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The collaborative power of IT leads industry transformation

Schlumberger, Houston, Texas, U.S.

Corresponding author: shanley@houston.geoquest.slb.com

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

The rapid proliferation of new acronyms over the last 10 years—email, e-business, e-commerce—to describe the emerging electronic and Internet-related aspects of the business world speak to the phenomenal pace of change that is occurring in businesses worldwide. The oil and gas industry in particular faces mounting pressures to "keep up with the pace"—that is, to meet the expected demand for energy, while consistently improving operational, financial, and social/environmental results to please all stakeholders.

This is a difficult task for an industry that has been inherently cyclical and functionally compartmentalized. Yet, it is meeting the challenge by creating and applying a new business model. An information-centered business economy (iEconomy) is being created that leverages information technologies (IT) to conduct business in a way that dissolves the traditional downsides of time, distance, limited personnel, remote locations, and diverse specialties and interests, among others.

An iEconomy is not created incrementally. Rather, it requires a quantum shift in the way business is conducted. Thus oil companies are increasingly seeking out and relying on technology and information solutions partners to support their global transformation. Leading-edge software, hardware, and information technologies that meet the specific needs of the oil and gas domain with all its permutations and nuances are being combined into fit-for-purpose solutions that enhance an operator's ability to perform its core functions and contribute to the bottom line.

	IT: services to vision, inhouse to outsourced

 
While the trend toward electronically integrating E&P disciplines began several decades ago, few could imagine a time in which information technologies would be so advanced that secure global, real-time data acquisition, transfer, processing, management, integration, analysis, and decision-making would be possible. Nor was a fundamental shift in the industry's business model predictable—particularly not one driven by IT. Yet, constant market pressure and time have caused the professional workforce to dwindle in numbers and be spread thinly . . . [Full Text of this Article]