Advantages of a Dedicated Software Development Capability and User Community

It has been a while since we have had the opportunity to discuss the decentralized production model of the Preliminary Specification. The decentralized production model is one of the business models that are implemented in the Preliminary Specification and will be available to those producers that actively get involved with this community and participate in its development. One of the important elements to remember is that this model provides significant value for the producer, when it is developed. And as it is with software today. Organizations are defined, supported and constrained by the software that they use. It is therefore important that industry adopt People, Ideas & Objects and the user community in order to have the tools to effectively deal with opportunities to implement these and new business models that may provide further value to the innovative and profitable oil and gas producer. The People, Ideas & Objects software development capability and the user community being the type of tools that industry can use to eliminate the constraints of software in their organizations and enhance the definition and support of these business models.

The decentralized production model works through a variety of different modules in the Preliminary Specification. It works to maintain a level of production discipline across the industry in order to avoid the situations where overproduction of natural gas occurs. The method of production discipline is implemented through an allocation method based on profitability. If a natural gas property can be produced profitably then the property will be produced. If the property is incurring a loss then the properties gas production will be removed from the marketplace. This is the necessary methodology to ensure that the marketplace is not supplied with the over production of natural gas and industry wide losses. Situations like what have been the case for the last number of years where overproduction brings down the natural gas prices to the point where all natural gas properties are incurring losses.

The decentralized production model does this by first of all stripping the innovative and profitable producer down to the C class executives, the engineering and earth science resources, land and legal and some support staff. The remainder of the administrative and accounting staff, including the production and exploration administration staff are reorganized into service providers who are focused on the individual process and use the entire industry as their client base. It is with that scope of industry wide clientele that they will be apply the automation, specialization and division of labor toolsets to their process to make them more efficient and cost effective for their producer clients. It will also be that they will bill the individual Joint Operating Committees for the work that they complete on behalf of the properties in what we call the task and transfer network. A fundamentally different methodology in comparison to today’s accounting treatment of the producer incurring the overhead.

Therefore during the times when a property is shut-in due to low natural gas prices the individual service providers will receive no activity from the properties task and transfer network. And therefore there will be no billings generated by the individual service providers for those months that the property is shut-in. And therefore that property will report a null operation. No revenues, operating costs or overhead. Only the costs of capital will be recorded in the accounts for that property during times of shut-in operations.

The advantages of the decentralized production model are many. First of all the property is reporting a null operation. It is not reporting a loss on operations. These losses on operations, as they are incurred today, need to be added to the reserves costs and therefore need to be recovered in the future by higher natural gas prices. Another advantage of the decentralized production model is they save the reserves for the time in which they can be produced profitably when prices are higher. And they remove the excess, unprofitable production from the natural gas marketplace putting upward pressure on the natural gas prices. Cost control of the overhead items becomes a feature of the decentralized production model. This is attained through the service providers managing their operations with the understanding that at any time their operations may experience reductions in revenue from producers shutting in production. Lastly the producers profitability, with the lower production profile, will be higher than the profitability at full production.

It is these types of situations that the capabilities of a dedicated software development team and an enabled user community provide the innovative and profitable oil and gas industry. These capabilities need to be purpose built and require the active long term participation of the oil and gas industry. They also require the financial resources of the oil and gas industry for today and tomorrow. As we stated in yesterday’s post, no one is going to do it on behalf of the producers. I think it is clear that the monetary value of these changes, which I have quantified in the trillions of dollars, are only in the best interests of the oil and gas producers.

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. 

No More Muddling Along

The traditional operational strategy of the oil and gas industry is to muddle along. This is a throwback to the days when there was no opportunity to do anything but to accept the situation as fact and deal with it. Get through the day and survive to tell about it. However is this still appropriate for a $4 trillion industry? An industry with the issues and opportunities that the oil and gas producers have in front of them? An industry where the financial engineering of “cash flows” is the science that dictates operations. Where profits are of no concern, and for those that are focused on profits, they are accused of not truly understanding the nature of the business. It is a fool who tries to argue that profits are not a concern in oil and gas.

The beginning of the end of the muddling along strategy is People, Ideas & Objects. And that starts specifically with our Revenue Model. You can't expect that People, Ideas & Objects will be done on behalf of someone else’s dime, or on someone else’s time. The investment community have tired of the “opportunities” in oil and gas ERP systems. And they certainly have no appetite for our budget. Particularly if it were to be done on a speculative basis. Clearly there are no free lunches when it comes to having the budget for this software development paid for by others on behalf of the producers. If producers want it producers will have to pay for it themselves.

Assuming the producers are putting their hard earned money into something that is potentially valuable to their firm, I would also assume I have the producers attention. That is I think they will be an active and willing participant in our user community. It’s their money, it's their system and it will be their profits when the systems are built. This is the reason that our Revenue Model is not structured to motivate someone else to build it for them. There is really nothing in it for anyone else. All the value is skewed towards the producer. Hence the need to dispatch the muddling along strategy to the scrapheap of history and begin your active involvement in the operational strategy of your business.

It is the user community that holds the power and authority regarding the ways and means of the administration and accounting of the oil and gas industry under the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification. Producers may resent this fact and chose to fight against it. Or they can accept it and realize that participation in the user community is the appropriate and constructive role that a producer should consider. Either way it will be pleasant to see them get up from their muddling along strategy.

Sitting back and doing nothing about the problems that the industry faces will be the way that things were handled in the past. When natural gas prices decline into unprofitability, producers will have the decentralized production model to reduce production immediately to remediate the price declines. When the engineering and earth science resources of the industry are challenged they will have the ability to use specialization and the division of labor to reorganize them in ways to make them more productive. In essence they will have the tools at their disposal, active participation in the user community and a software development capability in People, Ideas & Objects to deal with the issues and opportunities that face the industry as they occur. No more muddling through no matter the consequences to profitability. But this requires the first act of independence and renouncing of the muddling through strategy. And that is funding this initiative and participation in the user community. No one is motivated by the profits that they'll earn if they make these changes, and no one else is going to do it for them.

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. 

So Much For Cold Winters

Natural gas prices have to be disappointing for those who were hoping for an end to the low prices that have been realized for the last number of years. Pricing has continued to erode over the summer as storage volumes have been rebuilt from the very cold winter that we had. We are well over the 2 tcf, or half of our storage capacity with approximately 2 and a half months left of storage build remaining. What is clear is that shale gas production volumes are able to deal with the coldest of winters no matter what the damage our winters make to the storage volumes.

And so it will be that we will see low natural gas prices push producers profits further into the abyss of unprofitability. If producers claim that they need $6.70 to be profitable, sub $4.00 pricing shows the extent of the difficulty. If only there was another way! But there is and we all know it as the Preliminary Specifications decentralized production model. As we pointed out a few months ago. The decline in storage volumes to well under 1 tcf was an opportunity for the producers to establish their control of the natural gas pricing and implement the kind of price maker strategy that the decentralized production model provides. Our very good friends, the bureaucrats, are unable to do this due to the fact that they are leaderless and incapable of change. Therefore they continue to produce at full capacity and this opportunity to become price makers passes without a note or a shrug.

A simple 18% reduction in production would have caused no increase in storage volumes to occur during this past summer. Sending a signal to the marketplace that the producers were not going to accept the prices that were being offered. Then as prices rose, those producers who could have produced profitably at the higher prices would bring their production back on and the price and markets would stabilize. This might have been able to have been achieved in as a little as one or two quarters. However, the only leadership that is being demonstrated by the bureaucracy is their over the top response to People, Ideas & Objects.

The natural gas business has been endowed with an unbelieveable grant of good fortune in terms of the shale gas reserves. The bureaucracy feels that these can be produced at a loss in their uncaring and unthinking manner. As long as they have cash flow they will continue to be in control of the industry. The shuffle of money can continue for the life of these reserves and then we can all look back and ask ourselves what otherwise could have been. Or we can get rid of these bureaucrats and replace them with the People, Ideas & Objects software, the user community, service providers and app marketplace that we are discussing here. All of these people are focused on providing the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. The evidence of these facts are the prayers for a cold winter expressed last year by these bureaucrats, their inability to exercise any changes this summer to change the production profile and enhance prices, and the complete lack of discussion of the natural gas prices as an issue within the industry.

Its a 9 - 5 industry, you go in, pick up a paycheck, some benefits, a pension, loads of paid vacation and really no one asks much about what you did or are doing. Its a bureaucratic machine that drones on without anyone asking or caring about anything other than “me.” The only way in which to change this is to offer an alternative. One in which People, Ideas & Objects is preparing now. One in which the industry will be asked to support financially in January 2017 so that we can proceed with the developments. If you like what you see and are happy with this poor performance then you'll know to do nothing, if your unhappy then you’ll want to contact me and participate in these developments and provide the 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. 

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. 

Capitalizing Royalties?

I certainly support any innovation in the oil and gas industry. However there was a bit of a dust up in Canada last week regarding PennWest’s treatment of their royalties over the past few years. It seems that their accounting will need to be restated for a few hundred million dollars of capitalized royalties. On what universe would a producer firm consider that royalties would be eligible to be capitalized? I know, its the only expense item that’s not capitalized! I guess that is what passes for logic in the rarified air of the bureaucracy in oil and gas these days. PennWest’s stock took a tumble as a result of this revelation and there was the comment by one investor that “if there’s one cockroach, there'll be others.” I think that investor has the substance of the issue appropriately in focus. Lets have a closer look at the facts as we know them.

A review of PennWest’s 2013 MD&A, Financial Statements and Notes reveals no discussion of any capitalization of royalties. Therefore no direct admission of the practice. The amounts quoted as being required for the restatement for 2013 were $70 million and are therefore material and would otherwise require disclosure. Unless they were Generally Accepted Accounting Principles used throughout the industry. Interestingly however there is no discussion of the amount of G&A that is capitalized either. Capitalized G&A is about as bread and butter an issue in oil and gas and I would be surprised if PennWest was not capitalizing any G&A, but capitalizing royalties. The logical conclusion is they are not disclosing the capitalization policies of any of their costs due to the fact that they are Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Otherwise someone is in deep, deep trouble for nondisclosure of material misstatements.

Some discussion of the issue came out on Thursday July 31, 2014 between the past CFO Todd Takeyasu and the new CFO David Dyck who is the one who issued the press release about the restatement of earnings. The text of the conversation was run in the Globe and Mail and is as follows.

Penn West did not say which employees are “believed responsible” for these accounting practices, but noted they are no longer working for the company. The review arose from information brought to the attention of chief financial officer David Dyck, who started on May 1, taking over from Todd Takeyasu. In an interview, Mr. Takeyasu said the committee’s concerns could be a result of different interpretations of accounting methods. 

“Some of this stuff is grey, but I'm probably not at liberty to say much,” he said. “Some of that is possibly a matter of documentation.” 

He added: “The new people might just have a different view of it.” 

New board members and executive officers may have a “will to do things slightly differently,” he said.

Indicating that it would seem that there appears to be a different point of view on the treatment of capitalizing royalties between the two CFO’s. Of note it is important to point out that Mr. Takeyasu retired in March of 2014. That Mr. Dyck’s resume does not have him as the CFO of an oil and gas producer in any of his previous positions. Now I know Todd Takeyasu very well. Todd is the type of guy that has never taken a risk in his life. He would never have crossed the street unless the crossing guard whistled and motioned directly to him to cross, twice. And had a stamp from that crossing guard to prove it. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that this is not a rogue CFO blazing across the horizon looking for fame and fortune. Todd would have ensured that PennWest would have had this well documented. I have been personally witness to years of Todd’s audit files. And I'm sure Todd’s lawyer has copies of that documentation as well. The other conclusion to make from this is that the initiation of these ideas are a result of an industry wide initiative. The other roaches hiding in the background.

So lets conclude from this that we might look forward to an industry wide summer of restatements and late nights for the accountants in the energy industry. Their attempt to earn some profits might have seemed innovative to some, however, lets put this in perspective. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

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. 

And We're Back

Its good to be back. When we left we were discussing the various positions within the leadership team of the user community. The board of directors, the officers and the product owners. We are going to continue to focus on the user community as our primary concern. Having systems developed without user community participation will be useless in the future, even more so than they are today. It is the user communities development that we need to be concerned about. This is the difficult aspect of People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification that needs to be developed. We have set out to have the user community prepared to begin the software developments of the Preliminary Specification in 2019, therefore we are committing to a full five years of user community development. We also established January 2017 as the time in which the producers will be called upon to support the user community and the software developments with the funding necessary to proceed to our first commercial iteration.

If you haven't had the opportunity to read the user community vision recently, I would highly recommend a review of it again. This is not your typical user community. It is significantly different in that the People, Ideas & Objects user community has the power and authority to affect the changes within the industry to provide the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. As we proceed through the development of the user community, this capability will begin to evolve and develop into the means in which we are able to offer the investor community a choice as to how they want their oil and gas assets operated. On the basis of the old tired and stale bureaucracy, or with us on the basis of being the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. The user communities value proposition is tangible and substantial. In the era of shale, the difference in value is in the many trillions of dollars.

Our fight with the bureaucrats may have just begun. They have never been challenged before as they are challenged by the threat of the now forming user community and Preliminary Specification. Be wise to their ways and be cautious to any open discussion of this project. Make sure you are not speaking to someone who has the wherewithal to make your life miserable. Some characteristics of bureaucrats are consistent in that they are petty, bitter, and can be vengeful to those who they see as having an advantage. Please do take care.

The definition of our user communities leadership team was the point that we left off prior to our vacation. We are looking to recruit these positions and have them in place prior to January 2017 as tangible evidence of our ability to prove to the industry that we have the capability to provide an alternative means of oil and gas operations. And then with the industries financial resources we will be able to continue with the remainder of the user community developments and actually begin software developments of the Preliminary Specification in 2019. If you, or someone you know, would be interested in one of the positions listed in the user community vision, please contact me.

One of the key advantages of early participation in the user community is the ability to participate in the service provider marketplace. User community participants will be those that are provided with the exclusive opportunity to establish the service providers that service the oil and gas producers with their administrative and accounting services as defined in the Preliminary Specification. As we have discussed before these service providers will be participating in a new sub-industry that is being established through the reorganization of the industry that is being undertaken by the Preliminary Specification and the user community. The service providers will have as their revenue stream the approximate $40 - 60 billion in annual G&A costs of the producers reallocated to them, as revenues for the administrative and accounting services they provide. A significant business opportunity for those service providers and user community participants. In addition the budget for the developments of the first commercial iteration of the Preliminary Specification contains user community development costs in the range of $333 to 667 million. There are significant business opportunities in terms of the long term prospects for anyone who wants to provide the oil and gas producer 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. 

Another Holiday!

We'll be off today in recognition of Alberta's Heritage Day, returning tomorrow.

It's Time for Some Time Off

It’s summer and everyone deserves some time off. I will be taking some time off myself, returning August 4, 2014. What we have now is the product in the Preliminary Specification, the Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Fusion Applications and our user community. We have the rough sketches of a plan that’s in place for the period up to January 2017. And we have begun the process of putting the people in place to make this project real. The September to December 2014 time frame “might” be an opportune time for us. I think it will be too early yet. However, we will begin our push then and see what happens. Until August 4th have a good summer and we'll see you then.

The Preliminary Specification 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. 

User Communities Product Owners

We come to the last category of our user communities leadership team, the product owners. There will be many product owners in the user community, I think as high as twenty in total. Each one will have one element of the development as their responsibility. Each one of the modules of the Preliminary Specification will have a product owner. There will be product owners for the data model, user interface, architecture, decentralized production model etc. Product owners have a defined role in the traditional software development team, however, I see them holding a critical position in the People, Ideas & Objects development team and user community developments. They will be ensuring that the needs of the user community are met by the People, Ideas & Objects development team.

How the product owner will ensure the user communities needs are met will be as a result of their creative design, issue identification and resolution skills. As well as other skills. Taking in the whole of the user communities input, finding the innovative and value generating ideas from the community and working with those users to integrate those ideas within the module or systems in ways that provide the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations.

Having the understanding of the developments as a result of being a key member of the development team gives the product owner a unique perspective on the issues and opportunities in the oil and gas industry. They will be the one who will prioritize the developments for the developers and provide other management activities regarding the user community. Their ability to listen to the user community regarding their module gives them the insight to predict the direction and needs of the user community in the near future. Ensuring that their user community operates with little interruption from the noise of the irrelevant and inconsequential. Using whatever tools that are available to keep their community informed and up-to-date.

Through these interactions with the People, Ideas & Objects development team. And through the interaction with the user community itself. The product owners will be able to exercise significant leadership over the domain of the module that they are responsible for. It will be they who are ultimately responsible for ensuring that the decentralized production model is properly integrated in the Preliminary Specification if that is their domain. It will be they who are responsible for the billions in opportunity costs that the industry will be able to earn as a result of the that module being implemented properly in the software. That there is no confusion or misunderstanding within the user community, and that in turn is delivered to the software developers.

These product owners will be well versed in the ways and means of the oil and gas industry. They will understand technology like those few people who really do understand today’s technology. They will be leaders in the community. And they will see these positions as the most exciting positions in the oil and gas industry to have come along in the last one hundred years. If one of these modules was yours, it would be the result of your efforts to ensure that the community and the development team got it right.

The Preliminary Specification 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. 

The User Communities Officers

When we discuss the officers of the user community we are of course speaking of the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operations Officer or CEO, CFO and COO. These positions will need to be filled once we have secured the board of directors and they have a chance to recruit these individuals. These are the people who will be able to put a name and a face to the organization and will become the public image of the user community. As in any organization these officers will have the authority and responsibility to enact the plans and budgets of the organization. They will be the ones that are looked to by all within the community for the direction, goals and objectives of the organization.

The user community will be comprised of a variety of different types of users. Some will be the casual user who is fully employed by a producer firm or a service provider. Others will be full time consultants who specialize in the analysis and systems work that is prevalent in the user community. Still others may be full time employees of the user community organization that we are discussing. These officers will be representative of all of these types of users and ensure that the collaborative input of their understanding of the oil and gas industry is captured and delivered to the People, Ideas & Objects developers. It will also be necessary that the user community is kept aware of the larger role that they share in controlling the business model of the industry. And ensure that this work continues to provide the oil and gas producers with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations.

It will therefore be a collaborative style of leader that we are looking to fill the three officer roles in the user community organization. Therefore I see these roles being filled by unique individuals from the oil and gas communities. Ideally they would be individuals who have achieved significant success in their career. Someone who would see the community role of these positions as something new and challenging. Yet still see the effectiveness and the power of the user community in affecting change in the oil and gas industry through the business model.

It is my concern that the user community would lose its focus and get lost in some of the blind bunny trails that organizations seem to find themselves in at times. This focus on providing the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations is an infinite challenge. That we have defined significant value in the model today is testament to the value of the low hanging fruit that exists in using the Joint Operating Committee. We have only begun to explore this model. And the value for the producer will essentially never stop, and therefore we can never stop collecting that low hanging fruit and reach for the more difficult value that is also attainable. This I see as a primary responsibility of the individuals who are the officers of the user community. To keep this community focused on finding that value for the producers through the hard work necessary to do so. Complacency is unacceptable.

What we know today about software is critical to be kept in the minds of the user community members and their leadership. That software both enables and constrains organizations. It enables them to do the things that software, when it exists, can provide the organization. It at the same time however constrains them from doing anything else. And that includes change. People, Ideas & Objects provides a software development capability to ensure that the industry has the ability to be enabled by software and to deal with the constraints of the software that it uses. But that is not enough. It also needs a user community that understands the dynamic nature of the software and its impact on organizations. And understands that it is not encumbered by those constraints due to the fact that the user community controls the business model and have a dedicated software development capability at hand. These are the tools that the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer of the 21st century needs to have at their disposal. And the officers of the user community need to lead the way in which this happens.

The Preliminary Specification 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.

The User Communities Board of Directors

For the remainder of this week I thought I would go through the individual positions that are available in the user community leadership team. That way people will have a better understanding of the types of positions that are available and which ones they may be best suited for. Today’s topic is the board of directors of the user community. As I have indicated before I don't know if this is a board of governors or directors at this point, we'll however just use the term directors at this point. There are six positions available here including the chairman’s position. One of the unique characteristics of the chairman's position at this point is that position holds two votes. As I indicated in a previous posting the position of chairman is being filled by myself.

The role of director for the user community will be that for the user community itself. It is a position that looks towards the needs of the user community and its requirements. Based on the user community vision it will hold and control the business models of the software contained within the Preliminary Specification. It will recruit the officers and executives necessary to operate the organization consistent with its vision. It will approve the budgets and financial statements of that organization. It will engage the oil and gas industry at large in agreements to provide for their needs in terms of what their ERP and other systems requirements are. It will be responsible for the actions and activities of the user community in fulfilling its obligations to the producers in the industry and its users.

The user community will be endowed with an Intellectual Property License from People, Ideas & Objects. This license will permit the user community to further develop this Intellectual Property with the understanding that all developments will become the property of Paul D. Cox, where they will remain available for the user community to use and develop further. No charge will be levied to the user for use of this Intellectual Property. On the contrary, users will be paid for their contributions. We are paying for the acquisition of the Intellectual Property from the user community. Resources will be provided from People, Ideas & Objects for this purpose. The user community will be for the exclusive use of People, Ideas & Objects.

Directors would preferably be drawn from the oil and gas business community. From a broad mix of administration, accounting, earth science, engineering and technological disciplines. Having a diverse board of directors would represent the needs of the users. Ideally they should be senior members of the community and have established careers. These positions would be part-time in terms of their time requirements however we would expect these people to be fully committed to providing the oil and gas producers with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. As that is the key differentiation that makes the user community so valuable and worthwhile.

If you are interested in these position please contact me below. Or alternatively if you know of someone who would be a worthwhile candidate for the user community, send this information on to them. What we have with the Preliminary Specification, the Oracle Fusion Middleware and Applications and user community developments is an excellent product to offer the oil and gas industry. What we also have is a plan in which we are offering our product as an alternative to the industry as a replacement to the bureaucracy. With a product and a plan we can now focus on the people and work towards this decision in January 2017.

The Preliminary Specification 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. 

Preparing for Decisions to be Made in January 2017

Our priority in the next five years is the development of the user community. In the next 30 months we are developing the user communities leadership team and preparing our offering to the board of directors of the producer firms. This offering consists of the vision contained within the Preliminary Specification. The Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Fusion Application infrastructure we will be using. The third and critical component of this offering is the user community itself. People, Ideas & Objects are user driven software developments. Without the users involvement we have software developers with a limited understanding of the oil and gas industry and are unable to fully comprehend the needs of the users. With the users involved in our development, based on the user community vision, we have a distinct competitive advantage and can provide the oil and gas producers with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations.

This decision that the board of directors of the producers will be making is scheduled for January 2017. It will compare our offering to the status quo bureaucracy and determine which method the producer wants their organization operated under, the mindless bureaucratic “muddle along” strategy, or People, Ideas & Objects offering as described above. Careful consideration should be taken by each producer to determine their choice. If they choose the bureaucracy they should understand that People, Ideas & Objects stands on 10 years of research and 23 years of effort by myself to get to the point that we are at today. It will be a long time before any other software offering comes along if People, Ideas & Objects et al is deemed inadequate. There is also the issue of using the Joint Operating Committee. That breakthrough was a result of my research and is a cornerstone of my Intellectual Property. No other offering will be able to use that IP in another offering. If you choose the bureaucracy it is something that you will have to live with for the short and intermediate term. And there will be nothing more satisfying to them.

From a producer point of view there is much to be concerned about. The opportunities that the Preliminary Specification et al provide are substantial and are summed up by our statement that we provide the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. With trillions of dollars in value in terms of the differences between ours and the bureaucracies methods of managing the industry. Some quantifiable through the decentralized production model, and some unquantifiable through the toolset of automation, specialization and the division of labor. Ours is an appropriate vision for the oil and gas producer in the 21st century. One that enables the producer to focus on their core competitive advantages of their earth science and engineering capabilities, and their land and asset base. Where the administrative and accounting minutiae is moved from a producer based capability to an industry based capability. Freeing the producer from the constraints of growth in their production profile.

In the next few days we'll go through the individual positions that we are looking for in the leadership team. As I stated before these will be exciting positions that will have a dramatic impact on the outcome of the future of the industry. There will be much risk involved as we do not know what the results of the decisions by the directors in the producer firm will be. However, with much risk there is much reward. These leadership positions stand to gain substantially as they are at the beginning of the development of the user community and will have the ground floor opportunities in establishing the sub-industry we call the service providers.

The Preliminary Specification 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. 

Who Decides?

If we consider the amount of reserves of oil and natural gas that are held in the shale basins. The high costs of producing these basins. The bureaucracies inability to manage their production at any volume other than at full capacity. We can quantify the decision being made by the industry in terms of selecting either the bureaucracy or People, Ideas & Objects, the user community and service providers in the trillions of dollars of profits. Just on that basis it will be hard for the bureaucracy to make their case that they should be kept in charge. If you think they'll change their strategy and their means of operations you truly are an optimist. Ask yourself, where will they start and how will they begin.

The question that we need to answer today is who is it that is going to make the decision on behalf of the industry. What great power is going to come down and make this decision to go with the bureaucracy or with us. Simple, each producer firms board of directors will be asked to make the choice for their firm. Then, based on the aggregate of the decisions that are made we will determine which group wins the decision. This also assumes that the company will be forwarding the financial resources for the developments with their positive vote for us.

Some may consider this to be a foolish question to pose to an otherwise uninterested board of directors. It is also an invitation for the bureaucrats to invade the boardroom and infect the minds of the directors with their double speak. Quite possibly. How else can we have the decision made? I think this falls within the scope of the directors domain. Its also a decision that falls within their authority. I think this is the place that we should be spending our time in the next 30 months.

I mentioned yesterday that the decision makers should consider the consequences of choosing the bureaucracy. Having no choice but the bureaucracy would be the outcome, and if you're unsatisfied with their attitude today, just wait until there are no alternatives present in the marketplace. There is also the possibility that that form of organization is on its last legs. Its not unfamiliar today to hear that the industry is unable to staff up for the future. That the ability to meet the future demands of the industry are questionable based on the resources that are available in the marketplace. Is this not a failure of the method of organization that is being employed by the industry. Is the bureaucracy failing to meet the needs of the industry?

The better question might be what if the bureaucracy fails. As we have mentioned before it did fail before in the great depression. A time when government had to step in and take a larger role in the economy. If it fails again what will the industry rely upon? Failure is a concern but there is also the fact that the bureaucracy might just decide to quit. The average age in the industry is in the 40’s. Retirement or the next vacation is the topic of discussion in most elevators. What happens when this discussion becomes final and the bureaucracy just leaves and doesn't come back.

Preparation for the future is something that should be seriously considered as one element of the changes that are being discussed here in the move towards People, Ideas & Objects. Keeping your options open might be a good strategy for the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer in this time of change and opportunity.

The Preliminary Specification 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. 

Decision Day January 2017

We have therefore made the decision to prepare our solution to the industry so that they can make a decision as to which method they will use to operate the industry. The bureaucracy or the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification, the user community and service providers. This decision will be made by the oil and gas industry and we have established January 2017 as the day for that decision to be made. That leaves us with thirty months in which to develop the leadership team and continue developing our offering. That offering consists of the Preliminary Specification as the vision of how the industry would operate. The Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Applications as the infrastructure of our offering. And the leadership team of the user community. The leadership team consists of both the leadership of the user community itself and the leadership of the Preliminary Specification.

This change in our decision timelines does not change any of our product delivery timelines. It does however affect the timelines in which the industry will be called upon to financially support People, Ideas & Objects. It will be January 2017, upon the decision of going forward with our offering, that the funds detailed in our budget will be forwarded from industry to People, Ideas & Objects. These resources will then be used to support the user community development and introduce Oracle to our offering and begin the developments with them. No work or discussions will be undertaken with Oracle during the next 30 months leading up to the decision being made by industry. If Oracle is in the room or not does not make any difference in the decision making criteria of the industry. Oracle will be asked to do their job when we are in development. They will not be asked to do any favors or provide any commitments to industry. We will pay them for the work that they will do when the industry has provided us with the resources to do so.

The question then comes about what happens as a result of the choice to go forward with the bureaucracy. And that we must have a plan for as well. It will be clear at that time that the bureaucracy is impenetrable and will survive for the foreseeable future. Industry should consider the consequences of that decision. However we also need to consider the consequence of that decision. And I have. Although it would be ideal to proceed with the development of the software, the user community and service providers there really is no second best alternative for the Preliminary Specification. Implementation of the Joint Operating Committee dictates an all in type of methodology and mindset. There is no partial pregnancy when using the Joint Operating Committee. Things like the decentralized production model only work when the industry is operational on it. It is that stark and that uncompromising. Therefore in terms of preparing a secondary offering for industry. Or compromising on the Preliminary Specification as it stands today, its not possible because of the nature of using the Joint Operating Committee.

Therefore People, Ideas & Objects will be dissolved as a going concern as will the user community. Their opportunities for any future will be non-existent and therefore the organizations will cease to exist. The Intellectual Property however is a different story and I will manage that property as I see fit.

Until the day we know what the decision is we have much to do. The first is to start with the development of the leadership team of the user community. After all what we want to do is to get rid of the bureaucracy and build some software so that we can provide the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations.

The Preliminary Specification 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. 

Adjusting our Timelines and Deliverables

Presenting a clear choice as to which method of organization the industry would operate is the only manner in which to eliminate the bureaucracy from the landscape. There has to be a comparable way in which people can see the differences in how the industry would perform, based on the two different methods. There is no other way to remove the bureaucracy other than replacing them. The industry also has to see a community of like minded people prepared to deliver that alternative to them if they should be chosen. With People, Ideas & Objects we have the vision of how the industry would operate with the Preliminary Specification. Using the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct, the decentralized production model organizing the industries resources in a manner that is more efficient and enables features like a “price maker” strategy. Building on this vision of how the industry would be operated is the Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Fusion Applications that provide the cloud computing infrastructure on which to operate.

What we need now is the user community to begin forming. The user community is a critical element of the quality of the software that is developed from this point forward. People, Ideas & Objects are user based software developments. We need a strong user community to be permanently developed to direct the software developers in the needs of the software that will be used in the industry. This user community, based on our user community vision, has the resources and wherewithal to affect the changes within the industry through the business models contained within the software itself. If industry wants to fundamentally change the way that the software operates then they are able to work through the user community in order to have those changes realized.

We want to be selected as the choice of which solution the industry uses to manage their assets. In order to do that we have to have certain elements of the user community established as the third component of our offering. We are starting by developing the necessary leadership of the user community. This leadership consists of both the leadership for the user community itself and the leadership for the Preliminary Specification. We have set in place time lines to have the developments of the Preliminary Specification begin in the year 2019. Enabling us the time to prepare for and to get the word out of what we are doing.

The bureaucracy have shut us out of the marketplace in terms of participation in the ERP vendor marketplace. We therefore have no resources and are doing this on a volunteer basis until our budget is raised. Our capital requirements are significant, however our impact to the individual producers is far greater than our costs. The opportunity costs that are being incurred during the time we are developing the leadership team will be in excess of $300 billion.

I think that it is clear to me that developing the user community beyond the leadership team would be counterproductive. Involving the general user in a potentially contingent operation is unnecessary and hazardous to their careers. Having the leadership team in place would be more than adequate for the industry to make a decision as to which method they want their assets managed. Going beyond the leadership team in terms of user community development would be a nice to have, however I don't think it adds any greater value to the decision making process that the people who will be making the decision will need. So I think we can keep it at these three components of our offering and force the decision based on those criteria. Based on that we need to revisit our timelines and recognize that our development start date of 2019 is appropriate however we need to move the decision time frame forward in recognition that we will not have a full user community in place. Therefore I have moved the decision timeframe forward to January 2017, 30 months from today, enabling an additional 2 years of user community development after the decision is made.

The Preliminary Specification 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. 

Preparing a Choice for the Industry in the 21st Century

With so much value being generated in the Preliminary Specification, the user community and the service providers. You would think that the bureaucracy would find the time to engage us and begin the work necessary to make that value accrue to the shareholders, the people in the industry and society in general. That’s not the case, instead they try and copy our Intellectual Property and use it for their own purposes. I am certain their use of the IP will be to provide the proof necessary that the concepts underlying the Preliminary Specification will not work and that they can proceed to be the only game in town. That is the way that bureaucrats think.

One thing we know for sure is they are not taking the opportunity to shut-in any production and halt the decline in natural gas prices. We have said it here before. Bureaucracies can’t change. For them to implement a strategy that rolled back production while inventories were so low would be a tactical win for the industry. Prices would respond handsomely as the market and the natural gas storage providers would be both competing for a lower level of production from the producers. This would provide the producers with a foundation of which they could establish the “price maker” position that the Preliminary Specification enables. However there is no discussion of this. There are no reasonable people standing up and saying that this is an opportunity on a go forward basis. Just silence and muddling along.

This is why the user community and the service providers that are affiliated with People, Ideas & Objects are providing an alternative means of organization for the oil and gas producers, investors and people in the industry. Enabling a choice as to which method they want their assets managed. The bureaucracy and their muddling along strategies. Or the People, Ideas & Objects ecosystem that provide the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. One that has tangible and significant improvements in the profitability of the industry.

Its amazing isn't it that for the many years that we have been touting the value that we generate the only thing the bureaucracy has thought to do is to steal it. What purpose at this point does it make in trying to steal it, I don't know. What we will keep doing is preparing our alternative means of organization for the time when industry makes the decision as to which group to go with. The bureaucracy or People, Ideas & Objects et al.

And that makes your participation in these next few years an important element of the success of this initiative. Particularly if you feel you can fill one of the leadership positions in the user community. It will be through your leadership that we will be able to prepare this offering and make the changes in the industry that are necessary. Bureaucrats don't change. They haven’t for decades and they won't in the future. We need to prepare an alternative means of organization for the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer.

It's an ambitious plan. Only because it is necessary as a result of the poor performance of the bureaucrats. If we saw some response that showed any sign of life from them then they might be given a second chance. However there is no sign of life and there are no second chances. There is only what we have to do to eliminate the bureaucracy from the landscape and implement what the industry needs for the 21st century.

The Preliminary Specification 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. 

Value Added Through the Service Providers

One area that we have not discussed in the recent past is the service providers that are enabled through the transition to the Preliminary Specification and the user community. The service providers are derivative of the user community in that they are based on initiatives and actions of the people who are involved in the user community. Members of the service providers are licensees of the People, Ideas & Objects Intellectual Property as they use the software and prepare their services based on providing the Preliminary Specification to the individual producer firms.

Service providers will focus on one detailed process or subprocess of the administration or accounting of the producer firms of the oil and gas industry. They will, in most instances manage that process for all of the producers within the industry. This is to enable them to focus on their competitive advantages of automation of the process, specialization and the division of labor. These tools will bring significant value to the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer through successive iterations of continuous improvement. Value not only in terms of lower cost of service but also in terms of the quality of that service.

The particular process that a service provider will manage may appear small in terms of its domain of what a producer undertakes. However, when aggregated throughout the industry the scope of the undertaking will present unique challenges to the service providers. Competition between the service providers will not be within the individual processes. Generally one process will be managed by one service provider. Some exceptions will apply as can be expected. The competition between service providers will be generated in the form of how they apply specialization and the division of labor to the processes that they manage. Innovation in this area will be high and lead to a competitive environment between the service providers.

I also foresee constant change and improvement. The way things are done today is to find the most efficient method possible. That is with the constraints that are present within each producer firm. With the situation we are discussing here the constraints will be based on the resources and domain of the industry. There will need to be significant trial and error in order to explore all of the possibilities of what are the most efficient and effective ways. This is one of the advantages of having a dedicated software development capability like that of People, Ideas & Objects available to the service providers.

It is important to remember that the service providers are replacing the administrative and accounting resources of the producer firms. Under the decentralized production model the producer firm is reduced to the C class executives, the earth science and engineering resources, the land and legal with some support staff. These service providers are then billing for their service on a unit of work basis when the producer incurs the service providers process. They then are billed for the standard rate for that process and that is the extent of the interaction with that service provider. If the producers production is shut-in for the month, then they do not incur the unit of work or the standard rate and as a result the producer does not incur any of the administrative or accounting overhead associated with that property. This is the benefit of the service providers to the oil and gas producer. If they shut-in production to 80% of capacity then their overhead is immediately reduced to that same 80% threshold. Doing so will therefore record a null operation, no profit but also no loss, save the reserves for a time when they can be produced profitably, increase the profitability of their operation in the short term, remove the excess production from the marketplace and increase the commodity prices.

The service providers are a critical part of the industry infrastructure necessary for the Preliminary Specification. They are derivative of the user community, and are a key part of that community. The owners and operators of the service providers will be the key members of the user community and will be those that have made a significant contribution to the user community. We will reward our user community members in the best ways that we can. And providing them with membership as a service provider is one of the key ways in which to do so. There may be several thousand different service providers in the end. But they will all be part of a new sub-industry that we are creating here that will be generating approximately $40 - 60 billion in annual revenues. These are the G&A costs that the oil and gas industry is incurring today in North America to employ these administrators and accountants. The people that will be moving to the service providers themselves.

The Preliminary Specification 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. 

Highly Effective Digital Enterprises

McKinsey & Company have published an article that speaks directly to the type of work that we are doing here at People, Ideas & Objects and the user community. The title of the article is “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Digital Enterprises”. You can view the article from the link. What the article provides is the necessary ingredients that are needed to ensure a transition from the “old” world to one that is similar to what we are discussing here at People, Ideas & Objects for the oil and gas industry. I won't go through the seven steps individually as they are all on point and necessary to make the transition. What I will point out is the major flaw in the article from our point of view, and maybe in other industries as well.

That is the bureaucracy are in control of the budget that will fund the “new” digital enterprise. And therefore the “new” digital enterprise doesn't and won't exist. At least in oil and gas. I cant tell you of the difficulty I have had with the bureaucracy. They refuse to sponsor anything that will eliminate themselves from the landscape. You have a group of self interested people who will do whatever it takes to make sure that their domain remains in power at all costs. They are not going to fund anyone or anything that will remove them from that position. If someone insists on it being done they may go through the motions if necessary but they will make sure that the initiative fails. The fact of the matter is that there is no way in which they can be dealt with in a reasonable manner. The assumption in the article that the funding for the initiative is in place is therefore flawed, and therefore the outcomes are flawed.

The only way in which to deal with the bureaucracy. And this is the current thinking that I have. Is to provide the investors, the producers and the people who work within the oil and gas industry. Those that are as frustrated and annoyed with the bureaucracy as I am. To choose to move to an alternative means of organization for the oil and gas industry. Therefore we need to prepare an alternative means of organization for the oil and gas industry based on the vision of the Preliminary Specification, the Oracle Fusion Middleware and Application foundation, the user community that we are building here and the service providers. Enabling a choice for people to make as to who they want to manage their assets is therefore the manner that we need to prepare our offering.

When the time comes to make the decision as to which solution to choose from. The bureaucracy will have a difficult time making any assertion that they should be the choice. When we provide over $705 billion in opportunity costs from the decentralized production model. At least as much unquantifiable value that we can achieve from the structure of the service providers using automation, specialization and the division of labor. The structure of the user community and its ability to facilitate change and make the industry a dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas industry. These are the things that we are structured to provide.

And we do this by going to the core of the business. By moving the compliance and governance frameworks of the hierarchy into alignment with the Joint Operating Committees legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, innovation and strategic frameworks. We achieve a flexibility, speed, innovativeness, and profitability in our producer organizations. A business model that we have only begun to explore. It is this alignment that also eliminates the bureaucracy from the scene. And that is why they fight us. They don't care about producer profitability, speed, accountability or being dynamic. They are only concerned that they remain in power and they have their pensions vested. And that is why they need to be removed. So join me and help prepare for this decision to be made and make the oil and gas industry into the dynamic, innovative and profitable industry we know it could be.

The Preliminary Specification 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. 

Appealing to Those in the Industry

What People, Ideas & Objects have to offer the user community is a compelling vision in the Preliminary Specification in which to build from. A means in which to operate the oil and gas industry if they were to join us and build the software with us. Software, and the services of the service providers that are derivative of the user communities efforts. Will provide what the oil and gas industry needs to be the most dynamic, innovative and profitable that it could be. That is what we offer the user community if people decide to join the user community and help us build the Preliminary Specification. And they will have the tools to do so. The user communities vision spells out the resources and means in which the user community would have in order to be able to make these changes within the industry. This is not your grandfathers user community. This user community has the money and the power to change the oil and gas industry.

We also offer the second component of our offering to the user community. That being the Oracle stack of technologies that the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification will be built upon. Using Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Fusion Applications as the base of the Preliminary Specification provides us with the elements of what are needed to round out all aspects of our offering. We are a cloud computing offering. Providing solutions to the entire industry through our service providers. It is this solid foundation that gives the user community the assurance that our products will be state of the art and capable of handling the tasks that the user community defines.

We are taking these two components that we have and building the third component over the next few years. The third component is the most critical of all, our key competitive advantage, the user community itself. It will be the key differentiating component of our offering that gives the producers the understanding and means to manage their organizations. Without the user community we are software developers with a limited understanding of what the oil and gas industry is and what it does. With the user community we are able to fully and completely comprehend every element of the industry, define it, create a solution for it, have the software developers build the software for it and prepare the services for it.

And when we speak of competitive advantages it will be in the class of competitive advantages that Apple and Google have their user community as their competitive advantage. A cultural, systemic and deep within the core of our DNA type of competitive advantage. And we don't build that type of quality after the software is built. We build it before the software is even begun. So that is what we are doing here at People, Ideas & Objects. Taking the time and energy necessary to ensure that the user community is the key competitive advantage to our product offering. That it, and the derivative service providers are able to drive the industry in the direction that is needed to ensure the producers profitability is maximized in both the short and long term.

We have the product vision in the Preliminary Specification and the Oracle Fusion Applications and Middleware offerings. Building on this with our key competitive advantage of the user community. The foundation of our user community is the user community vision. We are preparing this offering to enable investors, producers and the people in the oil and gas industry to select us as the method they chose to manage their assets. We will be the natural choice when they compare this offering to the performance of the bureaucracy. And that is what we want to happen. Making change in the manner that an industry is managed is a difficult transition to make. It has to be made by a conscious choice by those that have a vested interest in the betterment of the industry. Our task is to prepare the user community in order to build the software, and to enable that choice to be made.

The Preliminary Specification 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. 

How to Deal With a Persistent Bureaucracy

One thing we did not mention in yesterday’s calculation of opportunity costs for Encana Corporation was the firms extent of bureaucratic infestation. With so much value on the line this will inspire a shrug and a head shake from those pious beings who occupy that rarified air. Losing money is their claim to fame, and no one will steal their thunder. It is with that in mind that we know that they will never come knocking at our door to work with People, Ideas & Objects and the user community. And that’s ok, we have a different plan.

And it is the user community that is our primary focus for the next five years. Developing systems for oil and gas producers is an exciting business to be in. However, no one has ever developed user based ERP systems for oil and gas producers. And that is what we are doing by focusing on the user community in these next few years. Developing the user community to the level necessary to be able to drive the development team in the direction of the systems that the users want and need.

We are doing this on the basis of the user community vision that has been established here at People, Ideas & Objects. A vision that provides the community with the tools and means in which to affect the changes within the oil and gas industry. They will have the money and the power necessary to implement what it is they need. Never before has there been user driven ERP systems in oil and gas. And never before has a user committee had the tools and means at its disposal to make the changes within industry that this user community has.

The first step that we have undertaken to initiate this user community is defined a leadership team consisting of approximately 28 positions. These people will be responsible for both leading the user community as an organization, and leading the product development from the Preliminary Specification into the software that they want and need. These people are being actively recruited today and will be the founding members of the user community, and the associated service providers who are a critical “sub-industry” that we are establishing to provide the services necessary to support the software in its commercial release.

Taking the time that we have set out here to develop the user community is critical to its development. This phase of development can not be rushed. People need to understand the implications of the Preliminary Specification. How it affects their organization and how it will affect the job that they do in the industry. Once they begin to fully understand the implications then they can begin to feel comfortable with it and start to use the model to better accommodate their surroundings. With so many people contributing in this way, and People, Ideas & Objects providing a software development capability to support the user community. The dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer will begin to see the results in a flexible, accountable, speedy, innovative and profitable organization.

If this is the place that you think the industry should be headed then you should stay tuned and watch as things develop. The method that we are using to change the industry is that we are providing an alternative means of organization to the oil and gas producer. Providing a choice for the oil and gas investor and to those that work within the industry. Your participation will be a key part of the solution. And then we can chose to move away from the muddle along strategy of the current bureaucracy and make the industry dynamic, innovative and profitable.

 The Preliminary Specification 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. 

Lou Gerstner on Strategic Planning

McKinsey Consulting have republished an article written by Mr. Lou Gerstner of IBM fame. Originally published in December 1973 when he was a McKinsey Consultant the topic of discussion is strategic planning. It seems pertinent today to the oil and gas industry in terms of the decision they should undertake to proceed with People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification. So I thought I would take the material and apply the knowledge to the situation in the industry and use Encana Corporation as the example firm in my calculations.

One of the first things you notice in this article is that its 1973 and there are no personal computers and spreadsheets have not yet been developed. The entire point of the article is to take the strategic decision that an organization could make and run a number of different scenarios regarding the changes that it would have in the business. To make those changes reflective in the financial statements on a proforma basis. The difference between 1973 and today is that these are done constantly vs. what appears to be a rarity in the period of time that Mr. Gerstner is discussing.

However the point is valid particularly for running the scenario of “what if” the firm adopted the Preliminary Specification as the business model for the organization. We have claimed that the scope of the changes are responsible for $705 billion in opportunity costs for the period between 2009 and 2019. Therefore it should be incumbent on each organization to run the calculation on their own financial data to determine what impact the Preliminary Specification and the user community would have on their organization.

As an example we have selected Encana Corporation and run the business model against their financial data for the period between 2014 and 2019. We chose Encana as it is predominantly a gas producer and their operations are marginal at best. Without too much surprise the total incremental value that is generated by using the Preliminary Specification and the user community is $17.1 billion for that period. It is made up of two components, the increase in revenues of $15.8 billion and decrease in G&A costs of $1.3 billion. With value increases of that scale it would be worthwhile for Encana to fund 100% of People, Ideas & Objects and the user community. If they did they would still have $13 billion left over.

Calculations for Encana are included in the Preamble Wiki page. It is important to emphasize that these are only the values that we are able to quantify. Further quantification of the value from specialization and the division of labor cannot be determined at this time. However it is believed to be as material. The value from specialization and the division of labor enable the industry to expand its output from the same resource base. Enabling it to approach the goal of energy self sufficiency for the North American marketplace.

We will continue to look for ways in which to ensure that we, People, Ideas & Objects and the user community, provide the oil and gas producer with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. We have the business model of the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer. It is the means in which this value is being generated, and it will be the means in which future value is generated. For when we move the compliance and governance frameworks of the hierarchy into alignment with the legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, innovation and strategic frameworks of the Joint Operating Committee. We attain a flexibility, accountability, speed, innovativeness and profitability in our producer organizations. We have only begun to fully explore the potential of this model. In the hands of the user community there will be an unending flow of innovations that provide real value for the oil and gas producers.

The Preliminary Specification 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. 

Summary of the Accounting Voucher Module

For purposes of review and to keep the Preliminary Specification somewhat fresh in our minds. We have been occasionally looking at elements of the modules of the Preliminary Specification. Today I want to move from the Partnership Accounting module to the Accounting Voucher module to discuss what its purpose is. The Accounting Voucher is a unique module that conducts operations that have not been provided in other ERP systems. It seeks to resolve some of the issues of using the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the dynamic, innovative and profitable producer. And opens up some opportunities for real innovation as well.

We are entering a time when the level of automation of the business process can accelerate in material ways. For People, Ideas & Objects not to address this opportunity would be a determining factor in the oil and gas industries capabilities to automate many of the business processes in the future. So much is dependent on the software that is used within the organization that it enables and constrains the organizations capabilities. With the capability to code an invoice to a basic accounting program from a smartphone. The ability and capabilities to capture transactions in highly automated means is a given in the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification. Therefore what people will be involved in is not recording transactions but designing transactions with the Accounting Voucher. The way that this is stated in the Preliminary Specification is that we are to “manage the disparate inter-dependencies of modularity theory and Transaction Cost Economics.” In essence this will be an area of deep development for the user community to fully explore.

By moving to the use of the Joint Operating Committee, the concept of operator is relegated to the past. Each participant in the Joint Operator Committee is called upon to provide their unique capabilities to the property. Therefore each member of the Joint Operating Committee is incurring costs and generating revenues on the property. Thier access to the Accounting Voucher is a necessary requirement and with the Preliminary Specifications Accounting Voucher they have access to process payments and revenues for distribution to other working interest owners. Having the Accounting Voucher open to all members of the partnership is a necessary and valuable feature of the Preliminary Specification and enables the producer to attain a speed and accountability in their costs and revenues.

Another area where the Accounting Voucher has been used in unique ways is in the Material Balance Report. Here the volumetric information of the producers production is treated in a similar manner to the way that the financial information is treated. That is it must balance debits and credits. And balance within the system that is captured within the Accounting Voucher, or system balance, partnership balance and of course material balance. These balances being required before the Accounting Voucher can close. Garnering the attention of those producers who are partners in the property if the Accounting Voucher is unable to close in a timely manner.

And there are a variety of other minor attributes of the Accounting Voucher that we will highlight as we go through the module in a little more detail in the months ahead. I just wanted to give a bit of an understanding as to the differences and why those differences exist in the Accounting Voucher. It is a unique module that opens many areas of future development for the user community to expand on in the area of automation of the business process and remove ourselves from the labor intensive elements of accounting.

The Preliminary Specification 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.