 Great Questions....Let me tackle them one at a time:

 Question 1 "When you implemented this in the case study you mentioned, what were the main issues that you had to address?"

1. The first was purging their file system of multiple copies of the same document.  We scanned the entire network hard drive and used de-duplication tools so that we could identify multiple copies of files.  This way we assured that we would not load the database with multiple copies of the same file.  The unique thing about using BLOB database technology is the check in and check out procedure that ensure that there is ONLY ONE copy of the truth in the form of documents.  This what makes structured data so valuable...one version of the truth.  Thus we want to do the same with unstructured data.
2. The second major project was the determination with in each discipline, what was the system of record that was going to be used for each property used by the ECM.  This is the same exercise that you go through when implementing Master Data Management.  Thus information like Unique Well Identifier, Kelly Bushing Level, Date of first production. all these properties have to be associated with a system of record which is determined to be the source of Truth for the organization.  Proper Implementation of the PPDM makes this much easier.  
3. The building of the meta data schema for each department is very important.  It is key to get the user's of data (often by scientific discipline) to think about finding data based on WHAT IT IS, not where I put it.  Thus we found it beneficial to provide much more meta data via the query to systems of record than what was found in their file folder structure.  Assisting the user's through this paradigm change is key.
4. To ensure quick adoption with the user community, we were able to implement ECM by functional area.  Our strategy was to build on a series of small successes.  This proved to work very well as the "Word" through the grapevine spread that the ECM solution was successful.  Pretty soon we had work group asking if they could be next!  The key is not to introduce new technology at a rate faster than the organization could handle it.

There are many more items that I could talk about but I don't want this post to go too long.

Question 2 "And did you find out whether the employees were able to cut down on search time after this was implemented?"

 Absolutely...One of the biggest success stories was getting the organization out of what I call Spreadsheet Hell.  This is where there are 25 copies of the same spreadsheet...with maybe slight modifications, and no one knows which is the right copy.  In an organization, it is not unusual to fine on the average 18 copies of the same spreadsheet found on desktops, in file system and embedded in emails.  With one version of the spreadsheet there is no question about its correctness.  Hyperlinks built into the ECM means that user's can pass around a link in the email to the one and only copy of the document.

Although no formal metrics were establish, the ability of the user's to develop custom views, and use standard views like "Recently accessed documents" and the implementation of Work Flows resulted in everyone being able to find information much more effectively and rapidly.  The gains were so obvious, that management did not feel it was necessary to even embark on some type of measuring process for ROI.  The industry standard as noted from IDC is more than a 400% ROI with in five years for ECM adoptees.  

Thanks,

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Brad Nickle, Sr.
Executive Vice President
The Strickland Group
Fort Worth TX
(817)338-0800 (101)
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