There was a time when companies used technology to drive efficiency and lower costs. But, in today’s economy, being efficient is no longer enough. Now, technology is used to drive innovation and propel companies past their competition.
Given the rapid advances in “cloud computing” over the past 5 years, people across the enterprise space have begun to choose online applications over traditional desktop software. And, many have seen great increases in revenue as new technologies have improved workflows and enabled ideas to spread more quickly throughout their organizations.
10 years ago, the idea of companies using applications like Gmail and Google Docs over traditional desktop email and word processors would have been anathema. However, with the advent of Facebook, Twitter and the whole world of Social Media, people have grown accustomed to dumping large amounts of data into online applications that never even had desktop software. As a result, a growing number of companies are embracing “the cloud” and utilizing tools like Salesforce.com.
Moving Traditional Software to Outside Services
The movement to “Software As A Service” (SaaS) has impacted the Information Technology (IT) world just as much as the Personal Computer (PC) did businesses ‒ only at a much faster pace. The PC took several years, even decades, to make transformational changes in the marketplace. But, SaaS applications and cloud-based solutions have made significant waves in just a few short years. Many industries are already using SaaS applications for their back office systems.
One particularly interesting vertical that recently made the switch is real estate. For years, agents staunchly refused to believe things would change. However, given that Realtors live on the road showing homes, it was only a matter of time before solutions built around their mobile lifestyle emerged. Software companies saw the hole in the market and rushed in with products like the Real Estate Cloud and Real Estate Assistant. Today, the vast majority of real estate applications are web-based and heavily mobile. In fact, there are no major desktop software developers left in the industry.
Whether you are talking Pandora and Spotify for music streaming, Netflix for movie viewing, or Dropbox for storage, the cloud is growing, and it’s growing fast. If you need more proof, just look at the recent announcement that Google passed Microsoft’s market value. This wouldn’t have happened if the web wasn’t taking the PC to the woodshed.
What About Oil & Gas?
Our industry is seeing innovation on this front, but many are still using desktop software. Veterans of the industry feel this won’t change in the near future, but there are a growing number of people who think very differently. Drillinginfo, in particular, is doing a lot of work in this area that is sure to disrupt the marketplace.
But, the movement beyond the desktop is something we have to decide as an industry. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, we have come to a fork in the road, and either way, we have to take it. We can follow real estate’s lead and fight the digital, social and mobile revolution. However, even if we choose that path, there is no doubt we will eventually be forced to follow their lead in making it our own. Because, if technology has taught us anything, it is that change is inevitable and it applies to everyone.
What do you think? Is it time for the Oil & Gas industry to move beyond the desktop? Leave a comment below.
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Good heavens, YES! I am new to the industry, and the level of willing to move to complete online documentation is astounding to me, especially when it is actually more secure of an environment when done properly. Work is done much more effieciently and more easy to track. What I would give to be able to do certified digital signatures on contracts, and have them purely updated through editable PDF’s and then locked in place with certified signatures. To be able to have real time updates from people in the field that maybe have an iPad that they can put well information on that would automatically go to who needs to see it, vs. sending out mass reports with too much information in them that I have to sift through and run reports on to get just a handful of information. It’s all such a time waste. My director asked me what exacty I did (very kindly) and I sat and thought about it, and what I wanted to say was “I look for information all day and try to find out who knows what so that I can get this little peice of informaiton that i need…” so frustrating. And trying to explain to the knowledgeable but stuck in “paper-time” people how technology helps you do work faster and reference faster, like being able to just highlight a PDF document instead of prinitng it and then highlighting and always having to refer back to that instead of the e-file doc, they just don’t get it. It’s a different way of thinking.
It definitely is a different way of thinking, Heather. We’re doing everything we can to push the envelope forward. Hopefully, between our efforts and the rapidly-changing world around us, you’ll get the solutions you need to work more efficiently sooner than later. Thanks for reading!
I agree that cloud computing is here to stay. However; getting veterans of the industry to trust it is something that will be a long time coming. We do asset management, digital scanning, storage, conversion, filing and records management. This is right up our alley. We even offer various software products that accommodate cloud storage. We have domestic and foreign customers.
Here’s the rub.
So far we haven’t had one single company embrace the idea of storing their data in a cloud environment. E&P executives are skeptical for valid reasons. Simply Google for: “Cloud hacked” or “cloud storage was hacked”. The search results return with pages upon pages of horror stories. We’ve had executive do this very thing and tell us flat out: “No way”.
So far, the security track record hasn’t been acceptable.
It’s an uphill battle, that’s for sure Ronald. Especially with all the headlines from Dropbox and friends. But, I think there is a direct correlation between trust and adoption. As more vendors within our vertical move to this line of thinking, and their clients follow suite, the more people will trust the methodology. Unfortunately, for early adopters like ourselves, we have to trudge the long, hard road of building that bridge. But, even though it is an election year, I don’t believe this one is a “bridge to nowhere.”
Interesting post and comments! I’m going to be tackling mobility and the cloud tomorrow in Houston with colleagues in the energy industry as part of the Boxworld Tour. A key success criteria as noted below is to choose your cloud application vendors carefully if security and confidentiality are important. Cloud companies like Salesforce, Workday, Netsuite, Jira and Box are demonstrating what it means to be enterprise ready and secure.
Heather is your company late to adopt such a service or is the problem that you haven’t found a software solution to the problems you mentioned?
I realize that the industry is slow to adopt cloud computing and social computing paradigms but is there a place where you can find out what is going on with mobility applications, what apps are out there and who is using them for what purpose? I have a client getting interested in mobility for drilling operations and want to know about the current landscape.