The Role of Software Development, as a Capability

We now turn to the capabilities view of the Preliminary Specification. Capabilities are such a critical part of innovation and we have the Research & Capabilities module that focuses on the firms capabilities. But what are they and where do these capabilities reside? We have shown how the Preliminary Specification would provide the capability to suspend production in the “Marginal Production Threshold Interface,” until the marginal costs of production are realized by the commodity price. By using the “decentralized production model,” the production and overhead costs, like the costs of Production Accountants, would not be incurred without any monthly production. Maintaining the firm's profitability and saving the reserves for a time when prices are more favorable. This capability resides in the ability of the People, Ideas & Objects software to coordinate these actions.

We have listed the capabilities of the firm in the Research & Capabilities module and they are accessed through the Knowledge & Learning module by the various Joint Operating Committees. We have used the football analogy to describe how they are formulated and deployed through a variety of interfaces but we have not discussed in any detail what the content of the pages of the “Dynamic Capabilities Interface” are. Lets first of all be clear, it is the Joint Operating Committees that employ the engineers and geologists from their various firms that are running the project and that is why these modules are configured that way. The information that is contained within the “Dynamic Capabilities Interface” is for them to project manage the service industry members in the Resource Marketplace module.

But first let's take a brief walk down the differences between what exists today and what needs to change in the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification. One area of Professor Richard Langlois’ research is in what is called Transaction Cost Economics (TCE). The market model requires that “transactions” occur between separate economic units. These transactions create “friction” in terms of the resources necessary to process the transaction itself. Therefore in the past, to avoid the costly friction of transaction costs, firms hired people as employees to conduct a variety of tasks and only told them what was required in exchange for a paycheck. This mitigated the cost of paying someone $5.00 to type a letter each time you needed that task completed etc. Langlois et al states that with the automation of transactions through the current Information Technologies, transaction costs, the costs of paying the individual $5.00 to type the letter, can be reduced to an immaterial level. This discussion is particularly pertinent to the changes being made to the producer organizations administrative, accounting and overhead resources being reorganized into service providers. This is also happening at a time when coincidentally the scope of operations of the hierarchy have spanned to an impossible level. The hierarchy must now make a choice, either fully integrate and take control of all of the means of production, or decentralize and let the market provide for the means of production. The Preliminary Specification assumes the latter and the Resource Marketplace module will provide the capabilities for the producer firm and Joint Operating Committee to achieve those capabilities from the market. From Professor Langlois’ Capabilities and Governance: the Rebirth of Production in the Theory of Economic Organization.

However, a new approach to economic organization, here called "the capabilities approach," that places production centre stage in the explanation of economic organization, is now emerging. We discuss the sources of this approach and its relation to the mainstream economics of organization. pp. 1

and

One of our important goals here is to bring the capabilities view more centrally in the ken of economics. We offer it not as a finely honed theory but as a developing area of research whose potential remains relatively untapped. Moreover, we present the capabilities view not as an alternative to the transaction-cost approach but as complementary area of research pp. 7.

We have captured some of the elements in the already mentioned interfaces of the modules of the Preliminary Specification. Additional interfaces would include the “Transaction Design Interface” of the Accounting Voucher module. And in the Resource Marketplace module we have discussed the three interfaces; the “Actionable Information Interface,” “Supplier Collaborative Interface” and the “Gap Filling Interface.” Each of these would be used in some fashion in discussion of moving to a “decentralized production model.” There are however, many more elements of this research that we will discover and develop as we continue.

It was during the Preliminary Research Report that I coined the phrase that “SAP is the bureaucracy.” Nothing turns your organization into cement like a good old fashioned SAP install. What the innovative oil and gas producer needs is an organization that will remain open and flexible to innovation, and a software development capability like that proposed here by People, Ideas & Objects. As we continue our review of capabilities, this discussion will focus on the need to have the organizational flexibility in terms of a capability to accommodate the innovations within the oil and gas producer and Joint Operating Committee organizations. A capability, much like the capability to shut in production until prices recover, brought to the producer through the Resource Marketplace module of the Preliminary Specification.

Having the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the innovative oil and gas producer is the first point in this exercise. Having the legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, innovation, and strategic frameworks aligned with the compliance and governance frameworks is necessary. To have the Preliminary Specification built as software with a fully supportive user community, and Community of Independent Service Providers will ensure that the innovative producers needs for change are met. To have all of this available without a dedicated long term software development capability to accommodate the needed changes in the organizational structures of the innovative oil and gas producers would be wasteful in my opinion. And these software development capabilities are indeed necessary according to Professor Richard Langlois’ research in capabilities.

The legacy of this "path-dependent” history, we will argue, has been a tendency (albeit an imperfect tendency) to respect an implicit dichotomy between the production aspects and the exchange aspects of the firm or, to put it another way, between production costs and transaction costs. p. 5

In the Preliminary Research Report we noted Dr. Wanda Orlikowski's Model of Structuration, which is based on Dr. Anthony Giddens Theory of Structuration, and by extension states that software defines the organizational construct. Therefore, within Orlikowski’s Model of Structuration, I have asserted the existing software applications define, support and constrain the organization. Professor Langlois has prepared similar findings in his research with the following point.

Seldom if ever have economists of organization considered that knowledge may be imperfect in the realm of production, and that institutional forms may play the role not (only) of constraining unproductive rent seeking behavior but (also) of creating the possibilities for productive rent-seeking behavior in the first place. To put it another way, economists have neglected the benefit side of alternative organizational structures; for reason of history and technique, they have allocated most of their resources to the cost side. p. 6

If we want an innovative oil and gas industry then the first thing we should do is ensure that we have the capability to maintain the organizational flexibility. The flexibility necessary to ensure that we do not constrain ourselves unnecessarily, and define and support the behavior that we desire. This is the role of software in the 21st century. People, Ideas & Objects are bringing this capability to the oil and gas industry.

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.

Moving to the Decentralized Production Model, as a Capability

Within the Resource Marketplace, and all of the modules of the Preliminary Specification we adopt the decentralized production model. The oil and gas industry is currently operating under the high throughput production model. The two models are best described In Chapter 4 “The Rise of the Corporation” of Professor Richard Langlois book “The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism” and is as follows.

In a world of decentralized production, most costs are variable costs; so, when variations or interruptions in product flow interfere with output, costs decline more or less in line with revenues. But when high-throughput production is accomplished by means of high-fixed-cost machinery and organization, variations and interruptions leave significant overheads uncovered. p. 58

By adopting the decentralized production model within the Preliminary Specification the innovative and profitable oil and gas producer gains a flexibility in their operations and a capability to deal with issues such as low natural gas prices. This is provided by turning the oil and gas producers fixed administrative, accounting and overhead costs into the variable administrative, accounting and overhead costs of the Joint Operating Committee.

Within the Resource Marketplace there are service providers who are focused on providing services to the Joint Operating Committees in the industry. These service providers are comprised of the former employees of the oil and gas producers who were employed in the accounting, administrative and overhead areas of the firm. They have been reorganized across the industry so that they can focus on the process and apply their skills to their industry wide client base. With this reconfiguration they are able to use specialization and the division of labor to enhance their service offerings to their clients.

The innovative and profitable oil and gas producer is reduced to the c class executives, the earth science and engineering resources, some support and legal staff. The remainder of the needs of the producer are made up by the service providers who number in the hundreds and are very specialized in the processes that they handle and the skills that they provide.

The Petroleum Lease Marketplace module has an interface called the Marginal Production Threshold Interface that enables the Joint Operating Committee to determine when and if to shut-in production due to the marginal costs not being covered by the revenues. When the costs are not being covered and the property is shut-in the advantages of the decentralized production model is made available.

The example of how the decentralized production model provides the innovative and profitable oil and gas producer with the flexibility in their operations would be as follows. The production, revenue and royalty accountants would have been removed from the various producers and reorganized into the service providers that specialize on specific processes of those tasks. To cover off the variety of skills and tasks just within the domain of production, revenue and royalty accounting would include potentially dozens of service providers. Each one providing specialized or geographical location based services to those Joint Operating Committees that used them.

In the case of production accounting there may be a service provider who specializes on the basis of one geographical region located in a remote area. Their offices located in that remote area which provides them a hands on type of production accounting service to the various Joint Operating Committees and producers in the area. The revenue accountants may have specialized further on the basis of the products that are produced. Each one taking the unique requirements for propane, butane etc. And finally several service providers would have been formed to establish services for the various processes involved in calculating royalties for the various jurisdictions that oil and gas is produced.

Each of these service providers would have developed their services with People, Ideas & Objects software developers. When activities occur in their network, such as production, then efforts are undertaken to complete the tasks within the various processes. These tasks trigger the billings for production, revenue and royalty accounting services to the Joint Operating Committee. When, as we noted earlier, the marginal threshold has been crossed and the property would be losing money on production, and the decision to shut-in the property was made. Then the charges for production, revenue and royalty accounting services for the months that no production occurred would not be generated and no billings would be sent to the various Joint Operating Committees.

This situation would be the same for all administrative, accounting and overhead charges. The use of production, revenue and royalty accounting charges are the easiest to show the direct relation to production. Using the Preliminary Specification the producer firm would have all operating and overhead charges cease during times of shut-in production, and only the costs of capital would be uncovered. The costs of capital may include associated overhead costs such as the costs to process the lease rental payment.

Therefore during times of shut-in production the financial performance of the property is that it is not losing any money and it is not earning any money. Contrast this to today’s high throughput model that has production at a financial loss. With the decentralized production model the reserves are saved for a time when the prices may rise and provide for a profit. And those reserves will have a lower overall capital cost as a result of not having to carry the additional losses that would have been incurred in the high throughput production model. And lastly by removing production from the marketplace the producer reduces the downside in terms of low natural gas prices and maintains a healthy market for natural gas.

With the prolific nature of shale gas reserves the risk of overproduction is great. Without a new business model in which to produce those reserves, the oil and gas producers will be destined to lose money on all of the shale gas reserves. Not a productive way in which to approach the business. The Preliminary Specifications use of the decentralized production model gives the producer the means in which to produce all of their natural gas reserves profitably and maintain the kind of operational flexibility necessary in today’s marketplace.

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.

Collaboration and Knowledge With the Service Industry

Within the Resource Marketplace module we have detailed what we have called the Actionable Information Interface. This being a central location for producers, service industry firms, service providers and vendors to post actionable information about their firm for others to respond to. In terms of the other interfaces that have been detailed in the Preliminary Specification so far, how does this interface fit in, and what role does it fill in terms of the other activities that are taking place in other modules? This discussion hopefully will clarify some of the different perspectives on the data and information that passes through, and is generated in the Resource Marketplace module.

The next interface that would follow the Actionable Information Interface would probably be the blog posts which is part of the Research & Capabilities module. Recall that these blog posts are authored by the people in the Resource Marketplace who are developing new and innovative products that they are working on. The act of publishing these ideas on this site provides the author with the opportunity to earn the copyright and other Intellectual Property rights. I see these ideas being a development of the actionable information contained in the Resource Marketplace module. The ideas being a codification of the market demand for new and innovative products.

The Accounting Voucher module has the interface for designing transactions. The ability to design the transaction to achieve the greatest organizational efficiencies for both the Joint Operating Committee and the vendor will provide significant value add for those in the oil and gas industry. Determining which vendor conducts which operations, when, where and how and then having the system automate as much of the process after the design is completed.

Lastly there is the interface for the processing of payments. This processing is part of the Accounting Voucher module and as we can see with all of the interfaces, all have a strong interaction with the Resource Marketplace module. What we need to capture in the Resource Marketplace module is the data and information that allows these other modules to operate. That is a critical function of the Resource Marketplace module.

Our discussion documented the different interfaces that related to and would source their data from the Resource Marketplace module of the Preliminary Specification. Now we want to discuss how that data is input and maintained, and most importantly who is responsible for that data.

The data in question is the plain generic contact data that is used in business every day. There are other attributes such as the information needed for processing of payments into the vendor's bank account. The majority of this data can be sourced from the suppliers web site, except it won’t be sourced by anyone. That is to say the supplier will maintain their own records in the Resource Marketplace module of People, Ideas & Objects software application.

Since we are a “cloud” based offering we have centralized the processing for the producer clients of People, Ideas & Objects in one location. The need for each producer firm to have detailed records of each vendor that they have worked with will be unnecessary as each supplier will maintain their own record within the Resource Marketplace module. This will save immeasurable amounts of time and errors made in inaccurate records and in duplicating the same information from producer to producer. Each supplier is motivated to ensure their data is correct. If a supplier makes a change of address, then they’ll know the best time in which to make the change to their Resource Marketplace records.

What will need to be done is for the People, Ideas & Objects user community to identify and document the various data elements that are needed in this Resource Marketplace “Supplier Interface.” This will need to include the data and information needs of the interfaces that were documented recently. Which will also include the ability to quantify and qualify the role the supplier and the producer can play when designing transactions.

Recall that the supplier will have many of the same accounting and processing needs as the producer. The objective of People, Ideas & Objects is to ensure that the producer attains the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. That involves the service industry, and therefore we need to have the ability to provide some of the same services to the service provider in terms of processing and accounting as the producer. This processing for the service provider will ultimately lead to lower the costs for the producers. Now on to the next interface.

In our discussion regarding the Resource Marketplace module of the Preliminary Specification I want to talk about the interface that the suppliers will use to get their message across to the producers. Many of the vendors will have web sites in which they maintain a host of information regarding their products and services, however, these are mostly static and provide little opportunity for the supplier and the producer to interact. The alternative that provides for that interaction is contained in the Resource Marketplace module and for purposes of identification we will call this the “Supplier Collaboration Interface.”

In our review of Professor Giovanni Dosi paper “The Sources, Procedures and Microeconomic Effects of Innovation” we learned that technical trade-offs facilitate the ability for industries to innovate on the changing technical and scientific paradigms. Crucial to the facilitation of these trade-offs is a fundamental component that spurs the change and is usually abundant and available at low costs. For innovation to occur in oil and gas, People, Ideas & Objects assert that the ability to seek and find knowledge, and to collaborate are two “commodities” that are abundant today. With their inherent low direct costs, knowledge and collaboration are the triggers for a number of technical paradigms which will provide companies with fundamental innovations.

I want to be clear that I see the Supplier Collaborative Interface as being completely different from any of the others that have been listed here before. The one that may seem to be the most similar would be the blog in the Research & Capabilities module where people are authoring “new” ideas and technologies on a stand alone basis. That blog is not done on a collaborative basis but is based on the research efforts of a few individuals or groups. What is being proposed in the “Supplier Collaboration Interface” is a collaborative interface that will invite the entire producer community to participate with the specific vendor to discuss that vendors products and services. These discussions will build on the whole community's involvement and define the vendors offerings in a collaborative manner.

The wiki style of this interface will cut down markedly on the volumes of email that are generated between vendors and producers. Much of this email being of the same context. Finding the knowledge that is needed is the key to resolving the problem, and if the producer knows that a centralized wiki format exists in the People, Ideas & Objects Resource Marketplace module that will be their first choice to turn to. It will pay the supplier to invest their time and energy in maintaining the collaborations with the producers in this Supplier Collaboration Interface style wiki, as that will be the first line of customer service. Complaints as well as accolades will show up and be evident to those that visit the site and therefore the response to those comments will be of concern to all of the producers.

I want to continue on with our discussion of the Supplier Collaboration Interface and focus on the collaborative manner in which producers and participants in the Joint Operating Committees will engage with the suppliers and the importance of the interface in the innovative oil and gas industry. This process is complex and I hope that I’ll describe it well enough that it reflects how critical this interface is.

Oil and gas is a business that is based on the earth science and engineering disciplines. Everything in the field is derivative of these facts. Innovation is based on the understanding of the sciences and in turn will lead to further advances in the sciences. As the industry becomes more innovative the need to be mindful of these facts becomes more common in the approach that is taken. The understanding that is required to undertake the most basic of operations requires significant educational and work experience to do it safely and correctly.

The innovative changes in the industry are mapped through the People, Ideas & Objects software application modules in the following manner. People with the ideas for new products and services write about them and earn the rights to them by publishing them in an industry wide blog in the Research & Capabilities module. And as “knowledge beget capabilities, and capabilities beget action” producers develop their capabilities around their land and asset base. Capturing these capabilities within the “Dynamic Capabilities Interface” of the Research & Capabilities module. This then is organized based on geological zone and the Joint Operating Committee which has certain producing geological zones, has access to its producers capabilities from their Knowledge & Learning modules, for those zones. The JOC is then able to learn from the producers what has and hasn’t worked through the proceeding process and are able to apply the capabilities successfully and document it in the lessons learned section of the Knowledge & Learning module.

This process has been documented in the Preliminary Specification in the modules to date. The issue that we are concerned about is with the last sentence. The part where it says “able to apply the capabilities successfully” will undoubtedly require the interactions with the supplier. Recall Professor Dosi notes that innovation is developed through the interactions between the “capabilities and stimuli” and “broader causes external to the individual industries such as the state of science.” Working within the science and innovative products and services of the oil and gas industry as they develop demands this interaction. The interactions between you and the supplier are important but just as importantly are the interactions that all the producers have had with the supplier. To have these interactions reviewable makes it substantially less risky for the producer and provides a forum where he / she can have their concerns aired.

Why are we developing the Supplier Collaborative Interface? I think that most people understand that doing the same thing over and over is easy. Making the organization alter its routine is difficult and when the change is introduced is when the trouble begins. If we could just leave things the same then we would be better able to produce the oil and gas that we need. Unfortunately those days are gone and the routine in oil and gas is anything but. Professor Dosi notes the following point about this difficult situation.

Organizational routines and higher level procedures to alter them in response to environmental changes and / or to failures in performance embody a continuous tension between efforts to improve the capabilities of doing existing things, monitor existing contracts, allocate given resources, on the one hand, and the development of capabilities for doing new things or old things in new ways. This tension is complicated by the intrinsically uncertain nature of innovative activities, notwithstanding their increasing institutionalization within business firms. p. 1133

Tension and the uncertain nature of innovative activities says it well. The ability for the producer to mitigate these through the Supplier Collaborative Interface is the reason for this critical interface of the Resource Marketplace module.

Staying with the Supplier Collaborative Interface of the Resource Marketplace module, however relating what is said here to the full scope of the Preliminary Specification. I again want to discuss the reasoning why People, Ideas & Objects is so involved in the operational areas of the oil and gas business. This is an ERP system designed to handle the business aspects of the oil and gas concern. However as we see we can’t separate the business from the science, and when we do we lose our innovative capabilities and innovation becomes just a bad science experiment.

Let's be clear, uncertainty resides in both the scientific and business realms. I am not of the opinion that the two can be separated, as is done in other systems such as SAP. This is maybe why the industry has been poorly served, in my opinion, by the business systems that operate today. They don’t recognize the innovative and science basis of the oil and gas business. By separating them SAP takes away the dynamic that is needed to ensure that the science remains grounded in the business of oil and gas.

Using the Supplier Collaborative Interface will enable the Joint Operating Committee to maintain a focus on the scientific and business uncertainties of the innovations they are implementing. In many cases the people within the JOC will be implementing the technology or innovation for the first time. The supplier and vendor may be still troubleshooting aspects of the technology. The need to be able to collaborate at a high level during this process will be essential through this period of both business and technical risk and uncertainty. Professor Giovanni Dosi notes;

However, even in the case of “normal” technical search (as opposed to the “extraordinary” exploration associated with the quest for new paradigms) strong uncertainty is present. Even when the fundamental knowledge base and the expected directions of advance are fairly well known, it is still often the case that one must first engage in exploratory research, development, and design before knowing what the outcome will be (what the properties of a new chemical compound will be, what an effective design will look like, etc.) and what some manageable results will cost, or, indeed, whether very useful results will emerge. p. 1135

So with respect to all of the interfaces that are in the Research & Capabilities, Knowledge & Learning and Resource Marketplace modules regarding the development of new technologies and capabilities. The actual implementation of the technologies from a business and technical point of view is done predominantly by the JOC in the field at the time it is first used. Having this Supplier Collaborative Interface available to deal with the risks and uncertainty in an innovative JOC is a must have requirement for an ERP systems provider to include in their systems.

I suggest that, in general, innovative search is characterized by strong uncertainty. This applies, in primis to those phases of technical change that could be called pre-paradigmatic: During these highly exploratory periods one faces a double uncertainty regarding both the practical outcomes of the innovative search and also the scientific and technological principles and the problem-solving procedures on which technological advances could be based. When a technological paradigm is established, it brings with it a reduction of uncertainty, in the sense that it focuses the directions of search and forms the grounds for formatting technological and market expectations more surely. (In this respect, technological trajectories are not only the ex post description of the patterns of technical change, but also, as mentioned, the basis of heuristics asking “where do we go from here?”) p. 1134

Separation of the business from the science and the operations was maybe something that could happen in the past. Today and in the future, with the high costs of innovation, the ability to troubleshoot the innovation from a science and business perspective seem to be more of the same thing. I certainly can’t foresee how we can continue to parse the two perspectives from the operation and send the respective “departments” their section of the operation. There has to be a better way and that begins with the Supplier Collaborative Interface. Where the users within the JOC are able to deal with the risks and uncertainties at the time they can be resolved, both from a business and science perspective.

It is in the Resource Marketplace, Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning modules of the Preliminary Specification that we have mapped complex innovation processes of the innovative oil and gas producer. These processes reflect the dynamic nature of both the producer and the service industry during this highly complex era of oil and gas exploration and development. In our discussion of the "Supplier Collaborative Interface," the interactions that will need to occur to complete the last parts of the innovative processes. But there is more for the Supplier Collaborative Interface as it works with the other interfaces in these other modules that have been mentioned.

We will be continuing on with our look at technological paradigms and the effect they have on scientific and innovative trajectories in oil and gas. When discussing these points on innovation, it is important to remember that the sciences, the trajectories they are on, and the opportunities they generate for a producer, are accelerating and will continue to do so. Recall too that the low costs of knowledge and collaboration were the trajectories that are being exploited in the Supplier Collaborative Interface. Professor Giovanni Dosi points out two critical points.

First, new technological paradigms have continuously brought forward new opportunities for product development and productivity increases. p. 1138

Secondly “A rather uniform, characteristic of the observed technological trajectories is their wide scope for mechanization, specialization and division of labor within and among plants and industries.” p. 1138

It is the second point that I want to deal with. The discussion of the Supplier Collaborative Interface about new innovative products and services is inevitably going to lead to “gaps” in products and services that need to be filled. Recall in our research of Professor Richard Langlois that the process of expanding the division of labor and further specialization is through “gap filling.” That when someone sees that a gap is needed to be filled, and is subsequently filled, that is how the division of labor is expanded. So these discussions in the Supplier Collaborative Interface are going to identify the needs to fill a significant number of “gaps” within the Resource Marketplace.

We had discussed this point directly in the Research & Capabilities module. However, I think that the more natural area for these “Gaps Interface” is in the Resource Marketplace modules Supplier Collaborative Interface. The actual location is one of the points that need to be determined by the user community once the full review of the Preliminary Specification is undertaken by them.

Management of these innovation processes is the role that People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification is undertaking within the producer and Joint Operating Committee. Without the software to define and support these processes the ability for the producer to attain these capabilities is suspect. What the innovative oil and gas producer requires in the 21 century is a software development capability as proposed by People, Ideas & Objects in order to obtain the organizational efficiencies that are of the scope and scale as defined here in the Preliminary Specification. Leaving your innovative strategies to chance have not worked. Innovation is too dependent on multiple organizations working together. These spontaneous collaborations have also not occurred. What we have learned in the Preliminary Research Report is that the processes of innovation can be defined and deliberate. And just as Apple consistently shows the world how to do it, doesn't mean that everyone can.

It's one thing to have the process properly managed by the software. It's another to have the capabilities maintained in-house. And its another to have the innovations developed and applied. Just because the ingredients are there doesn't mean that the producer will be innovative. I can assure you however, based on the research that has been conducted here at People, Ideas & Objects, there will not be any real innovations developed without the processes properly managed by the software first and foremost.

I want to discuss the results that producers and suppliers will obtain from the collaborations that they undertake in the Supplier Collaborative Interface of the Resource Marketplace module of the Preliminary Specification. If we assume that the industry participates at the level that has been imputed in the Preliminary Specification to date. That is to say that there would be a vigorous and unconstrained debate of the issues and opportunities that the producers were experiencing with the service industries products and services. And those discussions were available for the entire industry to review. Would there not be a large leakage of proprietary information from those discussion from one producer to the next? And would this fear of a leakage reduce the participation to something far less than the unconstrained debate that is assumed in the Preliminary Specification?

These are good questions and appropriate concerns. However, just as people who read People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification find different things than other people who read it. It very much depends on the individual's experience in oil and gas, career choice and educational level. This same situation applies to organizations. The capabilities of the producer will dictate what is gleaned from the discussion. Advanced innovative producers will be able to determine the most from the conversation whereas other laggard producers may not fully comprehend the meaning of certain nuances. It will depend very much on the capabilities of the producers and the suppliers that are holding the conversations.

Professor Dosi (1988) notes a study conducted by Richard Levin et al 1984, in which they studied “the varying empirical significance of appropriability devices of (a) patents, (b) secrecy, (c) lead times, (d) costs and time required for duplication, (e) learning curve effects, (f) superior sales and service efforts.” Professor Dosi (1988) observed, “that lead times and learning curves are relatively more effective ways of protecting process innovations, and patents a more effective way to protect product innovations.” Dosi concludes. “Finally, there appears to be quite significant inter-industrial variance in the importance of the various ways of protecting innovations and in the overall degrees of appropriability.” (p. 1139)

It's important to note that there are different objectives being pursued by the producers and suppliers in terms of their innovation strategies. Oil and gas producers are focused on process innovations, industry suppliers on product innovations. Recognizing this division of labor is how the Preliminary Specifications Research & Capabilities, Knowledge & Learning and Resource Marketplace modules processes provide and facilitate greater interaction between producers and suppliers. Each group is concerned with securing their innovative capabilities without creating any conflict with the other. (The producer looking to lead times, learning curves while suppliers using patents to protect their innovations and capabilities.) The fact that these are published in the Supplier Collaborative Interface across the industry brings depth to the discussion but only to the extent that the producers capabilities are able to assimilate the information. In a period of rapidly expanding trajectories, where the shelf life of information is limited, it is appropriate that People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification has enabled the producer to focus their competitive advantages on their earth sciences and engineering capabilities, its land and asset base. The supplier having secured their competitive advantages through the Intellectual Property laws available to them.

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.

It All Starts With Actionable Information

Our main objective in the People, Ideas & Objects software application modules is to identify and support the innovative and profitable oil and gas producer. It is within the Resource Marketplace module that I continually run into the conflict that is currently in the marketplace between the producers and the service industry. The conflict being the high cost of field operations and ownership of Intellectual Property. This conflict is the issue that the Resource Marketplace module must therefore seek to resolve by first opening up and developing the actionable information that is available within the marketplace.

This actionable information can be captured in an interface that is similar to any contact database. The actionable data can be plans and aspirations of the service industry provider in the short to midterm. For example, if they were a small drilling rig company looking to acquire a new rig they could post within the actionable information area of the database, that they were actively looking for producers within a certain geographical region to contract for drilling in the third quarter of next year. Producers seeing this could then see this opportunity and evaluate it on the basis of further discussions with the vendor. The drilling rig company, having contracts in hand from the producers would then be able to secure the financing and purchase the rig they have specified.

Actionable information can also be from the producer who might be approaching the start-up of a large project and will be looking to staff up to meet the demands. Or a producer may be wanting to develop in a new remote area and needs to have more infrastructure in place. Expressing a need is the first part of having the solution provided. As simple as it may sound this is the beginning of the process of innovation. Professor Giovanni Dosi notes.

Thus, I shall discuss the sources of innovation opportunities, the role of markets in allocating resources to the exploration of these opportunities and in determining the rates and directions of technological advances, the characteristics of the processes of innovative search, and the nature of the incentives driving private agents to commit themselves to innovation.

Centralizing this information within one location will help to provide the users of it with its ease of use. Lets face it, this information is available on the web in some form if you dig through each company's web site and impute what they mean from their plans. By stating clearly what their actionable plans are within a central database will make it easier for the users to access. The innovation comes about when the plans are not set and the ideas and opportunities are able to flow. Secondly People, Ideas & Objects can throw some processing power at this information and give the user some tools in terms of analyzing this information. Using the Google Appliance to aid in search. Analytical tools to analyze the data.

I want to make clear that this Actionable Information Interface will be different from the interface that is in the Petroleum Lease Marketplace module. Recall there is an interface that takes the capital expenditures of the firms for the next few years, primarily from the AFE and reserves reports, scrubs any proprietary information from it, aggregates all of the producers data and publishes it based on general geographical region. This provides the marketplace with a general understanding of the size of that marketplace in the next few years. And is different from the detailed and producer / vendor specific information that is contained within the Actionable Information Interface. The Actionable Information Interface would be potential new business. Also recall that this interface is the critical part of the process that begins here in the Resource Marketplace module and continues through the Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning modules.

A couple of quick points to note. The first item to note is that the Resource Marketplace module is both a producer and Joint Operating Committee facing module. That is to say it will be used in the producer organization for human resources, payroll and for securing the resources that the producer needs. And will be used by the JOC for the field products and services that are needed there. It may be obvious to some that this is the case however, I am stating this for the purposes of clarity.

The other item pertains to the all of the modules in the Preliminary Specification and that is by right clicking the mouse will bring up a contextual menu of options that the user can select an appropriate action from the People, Ideas & Objects software application. Whether this is a Work-Order, a Purchase-Order, AFE, or any of the other documents that are managed in the system. This will be available to the user through this facility.

We have discussed the posting of actionable information in the “Actionable Information Interface” of the Resource Marketplace module. A place where service industry providers and producers will be able to post actionable information in a centralized, searchable and analyzable database. Most importantly we noted that this was an important starting point of the process of innovation. It is an underlying assumption of People, Ideas & Objects that high commodity prices are financing enhanced innovation at the producer level. Therefore the need to stimulate innovation between the producers and the service industry starts with this actionable information.

In addition to the funds necessary to finance innovation there are what Professor Giovanni Dosi calls “technical trade-offs.” These trade-offs facilitate the ability for industries to innovate on the changing technical and scientific paradigms. Crucial to the facilitation of these trade-offs is a fundamental component that spurs the change and is usually abundant and available at low costs. For innovation to occur in oil and gas, People, Ideas & Objects would assert that the ability to seek and find knowledge, and to collaborate are two “commodities” that are abundant today. With their inherent low direct costs, knowledge and collaboration are the triggers for a number of technical paradigms which will provide companies with fundamental innovations.

Professor Dosi states “In very general terms, technological innovation involves or are the solution to problems.” Dosi goes on to further define this as “In other words, an innovative solution to a certain problem involves “discovery” (of the problem) and “creation” since no general algorithm can be derived from the information about the problems. Solutions to technological problems involve the use of information derived from experience and formal knowledge. It is the specific and un-codified capabilities, or tacit-ness” as Professor Dosi describes “on the part of the inventors who discover the creative solution.”

This is the point that I wanted to make in this follow on discussion to the “Actionable Information Interface.” Where will the innovative solutions come from? Who will solve the problems? It will come down to the person who first sees the problem. And that person may be situated anywhere within the industry. He may be the vice-president of production at mega production company. Or he might be like Steve Jobs who starts out in his parents garage. The point is for the industry to be all inclusive and to have the problems being identified by those who can see them and resolve them with their innovative solutions. I wonder what reading the Actionable Information Interface of 200 producers would provide in terms of seeing what and where the problems were?

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.

How the Market Must Develop

In many ways the Resource Marketplace module of the Preliminary Specification is the crossroads of many of the other People, Ideas & Objects application modules major processes. It is where the Accounting Vouchers design of transactions will ultimately be exercised. And where the Research & Capabilities overall process of capabilities development and implementation will be realized. Maybe most importantly it is a marketplace module where people will be able to buy and sell their ideas for products and services of what the innovative and profitable oil and gas producers need. If the Research & Capabilities module is a long term process of maintaining and increasing the earth science and engineering capabilities of the firm and Joint Operating Committees (JOC). Then the Resource Marketplace module is the day-to-day of implementing the policies from that long term process.

We also see in the Resource Marketplace module some of the efficiencies of using the JOC as the key organizational construct of the innovative producer. And that is an important differentiation of the Resource Marketplace module in comparison to the Accounting Voucher and the Research & Capabilities modules. It is a Joint Operating Committee (primarily) facing module. Therefore it is representative of the many participants of the JOC and therefore will have the influence (industry standardization) of many producers Accounting Voucher needs and Knowledge & Learning developments. Optimizing transactions between contracting parties will provide enhanced performance to the overall industry. These changes will not lead to small increments in overall performance, but I believe based on my research into Professor's Langlois and Baldwins theories, will have exponential performance improvements.

Another key point is the tearing down of the basis of Intellectual Property (IP). An industry such as oil and gas which is based on its earth science and engineering needs. After all it is a business based on science. If we are to expand the capabilities in the science and innovation in the industry. We are going to need to solve many very difficult problems. And as we progress, the volume of ideas needed will be an order of magnitude of what is required today. These problems cannot be solved in an environment where there is no upside for the individuals to solve them. Addressing the motivation to solve these problems and enabling the people to earn the rights to the Intellectual Property within the People, Ideas & Objects application modules is the first step in making the necessary industry wide changes. This therefore turning the oil and gas industry into a far more dynamic business.

I want to quote some work of Professor Giovanni Dosi’s. Specifically his 1993 article “Hierarchies, Markets & Power” which is a must read for those that want to dive deeper into these subjects. He states a simplistic model of organization will include the following, and I have annotated the area where these are addressed in the modular specification;

The distribution of formal authority. [The military command and control metaphor.]
The distribution of actual power in the above distribution [The people]
The incentive structure. [Innovation, intellectual property, and capabilities.]
The structure of informational flows. [Security & Access Control Module]
The distribution of knowledge and competence. [The people] p. 10
History, so to speak, solidifies into structures which constrain future developments. p 12

The purpose in developing this “Marketplace” is to ensure the future of the industry structure remains flexible and amenable to the changes in the sciences and innovation. But also to attain and maintain the highest performance . And in this next quotation Professor Dosi notes how this will come to be.

Clearly, it is the domain of Schumpeter’s creative destruction’, and of Moore’s (1978) analysis of the social bases of obedience and revolt, to name but two famous examples, and it applies also to the dynamics of economic organizations and institutions at large. p. 13

I’m a big fan of that concept of revolt. What I hope to have been able to put across in the discussion of the Resource Marketplace is the bigger question of how capabilities are generated from markets. Information plays a big role in this and the generation of ideas makes those markets dynamic. Lastly we must rely on the market forces of creative destruction to ensure that today’s bureaucracy loses its hold on the reins of power (somebody has got to lose), and that we are prepared to have our solution ready.

As we noted, the big problems in oil and gas were not going to be solved until the incentive structures were aligned towards those that solved the problems. Today, in the service sector, the oil and gas industry exploits the lack of identifiable Intellectual Property (IP) by more or less ignoring it and passing it around to other firms in the service sector and its competitors. This lack of respect to those that developed the ideas has brought about a situation where the service providers have ceased to innovate or sponsor any new start-up firms as competition. The producers are the ones that are losing as they are unable to have their needs met by a diminishing capacity in terms of the service industry.

The situation has become so dire as there is little to no research being done and no start-up opportunities in the oil and gas service sector. The exact reverse of what you would think would be needed at a time like this. The oil and gas producers are reputed to be so difficult to work for that securing staff makes it all but impossible to start a firm, and even if you could start a firm, the producers would only look down their nose at you and scoff. Such is life in the rarefied air.

Nonetheless, what's in it for the producers to accept that the IP should pass from their control to those that will take the time, energy, financial and intellectual risk to solve the producers problems? If we go back to one of the base assumptions that the People, Ideas & Objects software is operating under. We find that the competitive advantages of the producer firm are its physical assets and land base, and its earth science and engineering capabilities. Where in this competitive advantage does any product or service of the oil and gas service industry provide any value to the producer?

The means to acquire, explore, exploit and produce oil and gas reserves are how the producer makes money. That should be pretty obvious, but on the basis of how producers currently manage IP in the industry, they seem to think that drill bits and rigs are their future competitive advantages. What the producer needs is the most advanced and dynamic service industry marketplace that is innovative, productive, profitable and fiercely competitive in order for it to achieve its optimal productive output. What the producers should ask themselves is what have they got themselves now?

A cultural change of this scope will be difficult to implement. Add this cultural change to the numerous other cultural changes that parallel this scope in the People, Ideas & Objects application modules and you have an idea of the difficulty that lies ahead. These are the difficulties for the bureaucracy of the producer firms themselves. They are the ones that have to change. And I can't see that happening. It's a matter for Schumpeter’s creative destruction to sweep out the old and bring in the new. Or a time to revolt. The new being of course the eleven module Preliminary Specification that deals with IP in the manner that will allow for the difficult problems to be solved.

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.

Defining the Term "Designing Transactions"

I want to discuss what I mean when I say that users of the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification will “design transactions” in the Resource Marketplace and Accounting Voucher modules. Transaction Cost Economics is an important element of how the energy industry can control its costs and designing transactions is a key to those savings and efficiencies. Also I want to highlight the role of the user as an active agent in making things “happen” in the Resource Marketplace.

As with any marketplace the focus has to be on the user. The user in this case could be either a producer, a service industry representative or service provider. A user is someone with access to the People, Ideas & Objects module who would be optimizing the “tasks” and “actors” involved in transactions, and will be able to turn the producers needs into a demand for services in the Resource Marketplace Module.

There are two changes that might make things different in the future as a result of organizing on the basis of using the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the innovative producer. One is that designing transactions will become a skill that is going to be used substantially more. And two, the division of labor is going to expand, meaning that the job which may have had a few contractors to complete today, may now have an order of magnitude more in terms of numbers of contractors tomorrow. Consider the following.

When people buy a major item in their lives like a house or a car. They itemize the details of what is, and what is not included in the price. Who is to provide what and the terms and conditions of when the items will be completed. This is what is meant by designing transactions. Its more or less what Lawyers do for a living, or that is to say, it is an important aspect of their work in any commercial sale agreement. This type of work is where the costs and efficiencies of the organization can become onerous, or very easy. If a firm has “engineered” their transaction costs down to a fine point then they are able to manage their costs efficiently. This will be the case for an oil and gas producer. Transaction costs include the costs of installation, finance, testing, the specifications, types of materials to be used and the engineering consultants, etc. In oil and gas it is easy to see how these costs, even for a small job could become problematic.

As the producer focuses on their land & asset base and earth science and engineering capabilities. Product and service providers will be focusing on their key competitive advantages. Letting some of the work that they may have done in the past to specialists at different companies. This will increase the number of vendors that a producer will use to do normal operations in the field. This specialization and enhanced division of labor will provide greater efficiencies and cost control for the producer firm through more competitive and innovative solutions. It will also increase the throughput of transactions that a producer will have to deal with and put more emphasis on the ability to design transactions.

On the other end of this process is the product or service provider who is able to contract for what the producer needs. They too have interfaces to the Resource Marketplace module that are similar to the producers. These users, that may have anticipated what the markets demand is going to be, and are the first to configure an innovative solution. Are able to market their product or service effectively in the Resource Marketplace Module. These elements of the competitive market changes are reflective of the producers needs as determined in the Resource Marketplace, and its use of transaction cost economics (TCE). This process involving an iterative loop of constant improvement of the transactions and processes in the energy industry.

Lastly when these resources are discovered by the JOC or producer, the contract negotiation between the two parties can begin to take place. The first step in contracting will be the determination of exactly what the transaction should look like as determined by the interfaces in the Accounting Voucher. This would then lead to the specific negotiations, automation of the creation of the contract, and assignment of the Resources to the contract. From there this software should enable high levels of automation in order to relieve the user from work that is better suited to computers, and focus on the optimization and efficiency of the transaction.

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.

Introduction to the Resource Marketplace Module

A marketplace to support contracting from A to Z. To deal effectively with the Resource Marketplace the producer will need tools to effectively engage with the suppliers for the resources they need. The Resource Marketplace Module provides a window on the “Resource Marketplace” for Joint Operating Committees (JOC) and producers. Anything of value that is contracted between “actors” in the oil and gas, service, service provider, software and user community generated businesses will be found, contracted, managed and developed through this module. It's simply a virtual representation of the marketplace. Therefore the negotiation, determination of available resources, determination of transaction costs, contract execution and effective software tools to monitor and verify compliance to the contract are all part of the Resource Marketplace module and its interfaces to other modules of the Preliminary Specification.

Similar interfaces will be provided to the service industries. After all transactions have two parties, the efficiencies of the producers would inherently include the efficiencies to the service provider. If we have an accounting system, then certainly offering these services to the suppliers would only make sense. It is not just producers in the Resource Marketplace. Key to the efficiencies in the Resource Marketplace are the mitigation of transaction cost friction. Friction on both sides of the transaction, because transaction costs in the Resource Marketplace are costs that will ultimately be borne by the producer.

Contained within the marketplace will be all of the producers and suppliers who will be able to define, create and conduct business in this virtual marketplace. The scope and size of the Resource Marketplace should accommodate the needs of Exxonmobil and their $250 billion annual operating costs down to the single entrepreneur starting out in the business. To preclude any group, profession, organization, or person from the Resource Marketplace would limit the value available to the industry.

Also, to call this just a Human Resource Marketplace would be incorrect because it would limit the participants in the market. Whatever service, product or solution is provided to the energy industry, from either individuals, those employed by producers or JOC’s, or companies providing services to the producers. This should include Schlumberger and anyone directly or indirectly employed in the energy industry.

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.

Operational Flexibility From the Preliminary Specification

Before we begin our review of the Resource Marketplace module I thought we should take a moment to note the operational flexibility that a producer gains by using the Preliminary Specification. It is one thing for an ERP system to offer administrative flexibility and savings, its another to provide oil and gas producers with the most profitable means of oil and gas operations. It is through the use of the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the innovative and profitable oil and gas producer that we are able to provide that flexibility and operational control. The Joint Operating Committee is the legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, innovation and strategic framework of the industry. By moving the compliance and governance frameworks from the hierarchy into alignment with the Joint Operating Committee we achieve these flexible operational benefits, speed, innovativeness and accountability.

These are reflected in the ability to deal with the current low natural gas prices. Under the Preliminary Specification producers will be able to shut-in production without the associated impact to their financials. Under the Preliminary Specification the fixed costs of all administration, accounting and overhead become variable through the use of the decentralized production model. What we do is we reduce the producer down to the c class executives, the earth science and engineering resources, some support staff and legal resources. The remainder are reorganized across the industry into service providers who are focused on the process. There these service providers are able to use the tools of specialization and the division of labor to provide better services to their industry wide client base. Charges for items such as production, revenue and royalty accounting services will then be billed directly to the Joint Operating Committee that produced the commodity. If there was no production as result of being shut-in due to the property not meeting its marginal cost, then no administrative, accounting or overhead charges are incurred and no billing from the service providers will be sent to the Joint Operating Committee for that month the property was shut-in. This provides the producer with the opportunity to improve their financial performance by reducing their marginal production. Save the reserves for the time when they can be produced profitably. Keep the costs of those reserves constant for the future. And holds the natural gas off of the market, keeping the downside in price swings to a minimum.

There is much to be gained from the service providers use of specialization and division of labor. Efficiencies are one thing, however better service is another. With each producer in the current environment having to provide an administrative, accounting and overhead capability within their organization. Efficiency is the objective in every instance. However by moving to the industry wide capability that is reflected in the Preliminary Specification. The quality of the administrative, accounting and overhead capabilities could be enhanced substantially. Adam Smith proved that the division of labor and specialization were effective tools. Used in the manner that is described here would provide substantial efficiencies, or even better yet, quality of services.

The toolset of specialization and the division of labor have also been used to provide solutions to other operational issues in the oil and gas industry. That being the supply of earth science and engineering resources available from the short to the long term. Applying these tools is the sensible way in which to deal with these shortfalls. Therefore a need to organize them in a different manner would be required. The Preliminary Specification sees the issue as each producer having to acquire the capabilities necessary to deal with each contingency associated with any of their operated properties. This requires the producer to develop capabilities that are unused and unusable at any point in time. In addition as the sciences expand the scope and scale of these sciences will require the producer to expand their payroll too broadly to fulfill their capabilities needs. What is needed is for the producer to specialize in terms of its earth science and engineering capabilities and pool these capabilities with its partners within the Joint Operating Committee. Additional capabilities will be available from the marketplace as is required.

Being a Jack of all trades may have worked in the past. As we move closer towards the science in terms of a competitive basis of the industry. It will be difficult to maintain the scope and scale of most producers earth science and engineering capabilities of today. The Preliminary Specification is designed to provide for this pooling, it is a feature of the system, and gives the producer the flexibility in dealing with the operational concerns they are faced with.

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.

Conclusion to the Security & Access Control Module

It is important to remember here in the Security & Access Control module of the Preliminary Specification. That the role and identity based Military Command & Control Metaphor (MCCM) as has been conceived here has not been implemented, developed or conceived of anywhere else before. We are taking the concept and technology of role and identity based management to the next level with the MCCM, pooling and use of specialization and the division of labor in the oil and gas industry.

Why are we bothering with the MCCM and the pooling of the resources in the Joint Operating Committee anyways? The issue that we are resolving is the finite number of earth science and engineering resources that are available to the industry. With the anticipated retirement levels in the next 20 years. With the time requirements to bring on new levels of resources. And most importantly with the demands for more energy, and the demands for more earth science and engineering in each barrel of oil equivalent produced. We face a long term shortage of these critical resources. The need to organize the industry, to exploit specialization and the division of labor are necessary to expand the output from the same number of resources. Doing this without pooling the resources in the Joint Operating Committee will cause the producer firm to broaden the scale of their earth science and engineering capabilities beyond what would be a commercially viable concern. The Preliminary Specification notes that we have contributions of earth scientists and engineers from multiple producers working together to meet the objectives of the Joint Operating Committee. Therefore we need a means in which they can organize themselves and that is the Military Command & Control Metaphor of the Security & Access Control module.

How the MCCM will be implemented will be determined by the user community. However, I can speculate that the Joint Operating Committee will have standard roles and identities that are used throughout the industry. This standardization will probably be necessary for the purposes of making the technology work. The need to have the various areas “covered off” in terms of compliance and other requirements will require a standard template be used by everyone. Then everyone will know that that position is responsible for that role and responsibility. When Joint Operating Committees are small and have only a few people assigned, then multiple roles can be assigned to one individual.

There is also the security and access control issues associated with having the service industry and particularly the service providers accessing the People, Ideas & Objects systems and data. Removing the administrative and accounting resources from the producer firms and organizing them in their own service providers provides significant operational flexibility to the innovative and profitable oil and gas producer. The Security & Access Control module works to tie these disparate organizations into highly organized replacements to the current bureaucracy.

With the natural division in the types of information that are held within a producer and Joint Operating Committee. Producers will know that the Preliminary Specification will be able to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time. That leakage of their proprietary information can be mitigated by isolating the companies data, due to its unique nature and Oracle Label Securities ability to restrict access to database fields.

Oracle’s products provide a strong layer of mission critical capabilities in the Security & Access Control module. Although this comes with additional costs, I am certain that no one will argue with the quality and secure knowledge that these products bring.

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.

People, Ideas & Objects and Oracle Corporation

Please note I will be posting twice per day as we pass through and edit the Preliminary Specification.

Starting with the Security & Access Control module we find that Oracle Corporation have a comprehensive suite of applications that provide for the security and access control that we are looking for. Falling under the Oracle Identity Management brand name. These products include tools for Access Management, Identity Administration, Directory Services and Governance. These product classifications come in a variety of different products and are configured in some specialty industry and management suites.

Two areas that are going to be challenging are going to be the Military Command & Control Metaphor (MCCM) and the inter-relatedness of the Joint Operating Committee and service industry representatives. Early on in the specification we noted a number of research areas that were needed to be conducted. These are two areas that will take some research dollars to resolve. To have the MCCM recognize members of different organizations will not be the challenge. To engage them and have them interact in the manner that we expect them to when we expect them to, will.

Oracle Identity Management resides within the Oracle Fusion Middleware product layer. As we indicated earlier in the Preliminary Specification this is Oracle’s Java Enterprise Server. Therefore these applications are open to be tailored to the user’s needs. So when we do sit down with Oracle and define the Security & Access Control module based on the user needs. These needs can be accommodated by the technologies that we have selected.

And it is through the efforts of the user community that we will resolve these issues. It is also one of the reasons that the budgets of People, Ideas & Objects software developments are where they are. We will have challenges to resolve in delivering these innovative systems to the industry. I would also remind producers that our value proposition sees the one time costs of these developments amortized over our subscribing base of producers. Yet each one of those producers receives the full scope of that development effort in terms of the software application.

We now look into the Oracle product classification of Access Management. Included in the Access Management classification are the following products; Oracle Access Manager, Oracle Adaptive Access Manager, Oracle Entitlements Server, Oracle Identity Federation and Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite. Each of these products will be included in the Preliminary Specification as they have components that are required for the day to day use by the users, service providers, producers and Joint Operating Committees.

One area that I was surprised to learn that Oracle had been working on was in the area of working with partners, vendors and suppliers. Within the Oracle Access Manager it is noted that they are able to provide... “Building federated user communities that span company boundaries.” These are the beginning of both the pooling and Military Command & Control Metaphor (MCCM) that are critical to resolving so many of the issues that the oil and gas industry faces.

On the heels of Oracle Access Manager is their Adaptive Access Manager which takes the concept of intra partner interactions further with “Oracle Adaptive Access Manager makes exposing sensitive data, transactions and business processes to consumers, remote employees or partners via your intranet and extranet safer.” This is the nature of business in the future. Working with your partners, as is done in the Joint Operating Committee, is an effective means of reducing costs and increasing innovation in any industry. It’s only reasonable that the technologies are beginning to emulate these needs. In addition Oracle Adaptive Access Manager takes the level of security and authentication to a higher level. As a result, our demands regarding the pooling concept and the MCCM, I feel, will be less of a technical risk for the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification and subsequent developments.

The next application is the Oracle Entitlement Server which provides a dynamic access control element to the applications that use the server. Instead of hard wiring access control privileges into each application and user, you can dynamically generate them using the Oracle Entitlement Server. “The solution can manage complex entitlement policies with a standalone server or with a distributed approach that embeds information at the application level.” So when it needs to be determined if user X has access to Joint Operating Committee Y, a decision from the entitlement server, based on criteria within the application, can be made. If this information changes then the user would be denied access. This provides greater security based on policies and reduces the amount of detailed specific software development that is difficult, time consuming, and costly to maintain.

Federated Identities are also a major part of how the pooling concept and MCCM are implemented in the Preliminary Specification. Oracle Identity Federation provides high levels (attribute federation) to the applications that use it. We have specified in many of the modules, such as the Resource Marketplace module, the use of Federated Identities. Situations like where the contact and other information is maintained by the vendor. That information is comprehensive in nature and includes key organizational contacts, calendars and scheduling information. Working with the partners in the Joint Operating Committee and the representatives of the service industry in this way will effectively mitigate many of the technical software development issues we have.

One area that we will continue to face challenges however is in the Work Order. The ability to dynamically put together a working group to study some earth science or engineering research subject is critical to the innovative oil and gas producer. These are ad-hoc and made with partners that you may have no history with. Federated Identities will provide you with some of the information you need to form the partnership and grant application access, however, there is still the pooling of and sourcing of costs, and budgets which is the bureaucratic nightmare that mitigates and destroys the motivation for these working groups to form. We need to make sure these roadblocks do not get in the way. We have proposed to overcome these issues by developing an intuitive interface for the users forming the working group.

The last thing we want our users to be involved in is some form of mindless security access maze. Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite Plus promises to keep this from happening. Logging onto and off of systems as the user proceeds through the various modules and components of the applications is a must have. This product also promises the ability to provide this level of service on a remote basis. Which is much needed.

Oracle Identity Manager which will be used as the base product for role and identity management will also be the base of the Military Command & Control Metaphor for the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification. It is part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware product offering and as such is part of their Java Enterprise Server. Therefore we are able to build off the functionality that exists and enhance it with the user community's needs. Building off of the functionality will be somewhat limited as many of the concepts that are inherent in the MCCM are already captured in the Oracle Identity Manager.

Oracle Identity Manager is a highly flexible and scalable enterprise identity administration system that provides operational and business efficiency by providing centralized administration & complete automation of identity and user provisioning events across enterprise as well as extranet applications. It manages the entire identity and role lifecycle to meet changing business and regulatory requirements and provides essential reporting and compliance functionalities. By applying the business rules, roles, and audit policies, it ensures consistent enforcement of identity based controls and reduces ongoing operational and compliance costs

Oracle Internet Directory and Oracle Virtual Directory product offerings are up next. A little off topic but Oracle Internet Directory is a relational database derived directory server. That Oracle is providing the marketplace a directory server based on relational database technology speaks to the power of their relational database. They claim they have the performance for two billion users. I see advantages of using this product over their traditional directory server and have therefore selected it for the Preliminary Specification. It will provide us with some flexibility when we ask some of the comprehensive and demanding questions of the technologies.

Oracle Internet Directory could be deployed as an industry wide, and by that I mean oil and gas and service industry wide directory server. There it can integrate with the information that is held in other Oracle products, such as Oracle Identity Manager which would be deployed at the producer firm, Joint Operating Committee and service industry representative level. I think we could provide large volumes of information consisting of everything that exists in the industry. The producers, service industry, Joint Operating Committees, the people who work within the industry, etc. Because this is a database we have some interesting opportunities here.

And Oracle Virtual Directory may be the beginning of optimizing the relational database opportunities. So what we will have is a global database of names within the Oracle Internet Directory and these will relate to the information contained with Oracle Identity Manager and other applications. What Oracle Virtual Directory will provide us with is a seamless way in which to browse, and for applications to see, these datastores as one.

Within the Preliminary Specification we want to access the contact information of the people or firm that provide services or products to the producers or Joint Operating Committees. As we indicated we want the individuals and service industry providers to maintain their own contact and basic data. These will be maintained in the Oracle Internet Directory for each and every producer or Joint Operating Committee to access the most recent and up to date information. This will save an immense amount of time on behalf of the producers and Joint Operating Committees, as well as the individuals and service industry providers. When looking for someone the search capabilities will be significant as we have added the “Vendor / Supplier Contact Database” and the “Actionable Information Interface” to this base data in the Resource Marketplace module.

Now we want to look into Oracle Identity Analytics as part of the Security & Access Control module of the Preliminary Specification. The primary purpose of this application is to provide governance over the access privileges granted to the users of the People, Ideas & Objects application modules. Many of the functions and processes that are provided in Oracle Identity Analytics are either necessary or of significant value that it has been included in the Preliminary Specification.

The first area is the “why and how” of the users access. Providing documentation of what information was accessed by what users and if any of the access violates any of the established policies. Ensuring that data access by users is compliant with the corporate and application policies, that users are not unnecessarily being abused by overtly secure systems and overall good corporate governance is achieved. All of the data that is collected during data access, that is the “why and how” of the users access. Is compiled in a “Data Warehouse” for further analytical analysis and querying. This will help to show trends and usage patterns that will form new policies and procedures and security provisions.

Another useful function within the Oracle Identity Analytics application is the Segregation of Duties feature. In many areas of a corporation, certain process functions must be undertaken by specific individuals and in some cases different individuals. This feature provides for that assurance. It is also Sarbanes-Oxley compliant. This is important when the Joint Operating Committee is small, as we mentioned the other day. And we have to assign many roles to a few individuals. This application will ensure that the processes provide the appropriate governance is maintained by segregating the roles that need to be kept apart for compliance purposes.

There is a comprehensive and customizable dashboard interface for the users of the Oracle Identity Analytics software to analyze the data and particularly the data warehouse. Filled with reports and data that an effective user can use to determine where and how the People, Ideas & Object producer client might be susceptible to access control violations.

The last feature that I want to highlight is what Oracle calls their Role Lifecycle Management. This provides the Oracle Identity Analytics user with the ability to do “what if” analysis in terms of the implications to identities and roles within the People, Ideas & Objects application. It also contains a role change approval process, role versioning and a role rollback feature. These will be needed in determining and maintaining the Military Command & Control Metaphor.

We now step down from the Oracle Fusion Middleware layer to the actual Oracle Database for some of the security features that we seek. The first product in this stack is Oracle Advanced Security. It provides the authentication, and encryption of both the database and the network activity. It is possible, and I highly recommend that all the data and information that is used in the People, Ideas & Objects application modules be encrypted in the database and on the network. This increases the load on the systems and will require additional effort in terms of key management, however, I think the nature of the data and information and the manner in which the applications are provided, a “cloud based” solution, this level of security is necessary.

Oracle Audit Vault is another product that I recommend for the Preliminary Specification. It provides a central location and management of the audit information for compliance purposes. Giving our users the ability to manage the data, information, privacy policies and security. Oracle Audit Vault is also Sarbanes Oxley compliant.

This next Oracle product is a definite addition to the Preliminary Specification. Oracle Label Security will work in many different ways within the modules however here is how I see just two examples. What the application does is designate certain individuals with higher level security clearances. It also designates certain data fields with certain levels of security clearances. Those with high enough security clearances and appropriate authorizations are then able to read these database fields. Within the People, Ideas & Objects application we want to make sure that the reserves, accounting information and strategy discussions of each producer firm remain confidential to a select group of individuals within that firm. With Oracle Label Security that is possible. We also want to ensure that the appropriate people within the chain of command in the Military Command & Control Metaphor have access to the appropriate materials to make the appropriate decisions. This will allow those individuals to have access to these materials without making it available to everyone in the chain of command.

Although not that pertinent to the users of the People, Ideas & Objects applications we have also included Oracle Configuration Management, Oracle Database Firewall and Oracle Database Vault as part of the Preliminary Specification. These will help to keep the applications and the Oracle Database running as they should. Oracle Configuration Management will determine if there is a change in the configuration, either a patch, or if something has gone wrong it will correct itself back to the specified configuration. Ensuring that what is promised to the users of People, Ideas & Objects is what is provided. Oracle Database Firewall ensures no SQL statements that are inconsistent with the users or applications are passed through to the database. And Oracle Database Vault provides the ability to have only certain IP addresses or users to run certain SQL commands and to lock databases from having any operations being conducted on them.

Backing up your data and information are two of Oracle’s strengths. They provide excellent tools for this in Oracle Secure Backup. With the database being encrypted it is interesting that the backup is of the encrypted database. What we will need to do in the Preliminary Specification is to determine in great detail what precisely will be the backup strategy that will be used for the People, Ideas & Objects application.

Lastly there is Oracle Total Recall. A product that helps in accessing historical data. Oracle Fusion Applications provides some interesting solutions with respect to how they handle legacy applications and we will get into those as we proceed through the Preliminary Specification.

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.