We added a ton of items. Searchable mineral royalty ownership in Texas linked to wells (yes, we would do other states if they would release the tax data!), surface tract coverage, aerial photographs as layers, allocated production, map labeling, map-driven statistical histogramming (want to see the bell curve of average 24 month declines, anyone?), and dozens of new counties for our mineral tract and unit layers. The question remains, “Is it worth it?”
We spend a lot of money adding these items, but it is hard to tell, in a bundled pricing model, whether people really care about these items, or any others for that matter. It is such an all-encompassing product, and people use such small pieces of it that if we cut one minor thing, I can be guaranteed that 1 or 2 or 3 dozen people would holler. I’ve got some ideas on how we can internally value these items, but am still working out the details.
Adding features or data is like drilling a well. It may be popular, it may not ever pay out , or it could be a dry hole. Fortunately, we only have a couple of “dry holes” that never saw the light of day, but we do have plenty of head-scratchers.
I think I will cover each of the major items we did in 2009 here and give a rationale of why we did them… Stay tuned.
Allen Gilmer
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