Thriving in the Digital Oilfield – Part 1: IT Mission Impossible
By Brad Hext, Information Technology Service Manager at Stonebridge Consulting
The digital oilfield didn’t happen overnight. Like a physical gathering system, the digital pipelines and software ecosystems that define the information landscape of most E&Ps have been built up over time. The result is a complex and ever evolving digital oilfield highly tailored to the unique business context of an oil & gas company, supporting dozens of E&P workflows with real time SCADA, big datasets, vast volumes of unstructured data and documents (think well files and land records), and myriad point solutions for accounting, lease administration, production ops, and regulatory. Managing all of this is a monumental task but chances are, your information technology management staff are overwhelmed by the size and complexity of the digital oilfield assets they now find under their management.
Like most E&Ps, your IT department is understaffed, and they are bogged down in tactical administrative tasks. In fact, 65% of IT directors report that routine operational maintenance is the #1 constraint for in-house strategic initiatives and innovation. And innovation is where their attention needs to be, enabling your team to keep pace with market dynamics and incorporate the latest technologies. All too often though, managing the digital oilfield is an impossible mission for IT. They need help.
Stonebridge SmartSource assists energy companies large and small with managing digital oilfield complexity. Our fractionalized resources support your existing workforce rather than completely outsourcing your IT operations. Unlike typical managed IT service providers, SmartSource backs your team with deep oil & gas industry expertise, freeing up your IT staff to be more strategic and increasing productivity.
Leave the heavy lifting to the SmartSource managed services team who focuses on tier 1 through tier 3 level support issues. As a result, your internal IT staff are empowered to remain focused on top priority support tasks and projects.
Over the next few blog posts I’ll delve into more of the benefits that IT workforce support can drive in your organization, including database administration and troubleshooting, supporting oil & gas specific software systems, and the financial predictability that comes with managed IT services. Stay tuned!
About the Author
By Brad Hext, Information Technology Service Manager at Stonebridge Consulting