It was a furiously busy two days for the Field Squared team at the 2019 Esri Petroleum GIS Conference in Houston, Texas. We talked with many executives about the need to push for even higher levels of oil & gas field service efficiency, among a few other recurring topics.
In between the great conversation, live demos of our zero-effort integration to Esri ArcGIS and drawing the winner of our drone giveaway, we took notes to report back on the state of the industry. Here, we breakdown 3 key takeaways from the Esri Petroleum GIS Conference.
#1: Oil Field Service Software Adoption is Becoming a Top Priority
For all the companies we had the pleasure and great opportunity to interact with at the Esri Conference, a recurring theme was needing to make everything digital… overnight. Okay, so not overnight, but quickly.
Given the increasing acceleration to digital transformation we’ve heard from many of our own customers at Field Squared, it’s not a surprise; rather, reinforces the notion that software is becoming a major priority at many oil & gas services companies.
Based on our notes from the Conference, we categorized similar problems companies said they needed to address:
- Going Paperless – Work orders/jobs such as recurring environmental inspections and plant rounds must be digital forms that look exactly like their original paper versions
- Automate. Automate. Automate – Complex business processes in the oilfield need to be automated as much as possible (i.e., sharing pressure readings, compliance testing tasks, data collection, updating third-party systems).
- Real-Time Collaboration and Messaging – The number of times I heard this come up surprised us. The messaging wasn’t the surprise, but the collaboration aspect was. We talk to companies that maintain a highly distributed mobile workforce all the time and it’s a nice to have feature. Here, it seems oil & gas services businesses treat it like it’s a requirement. Luckily, Field Squared has real-time in-app collaboration and messaging capabilities to meet their needs.
#2: Efficiency, Safety AND Accuracy Are Top of Mind
It’s not news that oil & gas services companies pay strict adherence to compliance and safety regulations. The fines for non-compliance are hefty. That said, accuracy of data collected in the field came up in conversation on more than one occasion.
What we gleaned from this is you can have all the data in the world, but if it’s not accurate or you don’t use it right, it’s irrelevant. Accuracy can also mean all the difference when it comes to fine avoidance as well as contributing to safety in the field.
#3: GIS-Based Asset Management & Maintenance Can’t be an Afterthought
At the heart of the Esri Petroleum Conference was GIS. Today more than any other time in history, geospatial/geolocation data is having a moment in the spotlight.
In the realm of oil & gas field services, including maintenance of customer or internal assets is knowing the who, what, where, when and why of an asset. It’s clear GIS can’t be an afterthought for any company that maintains a field service workforce or assets (i.e., equipment, trucks, plants, pipes, towers).
It was clear from many conversations at our booth that oil & gas services companies are looking for a solution that uses a field technician’s GPS to identify when they are close to an Esri asset that needs auditing. Not all field service or asset management software has the capabilities to meet this need. Field Squared, on the other hand, can alert a technician that they need to capture asset attribute information, use Field Squared to capture the feature attribute(s), and then submit it to an automated approval workflow to update the Esri asset database.
With multiple review touchpoints to ensure accurate data is being entered into one’s Esri database, Field Squared gives companies the flexibility and control from a unified field service software solution.
Of course, we get the imperative of spatial data. We’ve talked about it in our infographic, 3 Undervalued Benefits of Spatial Field Service Data Analysis.
All in all, the Esri Conference was a great event and we highly recommend it to any oil & gas company looking to learn the latest and greatest happenings in the market, explore how technology is changing the landscape and gain insight on leveraging GIS in your own operations.
Thanks to the entire Esri events team for putting together one of the most impactful industry events we’ve ever been to! We can’t wait to see what’s in store next year and hope to meet with the Oil & Gas community then.
Learn more about our zero-effort integration to Esri ArcGIS in our 2-minute video.