We get a lot of inquiries about what oil & gas workflows look like in Fieldshare. Fortunately, this is something we love talking about. And it’s the right question to be asking: after all, how a software will impact your day-to-day tasks and ability to access information (your workflow) is both the most important and the most difficult quality to assess when you’re shopping around.

First, let’s take a quick look at how Fieldshare is set up as oil and gas data management software.

Fieldshare: oil & gas data management software setup

Fieldshare is designed to operate like a 3-dimensionalspreadsheet.

Most of our clients are used to slicing and dicing data in excel, but are frustrated by their inability to pull in new data streams, or to cut through information in a new direction, without a LOT of manual entry. For example, a project manager may keep a master spreadsheet of all jobsites with sub-sheets to track daily activities and costs for each individual project. That allows him or her to add costs quickly, but what happens when they need to pull up a set of data from across 10-20 jobsites for a particular date range? A lot of copying and pasting, that’s what. Fieldshare links all that data together, so you can take a cross section of multiple spreadsheets, and even data types, to pull up a pool of information with costs, images, maps, forms, and reports based on your criteria.

But with that in mind, let’s take a look at a few common oil and gas workflows. You can get a more complete view of Fieldshare’s oil and gas software here.

Fieldshare for incident management in oil & gas

Good incident management first involves quick and convenient incident reporting for field staff, and then providing back-end tools to draw useful conclusions out of the collected data. That first part can be a challenge, but it’s the second part where people really get stuck.

Fieldshare’s incident management workflows start with convenience for the field worker. That means options of mobile or desktop entry, online or offline. And it means very direct navigation to safety forms. When an incident occurs, fieldworkers don’t have to spend time searching for the right place to upload the information, nor are they tempted to fill out a form and file it correctly later. Rather, much of the information needed to correctly file the safety incident information is gathered and filled automatically by Fieldshare, tied to the user, site, location, date, and type of work being performed.

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Then, when it comes time to draw reports and conclusions from the data, the data is clean and complete. Fieldshare implements good data governance principles right from the beginning, by tying incidents together with the overall context of the project. In Fieldshare, you can use spreadsheet-like filters to pull out custom EHS reports, check on incident follow-up, and ensure regulatory compliance.

You can learn more about Fieldshare’s integrated incident management templates here.

Workflow management for reclamation and remediation

Rec/rem workflows have historically been a challenge to manage because the variety and volume of data defies most software structures. Project managers are left to their own devices, and often have to come up with custom spreadsheet-based systems to manage their own portfolios.

In Fieldshare, once again data input looks very similar to a spreadsheet-based workflow. There are a few improvements, where you can fill out information directly from the field or have forms automatically digest into several spreadsheet views, but the real gains come when it’s time to use the data. Planning, accruals, status monitoring, and file management all become much easier.

For example, remediation accruals outside Fieldshare often present a problem when a major cost overrun is hard to track down. In a spreadsheet, it’s impossible to tell where numbers came from, or to check if there’s been a mistake, without manually searching out and checking invoices and field tickets that are stored in a different system. In Fieldshare, on the other hand, when you see an unusual cost, the relevant supporting documentation is linked. Invoices and field tickets and map markup are all right there. Context solves accrual mysteries nine times out of ten.

Monitoring project status or tasks similarly comes with rich context. In Fieldshare, if you filter down to Phase II projects with overdue tasks, you can also quickly identify the source of delays, and get a leg up on correcting them.

You can learn more about Fieldshare’s tools for managing reclamation data here.

Fieldshare for ARO planning

One of the biggest challenges with ARO planning is how much the physical location of not only your own jobsites, but other neighboring work, impacts the cost of asset retirement. Portfolio managers in charge of creating the ARO plan for the year benefit greatly from Fieldshare’s visual planning tools. Our asset map allows planners to find huge cost saving opportunities that would be hidden in a spreadsheet.

Aspenleaf Energy recently did a case study with us on the impact Fieldshare has had on their ARO planning.

Learning more and getting started

Improving data management for your oil and gas sites doesn’t have to start with buying software. Instead, you can start with an audit of the types of data and different users that are involved. Is your organization ready for a more integrated system? Talk to us and find out more. We’re happy to point you in the right direction.

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