Last week, I covered the pressing need for the oil and gas industry to start implementing data management to gain operational efficiencies and extract more value from all their assets. This week, I’d like to cover ways to go about implementing these ideals!
Real-Time, Field and Tracking Data
An exciting and growing aspect of business intelligence are newer types of data inputs. RFID tracking can automate asset history tracking, real-time data can drive decisions on the fly, and field data brings a better understanding of what’s going on on the ground to the corner office. Said Gary Lensing in the CIO.com article mentioned last week,
“An engineer in Houston can monitor drilling activity in West Africa, see an anomaly in how the drill bit sinks into the ocean floor and can send that data over satellite to a geoscientist in Houston, who can view the visualization and e-mail a recommendation on how to adjust the machines,”
This and other types of adjustments can account for faster time to market, fewer lost wells and even better documentation for compliance, safety and other issues.
“The ability for people on a platform to communicate with people in the home office and work on the same set of data means we can get more production done faster and more accurately. How you choose to analyze the data and the decisions you make—there’s your competitive advantage.”
The Impact of Business Intelligence
No one argues that oil isn’t one heck of a lucrative industry. And all those profits don’t come from good business intelligence practices alone. But it’s a powerful notion to run a company with the mind-set that virtually every employee is a data analyst. Says Lensing,
“Give people in any industry access to information along with tools to interpret the past, model the future and imagine different paths between the two, and they can change the trajectory of companies.”
We believe that information is the Oil and Gas industry’s next big unconventional play, and apparently we aren’t alone. Kim Nash of CIO Online states,” after oil, the best kind of gusher to discover and manage these days is data, and therefore profits, in real time.” In addition, when treating information as an asset, “there is no shortage of data points; the value is in interpretation.”
Accurate interpretation of highly relevant information is the key to making good decisions, which is why, without good BI, your company is risking their livelihood and the bottom line.
Read our case study here to find out how we helped one client improve their business intelligence capabilities with oil and gas software.