Bringing millennials on board
ENERTIA WANTS TO CREATE AN IMPROVED USER EXPERIENCE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF OIL AND GAS PLAYERS
EDITOR'S NOTE: The board of Enertia Software recently named Vince Dawkins as its new president and CEO. He has been with Enertia for seven years and was formerly director of special projects and business intelligence for the Texas-based provider of business analysis and enterprise solutions for the upstream oil and gas industry. OGFJ's Don Stowers spoke with Dawkins recently at the company's office in downtown Houston. The company also has offices in Calgary, Denver, Midland, Dallas, and two in Oklahoma.
OIL & GAS FINANCIAL JOURNAL: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us today, Vince. Can you tell our readers a little about your background?
VINCE DAWKINS: Sure. I'm originally from Chicago and went to school in North Carolina. I graduated from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 2000 with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering. Between 1998 and 2008, I worked with several industry-leading organizations, including Amoco/BP, Accenture, David Powers, and EAG Solutions. I joined Enertia in August 2008 as a senior business analyst and contributed to the design, development, and implementation of an enterprise application for upstream oil and gas producers. Since joining Enertia, I have been part of a team that has helped turn the Enertia application into a resource currently used by more than 150 leaders in the upstream oil and gas industry.
OGFJ: What is Enertia's market niche? Who are your clients, and what does your company offer them that they can't get elsewhere?
DAWKINS: Our clients range from mid-tier to large independent E&P companies. Our key benefits include being a fully integrated software solution that is flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of companies. We offer a solution for the accounting, land and production departments. We have an industry experienced support staff that is eager to assist our clients.
OGFJ: How does software technology for upstream oil and gas software compare to software technology for other industries? Is it ahead of the curve in terms of technology, or does it lag behind?
DAWKINS: Upstream oil and gas software has fallen behind on the technology curve. As the industry deals with both new regulations and technological changes, we have been forced to incorporate updates, but new advances are not driven by innovation because the industry as a whole focuses on the technology of extraction over the technology that provides analysis. This technology is just as important, if not more, since it influences bottom lines, provides efficiencies, and helps mitigate risk.
Like other companies, Enertia is guilty of this and we have fallen behind the curve of keeping ahead of technology BUT we are in a mode of catching up and getting in front of the curve. This evolution is necessary to be able to continue to reach the people who are currently on our system and being held accountable for key decision-making data. We have consciously decided we need to make things easier for them to use, while also presenting an improved user experience for the next generation of upstream oil and gas players. What do they call them - the millennials? They need to be able to relate to the systems they are faced with so they can analyze data. Communications need to flow like the social media they are familiar with. Doing this minimizes their learning curve and downtime for corporations. Reducing this learning curve is so critical for an industry that is still struggling with a generation gap.
OGFJ: Speaking of millennials, one of their new terms is IoT - the Internet of Things. What does this mean for oil and gas operators?
DAWKINS: Unfortunately, no one really talks about the Internet of Things in conjunction with oil and gas. The ability to get real-time information on any one of your devices, whether it be your laptop, tablet, smart phone, smart watch, or home PC is amazing technology. This is where the future of real-time data and what comes next is yet to be determined and discovered. Truly the Internet of Things allows you to be less concerned with the concept of real time and more about availability. Availability has become "now."
When we look at how the Internet of Things has helped other industries, we can take into consideration what it can and will do for oil and gas. An example of this is the medical industry, where the Internet of Things has helped save time, money, resources, and provides patient information to multiple doctors for quicker diagnosis. We could and should be using this same methodology in oil and gas. Real-time information can assist with discoveries and quicker decision making, saving millions.
I don't think the oil and gas industry has scratched the surface on devices that can collect and exchange data. As a software provider, we must innovate and come up with solutions that have fewer limitations than prior legacy systems and time constraints. Our way of thinking needs to come from outside of the box of traditional solutions. This means adapting newer technologies such as cloud computing and big data developments to our industry.
OGFJ: Big data is a big topic of conversation in many quarters. Companies have had high hopes for using big data analytics in ERP solutions, but many have had challenges in deploying it. Why is that?
DAWKINS: Big data is not new technology. There are many solutions for how data can be stored, retrieved, and presented. The oil and gas industry is thirsty for the next major technology to emerge before investing the time and resources involved in implementing such solutions. It's not the amount of data that's important but more what we are doing with it and what decisions are being made with it. This often requires alternative ways of thinking and analysis-'thinking outside the box'.
OGFJ: What are some steps that can be taken for upstream oil and gas software solutions to foster innovation and/or growth?
DAWKINS: Studying the industries that are on the brink of technology, such as manufacturing; bringing those scenarios, which we face in the oil and gas industry; and sourcing them to solve these problems keeps oil and gas software evolving; inviting technology leaders to review and look at the problems our clients face and asking them to use their experience with new expertise to solve oil and gas problems.
OGFJ: What are some of the problems that could be solved by application development?
DAWKINS: Based on client feedback, there is a need in the industry to gather more and more data, such as to-the-hour field metrics. Enertia has devised a solution based on this need with our offline data data capture (ODC) application allowing for smart device entry through any internet capable device, eliminating the need for hard connections and lost time between data gathering and data entry. What does that mean? Quicker analysis, quicker decisions, fewer mistakes - mistakes made from transferring information from one system to the next.
OGFJ: What will be the biggest challenge facing upstream oil and gas companies in the next 12 months?
DAWKINS: Market uncertainty and the ability to continue programs hampers our clients from their end goals...having a software solution that allows for increased efficiencies is critical in today's market. This presents decision makers with the tools and resources to make quick real-time decisions that minimize risk when the margin for error is much much smaller.
OGFJ: Final question. I can't let you go without asking you how your business has been affected by the industry downturn. I know some of your clients have been struggling to deal with the low-price environment, so how has this impacted Enertia?
DAWKINS: A lot of our clients were hedged against low prices through 2015, so we didn't see the immediate effects. However, the longer the downturn lasts, the more likely we will be impacted as a company. In past recessions, Enertia has turned inward and began focusing more on internal development and using our resources to improve our products and our processes. From our clients' perspective, we're obviously there to help them be as efficient as they can be. That's what we do. In difficult times, they ask us how they can become even more efficient, and we help show them ways of doing projects in the most efficient way possible. That's our focus.
OGFJ: Thanks again for your time today, Vince.