Profits vs. Cash Flow?

There are many people such as myself. Particularly those that read this blog that agree that the manner in which the oil and gas producers are operated by the bureaucracies has to change. That profitability, in what can only be described as a mature industry, is the only responsible manner and priority to proceed from this point forward. I understand the desire to trade on multiples of cash flow. It happens in most industries when the businesses need to be built and the industry is young and is at the beginning of a long and hopefully prosperous future. The need to invest in the business fuels the demand for capital and the metric that is used to determine a healthy business is a multiple of cash flow. To be using that today in the oil and gas industry I think is as a result of the bureaucracy having the luxury of sitting on its hands, unchallenged, for so long that they think they can get away with it.

It used to be that I was the only one that thought that profits should be of concern. When I raised the point I was usually derided as not understanding the way in which the industry operated. I assured them that I knew how the industry operated. Knowing what we know today, and the fact that the decentralized production model provides the oil and gas producer with the ability to become a price maker. Who can argue that profits should not be the deciding factor in determining what should be produced? Today the bureaucrats don't have a leg to stand on in terms of arguing the point about profits, if they ever had.

I have to say that we have come a long way in making the arguments of having the Preliminary Specification implemented in the oil and gas industry. What was a chance in a million in 2004, albeit a significant threat, is now something that is under reasonable consideration by many like minded people. What was just an idea is now a defined business model for the innovative and profitable producer, the user community, the service providers, the app marketplace and lets not forget the effect it will have on the service industry as well. What we have is a budget and a plan as to when this will be put in place and how it will be funded. What we are going to do is offer the investors and the progressive producers the opportunity to fund this environment and build this alternative means of organization for them to manage their assets. An alternative means or organization to manage their assets based on the profits they can make in the mature oil and gas industry.

To suggest that the oil and gas industry needs to be “built-up” by investors in order to realize the value that exists in the shale reserves is a story that I don't think anyone is going to buy. I think the investors have been told many times that they were needed to move the industry just a little bit further and a little bit further too many times in the past. The story isn't selling. The bureaucracy needs the investors money in order to pad their pensions and add to their summer cabins. What the investors may have already realized is that the game was fixed from the beginning and they were mark. What they should quickly realize now is that, since they realized that they were the dupe, is that those dishonest players are going to take their cards and move to another scam. That is the bureaucrats are going to realize that their ability to play the investor for the fool is over and move on to another industry.

Therefore, the investor is going to need someone to manage their assets as the bureaucrats are going to be high tailing it out of here faster than you can say “where is a cop when you need one?” And that has to be this community, consisting of the Preliminary Specification, user community, service providers, app marketplace and all that we have discussed here. Its been 10 years since we started this and many things have happened to take this from one chance in a million to who knows what our odds are today. But if we keep at it and keep building like we have, we just might be the ones that the investors find that they can rely on. I’m certainly betting on it.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. People, Ideas & Objects Revenue Model specifies the means in which investors can participate in these user defined software developments. Users are welcome to join me here. Together we can begin to meet the future demands for energy. And don't forget to join our network on Twitter @piobiz anyone can contact me at 403-200-2302 or email here. 

A View From the Prototypical App Marketplace Developer

We recently announced that we had added the “app marketplace” to our offering. The app marketplace is designed to provide a service level offering of mobile applications to the people working within the oil and gas industry and the producers themselves. The division of labor would be that People, Ideas & Objects would focus on the industrial elements of the application needs of the producers and users in the industry. And the app marketplace developers would provide the industry with the mobile applications that can be of use and value to the users and producers in the industry. We would provide the app marketplace with access to our data model, an Application Programming Interface (API) and from there they would be able to develop these mobile applications. Stating this however does not preclude People, Ideas & Objects from having our features and functionality being delivered in a mobile environment.

In terms of the view of a prototypical developer in the app marketplace. Just as we have taken a rearward looking perspective on the producers, service providers and user communities activities this week. Today I want to look back from the future of what it might be like for an app marketplace developer. Gaining a perspective on how things may have developed.

You have always been employed in the oil and gas industry working on ERP systems development and deployment. These big systems have always provided a healthy lifestyle, however you also like to dabble in the technologies that were developing on the edge of the Information Technology frontier. Now with the early retirement offer and the proliferation of the app marketplaces for phones and tablets taking off in general, and one being developed for oil and gas, there was little choice really. Sure there are only a few hundred oil and gas companies, but there are well over 12 million people employed in the oil and gas industry. That is a large enough market that your ideas could be recognized and be reflected in a material sales volume.

Now that was a few years ago and I have three applications that have achieved commercial success. They are fairly simple applications but the users really appreciate their value. We continue to work on them to improve them based on our user communities contributions with updates being populated to the users almost immediately. Software development was meant to be this productive and this much of a value add.

We also have a few new ideas for two new apps that we are planning to develop later this year. The level of innovation in the app marketplace is astounding with so many app developers providing so many applications to the users in oil and gas. But that hasn't stopped the level of innovation. If anything it has created a whole new standard and sub-industry of innovation within the industry. Although I’m retired I've never been so busy or focused on the work that I am doing.

One of the advantages of working within this app marketplace is that the work that you do is protected by the license with People, Ideas & Objects. When I publish my app in the marketplace it holds the marketplace as the exclusive app provider for the industry. There are no “me too” app developers to come along and steal your thunder. If they try, they are removed from the marketplace. This helps significantly in the revenue area where I can focus on my user community and invest in making the app the best that it can be. The users end up with the best application at the lowest cost, and are not provided with ten poorly made applications providing the same functionality. Everybody wins.

Things have certainly changed over the past few years. I find the work to be much more interesting and I think the users and producers are getting the information and applications that they really want and need. A far different structure in the industry, but one that is more productive and profitable for all concerned.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. People, Ideas & Objects Revenue Model specifies the means in which investors can participate in these user defined software developments. Users are welcome to join me here. Together we can begin to meet the future demands for energy. And don't forget to join our network on Twitter @piobiz anyone can contact me at 403-200-2302 or email here. 

Our App Marketplace

We now want to take some time to document the “apps marketplace” that we recently announced. What is the apps marketplace and why are we establishing this for the innovative and profitable oil and gas producer? Like the service providers, the developers within the app marketplace are providing services on a fee for service basis. Selling their applications to users and producers based on their needs. People, Ideas & Objects are expecting that the mobile applications that are needed will be provided by the app marketplace developers. That People, Ideas & Objects will be providing the infrastructure, process management, software development capability, the Preliminary Specification to solve the large issues of the industry. Such as the decentralized production model and the material balance report. While the app marketplace fills in the needs of the users and producers with the types of applications that are unique and innovative on the mobile platforms.

This division of labor between the mobile marketplace and the areas provided by People, Ideas & Objects give the innovative and profitable oil and gas producer the types of applications that they need. The app marketplace will be dynamic and entrepreneurial with only a license, Application Programming Interface (API) and data model provided by People, Ideas & Objects. These app marketplace developers will be driven by the issues and opportunities that they see in the oil and gas producer marketplace. Having their own revenue stream, they will be able to sell their products into the user marketplace that may total the full 12 million oil and gas professionals and several hundred producers.

Mobile computing is becoming more mainstream as we proceed through these Information Technology changes. It may be difficult to place something as complex as the Material Balance Report on a tablet device. Possibly we could provide it on a read only configuration. It is difficult to say at this point. Nonetheless these issues will be left to the user community to determine. The point that I am trying to make is that although we have left the mobile marketplace to the “app marketplace,” that does not preclude People, Ideas & Objects in providing our applications, reports, processes and functionality in a mobile configuration. What I see as the division of labor is the heavy industrial processing vs the lightweight processing of the purely mobile application providers.

Years ago we published a technical vision consisting of four cornerstone technologies. It still resides in this blogs history however it is not on the wiki. The four technologies that make up the technical vision are Java, what we call Asynchronous Process Management, IPv6 and Wireless. These technologies operate together to change the dynamic in any industry toward a new and more pronounced Information Technology infrastructure in the cloud computing era. They operate on the following basis. Java is a highly “typed” language. That means it is able to discern the differences in many objects. IPv6 is the next generation Internet addressing scheme. Capable of providing Internet addressing for anything and everything that we can think of. Or providing Internet access for a variety of different objects. Wireless Internet access providing the mobility aspect of the technical vision. And Asynchronous Process Management being our term for the ability to break up a process and approach its processing from different perspectives or priorities.

This technical vision fits in with the app marketplace and provides the mobile app marketplace with the ability to grow to its appropriate size and configuration. If we constrained mobile by keeping it within the People, Ideas & Objects domain our focus would otherwise be diverted by these mobile demands of our user community, or alternatively we would miss out providing this important dimension to the producer and user marketplace. By providing a division of labor through establishing the app marketplace we can have the best of both worlds for the users and producer firms.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. People, Ideas & Objects Revenue Model specifies the means in which investors can participate in these user defined software developments. Users are welcome to join me here. Together we can begin to meet the future demands for energy. And don't forget to join our network on Twitter @piobiz anyone can contact me at 403-200-2302 or email here. 

There's a Gap in our Offering

While I was on vacation it became obvious to me that we have a Gap in our offering. And that we need to fill that gap with what is best described as an App Marketplace. A place where producers and users are able to purchase from independent software developers, Android and iOs applications that fill in the “gaps” where People, Ideas & Objects can’t get to. Its one thing to think that we can provide the solution to all the worlds problems, however, there is also madness. Developing this App Marketplace can be done easily by publishing our data model and writing an API (application programming interface) for these App Marketplace developers to access the environment they need to develop the small apps that we have seen other app marketplaces create.

Due to the nature of the work of these developers I think it is best to consider them as the App Marketplace and not confuse them by including them with the Service Providers. The Service Providers are providing the actual administrative and accounting services to the oil and gas producers. As a unit they are an entire sub-industry due to the size of their revenue stream. The App Marketplace would only be lost if we included them in that same classification. So we need to create a separate category for the App Marketplace. Note however they are derivative of the user community just as the Service Providers are. Members of the user community will have the exclusive priority in establishing themselves in the App Marketplace that they also enjoy as Service Providers.

One unique aspect of the App Marketplace will be that they will be generating their revenues from the sale of their applications to users and producers. This could be on a one time basis or as a monthly fee. Being that their fees structure will be different will require that they have a different license from People, Ideas & Objects than that which the Service Providers have. What we are providing the App Marketplace is the mobile software application environment of the People, Ideas & Objects and user community. Therefore, the structure of the relationship between the App Marketplace developers and People, Ideas & Objects will be structured differently than the Service Providers.

What we see with the Apple and Android app marketplaces is a remarkable amount of innovation and useful applications. The motivation and understanding that makes this possible is contained within its own marketplace and would be impossible to replicate within People, Ideas & Objects. Therefore it is best to establish our own marketplace and let these developers apply their ideas to the issues and opportunities within the oil and gas industry. People, Ideas & Objects doing the heavy lifting in areas like the decentralized production model, material balance report and in other areas of the Preliminary Specification that are not mobile in nature, and the App Marketplace providing the widget like applications that are useful for the individual purposes that assist people in doing their specific jobs. A division of labor and specialization that makes a lot of sense to me.

And so it will be that we will establish an App Marketplace for the mobile marketplace in People, Ideas & Objects. Providing the users and producers with a means to further their innovative ideas. The producers with a way in which to enhance their profitability. And People, Ideas & Objects to provide oil and gas producers with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. People, Ideas & Objects Revenue Model specifies the means in which investors can participate in these user defined software developments. Users are welcome to join me here. Together we can begin to meet the future demands for energy. And don't forget to join our network on Twitter @piobiz anyone can contact me at 403-200-2302 or email here.