The Interactive Nature of User Community Participants and Service Providers

We start this week with a look at how the user community, which writes the policies of the administrative, accounting and operations of the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer, implements those policies through their control of the software that is developed with the People, Ideas & Objects developers. Operating the industry through their ownership, operatorship and control of the service providers. It is through their early participation in the user community and the leadership that they have shown during their time there that they earn the rights to participate in the service provider sub-industry. The user community will be given the first opportunity to establish these service provider firms.

This is a necessary part of the quality service provider / user community product offering that we are looking for. The user community participant has to have their hands on the situation in which they are working with the People, Ideas & Objects software developers. At the same time they can impart some of the rational as to why the process and software was developed in the manner that it was to the people who are employed within the service provider organization. As they were the ones that designed and implemented it on the basis that it operates on. This feedback loop is necessary for the change dynamic that we are looking for in the industry. For the industry to make a change in the business model, or for the software to change in the smallest of detail, the user community and service providers need to have this crossover in terms of the people who are involved in both organizations.

As we have discussed before the service providers will make up a very large sub-industry. This will not be just a cottage industry approach to the management of processes for the oil and gas industry. With the reorganization required under the decentralized production model the administrative and accounting resources of the industry are reallocated from the producers to the service providers. This reallocation will move a large percentage of the $40 to 60 billion in annual G&A costs of the producers to become the service providers revenues. These revenues are an estimate of the North American based G&A costs of the producers. Therefore the scope of this service provider business operation for the user community participant has the potential to yield significant returns.

Each user community participant will have a limited scope of the entire administrative and accounting processes that makeup the oil and gas industry. This requirement dictates that we have the large population of user community participants in order to cover off the entire scope of the industry. They then can leverage that knowledge across to the service provider who scales the understanding across and throughout the oil and gas industry. Using the People, Ideas & Objects software, derived from the Preliminary Specification, the service provider will manage the process in detail across the oil and gas industry.

This is a business opportunity for those that have the understanding of the oil and gas industry, who are able to solve business related issues, and who have an aptitude for technology and in that order of priority. You may be part of a team of user community participants that own a service provider that take on a large process such as the Material Balance Report. Or you might have a small team that takes care of some unique attribute of accounting. It won't matter. The real value is that the ability to change and focus on the dynamic, innovative and profitable elements of an oil and gas producer are what will be the job at hand. And the fact that as a result of this configuration we will have changed the industry and will begin to realize the many trillions of dollars in opportunity costs that are available from the shale gas reserves and administrative efficiencies we provide.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and 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 Ability to Deliver Profits

Shale gas reserves have provided the oil and gas industry with an unbelievable endowment of value and wealth. The bureaucracy are about to turn this resource into the largest commercial failure in the history of human enterprise. They don't care that they produce natural gas unprofitably. They know they can't produce a profit, they don't even pray for a cold winter anymore. Why? because they know that no one is going to do anything about it. That is where I think they are wrong and where the People, Ideas & Objects user community comes in.

The decentralized production model provides a solution to the lack of profitability in the natural gas business. It addresses specifically the issues that are present as a result of the abundance from the shale gas reserves. The decentralized production model reconfigures the prototypical producer to include the C class executives, the earth science and engineering resources, some land and legal, and some support staff. The administrative and accounting staff are reorganized into service providers who are focused on one process and service the entire industry with their unique and specialized capability. Costs for these service providers are billed directly to the Joint Operating Committee. This industry wide administrative and accounting capability vs. each producer having to develop their own administrative and accounting capability is the key to dealing with the unprofitable shale gas situation.

When a property is unable to attain profitable operations it is shut-in until it can return to profitable production through either higher prices or some new innovation. While the property is shut-in, there are no operating costs, royalties or overhead costs incurred by the property. The overhead costs consisting of the administrative and accounting costs that are charged by the service providers to the Joint Operating Committee, and only when there is activity in their task and transfer network. Without production there is no activity to generate any accounting or administrative work or subsequent billing. Therefore the property reports a null operation, no profit or loss. The reserves are kept for a time when the property is able to produce at a profit. And the commodity marketplaces supply is reduced by the marginal production. A significant improvement over the current practice of incurring losses, adding those losses to the reserves to be recovered by even higher prices in the future and flooding the commodity marketplace with unprofitable natural gas.

The People, Ideas & Objects decentralized business model provides the producer with the ability to scale their operation up and down their production profile. One day they could be producing 20,000 barrels / day and the next 100,000 based on the commodity prices and the performance of their properties. At no time should any property be unprofitable. The producer would be profitable at 20,000 barrels / day and if prices allowed they would be profitable at 100,000 barrels / day. The decentralized production model makes their overhead costs variable just like their operating costs and their royalties. It is the service providers who will know that at anytime they may be faced with production declines from the producers in the order of 10 to 15% and are therefore able to account for these in their annual budgets. Essentially providing a means in which the oil and gas producer can control their G&A costs.

It is the decentralized production model that provides the means in which the producers can profitably produce the shale gas reserves. It is the user community that has the power and control of the Preliminary Specification and in this instance the decentralized production model to effectively deliver the profits to the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer. It is the user community who has the budget, the Intellectual Property, and the key point of contact for the industry to turn to. To make the decentralized production model effective and efficient in the oil and gas industry. If there are issues and opportunities in the decentralized production model that the oil and gas producers want to see, who do they turn to? The user community. It is also the user community that can make the changes proactively to enhance any new and desired benefits are made available to the producers. That is because we have only begun down this road. There are many opportunities when we begin using the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer, and the user community is enabled, empowered and in control of the business models and organizational structure of the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas industry.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and 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. 

Oracle's OpenWorld 2014 Conference and Our User Community

Yesterday saw the opening of Oracle’s annual database, application and Java conference, or Oracle OpenWorld 2014. This annual ritual includes all the news and features that Oracle has to present to the world. This year should be no different, other than there will be no sailing. I highly recommend watching Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s keynote address. These have been as interesting and as game changing as Steve Jobs keynotes at Apple. Another one to watch for is Renee’ James the president of Intel Corporation whose topic I think will appeal to many of the larger producer firms who have a concern with the cloud computing configuration of People, Ideas & Objects. What I am sure you'll find in her discussion is that Oracle, Intel and People, Ideas & Objects are able to provide you with your own hardware and software to operate your application from within your own organization. The one caveat is that the service providers and user community are the ones that will need to continue to provide you with the capabilities under the decentralized production model.

It makes no difference where your application is operated from. Centralizing it within a cloud configuration reduces the burden of managing the Information Technology elements and opens up the opportunities for change within the business model. The only real calls for ensuring that the applications remain within the organizations four walls are coming from the bureaucrats themselves. It might be one of their last ditch strategies to keep them in place for a while longer. So lets be wise.

I have written here on several occasions that the members of the user community and service providers need to have a higher level of Information Technology understanding. Specifically about relational theory, the Oracle database and Java. Defining this as augmenting your formal education with three or four related university courses. This would aid in the communication with the People, Ideas & Objects development team as there is no way that they are going to be able to learn what is contained within the scope of the user communities oil and gas understanding. This knowledge has other benefits in that it will give the user an understanding of the basics of the technology in what appears to be an explosion of technologies. When in fact the principles, innovations and concepts are based on some fairly basic technologies. Once you have those technologies the appearance of magic disappears from the equation and the user understands what is happening within the application. This is the type of service that we need to provide the dynamic, innovative and profitable oil and gas producer.

There are additional benefits on top of those that I just mentioned. When we look at the Oracle Stack that we use in the Preliminary Specification we see a large number of Oracle specific applications. It is critical to understand that these are not set in stone. If anything I would like to think of them as overall possibilities and suggestions to be built upon. These Oracle Fusion Applications are built using Oracle Fusion Middleware. All of the Preliminary Specification developments outside of the Oracle specific applications will also be built by the Oracle Fusion Middleware server. Think of the Oracle Fusion Middleware server as the plumbing supplies, the lumber, hammers and nails that you would use in building a house. Understanding how to use those tools you could then build any house that you would like, as in the Preliminary Specification. And you would be able to modify any house, or renovate a house, such as the Oracle Fusion Applications. If you understood the Oracle Database and Java at the level that is being suggested here you could conceptually form the ideas of how you want the dining room to look, its features and the People, Ideas & Objects developers would understand exactly what you want and then build it for you. This is where I want us to be.

Building this user community is our current objective. We think that this type of user community and the associated service providers are the necessary ingredient in making sure that the oil and gas industry is provided with the most dynamic, innovative and profitable means of oil and gas operations.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and 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. 

Its Been a Good Week!

We've taken the better part of this week to highlight the power and control that the user community will have in making the oil and gas industry more dynamic, innovative and profitable. It should be clear that the People, Ideas & Objects user community is structured differently than any other user community has ever been structured in the industry before. Participation will provide you with the tools to effectively and efficiently deal with the issues and opportunities that the oil and gas producers face in the years to come. There won't be a bureaucracy, the user community removes and replaces the bureaucracy as the form of organization in the industry. There will only be the participants and their ability to act in the best interests of the oil and gas producers.

Technology is making these changes in every industry today. It may not be as obvious as what People, Ideas & Objects and the user community are doing to the oil and gas industry. But small applications like AirBnB, Uber and Lyft are creating new smaller industries out of old bureaucratic and poorly functioning ones. I guess if we look at the service providers and the app marketplace we are creating our own sub-industries as well. The fact that technology has the power to change the way that industries operate is the trend that will continue for at least the next decade. The bureaucracies are strong and their resistance is effective. However we will succeed in the long term and they will be relegated to the scrapheap of history. Profitability demands it.

The time in which you chose to join the user community is your own decision. There are risks associated with joining People, Ideas & Objects. The bureaucracy will deal with those that they can identify. As we mentioned only those that choose to join the leadership team are asked to have a public profile at this time. User community participants are able to otherwise walk both sides of the street and hide out in the bureaucracy for a few more years. It is important to understand however that although the user community will be rather large. Numbering I think in the area of 2,000 to 3,000 people. That is a small sample of the numbers of people that work within the oil and gas industry.

It is also a very small sample in comparison to the number of people that will be working in the service provider firms. An area where the user community participants will have distinct competitive advantages in which to participate in terms of ownership and operation of. Therefore a balance in terms of the risk of commitment to this project vs the opportunities in the service providers that participation provides.

Our expectation is that we will have one hour of developer time for every hour of user community time. This one to one ratio is high in the development world. The reasons for this are many. The scope of our application is very broad. The change dynamic that we are introducing is strong. There will be significant experimentation within the user community. And lastly the need to determine a consensus throughout the user community will take time. These will add to the burden of the user community in terms of their time and effort.

2,000 man years of user community time is budgeted in the initial development release. This effort will be spread out over a number of years and have at its core 600 to 1,000 user community participants involved in the development at anyone time. The population of user community participants is necessary in order to cover off the broad scope of the understanding involved in the oil and gas industry. It is with this understanding that we provide the user community with the prospect of membership in the community which requires the specific skills in understanding the development process, relational databases and Java. And the fact that these are not full time positions. However they do lead to the prospects that these people are the leaders in the service provider community in terms of ownership and operation of that sub-industry. We will discuss the service providers more next week.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and 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 the User Community Exercises Its Power

It should be no surprise to anyone the response that Uber, Lyft and Airbnb are receiving from the entrenched Taxi Commissions and tourist associations around the world. Bureaucracies have two choices when faced with the threat of their own demise. To switch to the new technologies or to fight. Unfortunately they choose to fight in every instance. And the governments are willing dupes to the demands of these bureaucrats. Recently Germany banned Uber from the entire country. With fines in the $300,000.00 range if caught providing a ride through Uber. Its not that that will stop the application from replacing taxi’s, its just an irritating annoyance.

People, Ideas & Objects have been subject to our own push back from the bureaucracy. Reading the Preliminary Specification you can clearly see that there is little if any need for a bureaucrat in that environment. Therefore they need to do all that they can to make sure that the Preliminary Specification never sees the light of day is a priority for them. Fortunately they seem to be losing. But this won't deter them. If anything I see a battalion of new recruits being deployed as we speak. One thing they do have going for them is the number of bureaucrats is impressive.

One thing they can't overcome is the nature of the powerful and motivated user community. Users can walk both sides of the street for the foreseeable future. That is participate here with People, Ideas & Objects in the user community and keep your day job with the old bureaucrats and fat paycheck for the foreseeable future. That is the ideal situation actually. Only those members of the leadership team need to have a public profile. The other members of the user community will be covert. The bureaucrats never knowing their star employee is really a mole who is working to replace the bureaucrat and their mind numbing ways.

Usually the mole who is deployed in a covert operation is actively looking to disrupt the operation. That isn't necessary in our case. The fact that the industry, on the natural gas side at least, isn’t making any money is plenty destructive enough. Our focus needs to remain on providing the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and profitable means of oil and gas operations. We would do that in the bureaucratic world. Its just that its not possible.

Participants in the user community need to remember that they are very powerful. By adopting the proactive change agent capabilities we discussed yesterday. And knowing of the power that has been endowed in them through the user community vision. They have the capabilities to provide the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and profitable means of oil and gas operations. With this power comes the responsibility to do the right thing. One that I’m sure people can appreciate.

With the user community configured in this manner. It is a very different oil and gas industry. The decentralized production model strips the prototypical producer down to the C class executives, the earth science and engineering resources, some land and legal, and support staff. The administrative and accounting resources are configured in service providers that service the industry as a whole through their industry based capabilities. This structure and organizational configuration is controlled through the user community. Changes made by the users within the community will have dramatic effects on the configuration of this structure and organization, and of course the performance of the industry. It is the users who exercise this power, all with the focus of providing the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and profitable means of oil and gas operations.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and 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. 

Changes Needed in You, the User

Back to our primary focus at hand, the user community. People, Ideas & Objects software developments are user community based. Having software developers without a user community that is organized and focused is a waste of everyone’s time. People, Ideas & Objects and our user community are providing the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and profitable means of oil and gas operations. The only way to do that in the 21st century is through user community based software developments. I can't express our commitment any clearer than this. This however, requires change at every level in the industry.

We have been working on user community developments since the completion of the Preliminary Specification in November 2013. Our plan involves securing the 30 or so leadership positions of the user community before the January 2017 industry deadline. This industry deadline involves progressive producers and investors funding the development of the Preliminary Specifications budget at that time. With the leadership team in place we will be able to provide the industry with the overall vision contained in the Preliminary Specification, and the user community in which will be able to provide the alternative means of oil and gas operations. An alternative to the current bureaucracy that is losing money, which is leaderless and unwilling to change.

Participants in our user community are empowered to make the changes that are necessary in the oil and gas industry. If an individual sees an element within a small part of an application that is incorrect they will have the mechanisms and processes to make the changes to correct these through the user community. In addition, if an individual develops a new business model that provides substantial value for the dynamic and innovative oil and gas producer. They can have that implemented through the user community as well. Contrast this capability to affect change with the frustrations that the individual faces in the current bureaucracy. Where if you propose something new and innovative, your most assuredly are going to be laughed at.

There is also the scope and scale of the People, Ideas & Objects Preliminary Specification and user community. Any changes that you do make will not be populated to only the one company that you are currently working for. With the cloud computing model, and the structure of the proposed system, ideally these changes would be populated across the entire industry. Providing the user with not only the means in which to make the changes, but also the motivation in having those changes impact the entire industry.

A person with ideas on how to make things better for the industry would have plenty of opportunity to express themselves in this new community. The stifling environment of the bureaucracy has taught you to shut up and sit down. To drone on in an unappreciated manner where the frustration of having to deal with obtuse systems and procedures, designed for unknown criteria, clog and spew. If there is a chance that a system can be developed that eliminates the technology focus. One that is designed to understand the culture of the oil and gas industry. One in which your participation is the priority of its development. People, Ideas & Objects is it.

However, for this to happen your participation is required. It all starts with you. And that is how these changes will begin, and that is how the changes that we discussed in this post will happen, with your action. Time to dust off that computer at home and start participating and begin the developments of the user community. It really comes down to the change you make in yourself. Forgetting how to be a drone and becoming a proactive change agent in the oil and gas industry.

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

A Comment on the Economy

It seems every year around this time I feel compelled to discuss the general economy. Last year it seemed to be looking fairly promising with the ability to crawl out of this malaise being a distinct possibility. A malaise that we have found ourselves in since 2008  We've had a good year, but that possibility of breaking out of the doldrums seems like we'll have to wait a while longer. I don’t know about you but I've turned pessimistic about the general economy over the past couple of months. I’ve lost that optimism that we were moving upward and onward. I’m feeling more like its pre 2008 and everyone is partying, thinking it will never end. There are a few that are saying that we should be careful this time and are preparing for some rough times. But I'm thinking of some real rough times. The central banks are out of bullets. And as much analysis and rewriting of history that has gone lately about the great depression. The best description that I can find of what did happen is that it was caused by a failure of governments. If the central banks have fired their ammo, and we head into some difficulty, then the failure of government could be upon us once again.

Turning to brighter news. The bureaucracy have sought and found all the cover that they could have ever wanted in the past decade in corporate America. Don't rock the boat, steady the ship and live to fight another day have been good strategies to make it through these years. And look at the performance of our organizations in general. Never in the history of corporate America has the economy performed consistently so poorly. With interest rates being at zero for so many years investment decisions have been lacking the appropriate discipline in the corporate world. If you make a mistake no one will notice as the consequences are not realized when there is no competition for the investment dollar. Therefore the bureaucrats have become more obese and even lazier than before. Leading to the poor performance in the economy.

At the same time the Information Technologies have matured to the level where it is possible for anyone to do anything with them. The limits of ones imagination are the constraints that we are now living with. And at the same time we are provided with FaceBook and Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. I guess these types of experiments are useful in ways but as businesses with large valuations I thought we dispatched these useless experiments in the late 1990’s. We are however beginning to see the revolutionary business model driven technology companies begin. Companies like AirBnB, Uber and Lyft are revolutionary. They are changing the accomodation and car ownership models. Other applications of this mature Information Technology are just around the corner.

It is these types of technologies that eliminate the bureaucracies and the power of the Taxi commissions across the globe. Applications that are developing today. These are where the economy needs to move too as soon as possible. The ability and capabilities of these technologies are dependent on societies capacity to change. Currently we are still hunkering down in our jobs, clinging to that paycheck that sustains us and constrains us. I think that, in a very short time, people will begin to see others embracing the technologies and moving to the new environments. Environments like People, Ideas & Objects where the individual matters more in the outcome of the oil and gas industries performance.

It is this transition to the mature Information Technologies that have been temporarily disrupted by the entrenched bureaucracies. In all industries in North America not just oil and gas. The sooner we take the opportunities to remove them from the scene the better off the economy will be and we can resume the normal course of economic development that we had once become accustomed to.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and 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. 

Two Good Examples

My discussions with the industry, or at least the Canadian part of the industry, continue to be frustrating and unfruitful. Talking to people who can make the decision to participate in People, Ideas & Objects development efforts receives the standard response, that they will join in when the product is fully developed. They say its not their job to participate in software developments. To which I ask if its their job to lose money? To which they repeatedly blink. Its this type of attitude that we are fighting in the industry. Why our appeal is to the investors to direct these people to fund our developments. To create our own permanent user community so that we never have to rely on these blinking people. They don't have the capacity to see the problems that are in front of them. They don't have the capacity to see the solution or to implement a solution that is offered. They are paralyzed and incapable of change.

I have two good examples today of how the situation is in the marketplace today. The first is our friends at PennWest Energy who recently announced their revised quarterly financial statements. Recall that they had to restate them for the purposes of revising the royalties back to operating costs from being capitalized. The second example is Noble Energy in the United States who recently went through a software implementation with Oracle. This was a custom one off implementation that is highlighted by Oracle as a success.

To the first example, PennWest Energy. The Press Release is here. Its interesting to note that the culprits that capitalized the royalties were the staff. At least that is what the press release says. We know the bureaucrats do nothing but sit around and point the fingers but rarely do they do it in a press releases. It might be that the staff did it but capitalizing royalties shouldn’t pass the laugh test beyond the first bureaucrat. And, its important to note, that the bureaucrats are keen to point out in the press release that they have reduced the payroll by almost 50% since this time last year. Therefore, I’m sure that it was the inspired staff after all. The pressure to make profits is quite strong and its coming from the investors in the industry. The bureaucrats way is to cut the staff by 50%. What rationale this supports is unknown to me. I'm just glad I don’t work in an oil and gas company.

Review of the PennWest financials has left me perplexed. The company appears more profitable than the previous statements. Reversing $200 million in capitalized royalties benefiting the bottom line is a bit confusing. But that seems to be the case. Maybe the most creative accounting I have ever seen. The comment from the Chief Executive is that the production, the land and the ability to execute are unaffected by the accounting crisis. The message that tells me is that the accounting is such a mess, probably because there is no one left, that we've given up, so should you.

With the following video from Oracle regarding a software development and integration for Noble Energy.

You can see that the entire focus of the company is on the ability to execute. Is that all an oil and gas company is today. Another project to execute? No appreciation that we are doing this work in a commercial environment. That we should be making money at this. It seems that the idea that this is a going concern and is part of a larger organization that is focused on providing that organization, the society that it operates in and the people within that society with an increase in value is lost. It’s all just activity for the sake of activity. Now there is discussion of the impact on the community, all the right buzz words spoken by all the right people, about the number of truck trips to reduce etc. It is however the responsibility of the oil and gas companies to be making profits. That is their role in society, not sitting in a sewing circle and singing kumbaya.

When I talk to someone in the industry, a decision maker, and I’m turned down because making money is perceived as someone else’s job. And at the same time I see the misguided adventures at PennWest. Or the lack of a clear focus of an enterprise at Noble Energy. I see why our focus on profits makes us the odd man out.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and 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. 

Change at Oracle Corporation

News regarding Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison stepping down from the CEO role came after the close of yesterday’s trading. At 70 years of age some are saying that the time has come for him to take a lesser role in the company. Replacing him as CEO will be Safra Catz and Mark Hurd who have been part of the team at Oracle for many years. Many of the pundits seem to be jumping on the poor financial performance of Oracle in the past few years and attributing that to Mr. Ellison. This announcement coming at the same time as the news that Oracle missed analysts estimates for the quarter in a material way. I expect that the piling on of the industry leaders and others to continue, Larry hasn't made many friends in the days of building Oracle. I too have been at the losing end of some of his antics back in February of 1997. However, I think that what the analysts, the pundits and everyone else will be wrong about is that Larry is doing nothing close to stepping aside. I think they are very wrong and unless there is more information regarding his health or other issues, I think it is fair to assume the following.

Larry Ellison is a visionary. He is the fifth wealthiest man on the planet based on his skills of implementing his vision. Oracle’s technologies are miles ahead of anyone elses in the marketplace. The breadth of offerings is fully diversified in the hardware, software and services domains. Oracle is the IBM of the 1950’s and 1960’s. There are no others that can play the game that they are in. Its just that the game is not being played at this time. People are comparing the financial performance of the firm against the other “cloud” companies such as Salesforce and Workday. I think Oracle is looking to compete in the marketplace that is defined in the Preliminary Specification, the user community and the service providers. Where industries are being disintermediated by technology and looking for the entire technology stack to be provided by one solutions provider.

Oracle has invested $50 billion on over 100 acquisitions over the past decade. They have also invested massive resources in terms of research and development based on Larry’s vision. The products are there, I can see them, and they make me want so badly to get to them. What is needed is to take these disparate products and package them into a coherent single unified message and market that to industries on the basis of what could be. Much as what we are doing here for oil and gas at People, Ideas & Objects. Technically Oracle has the opportunity to provide the hardware, software and related services to the commercial world. Just as IBM did in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Who is going to stop them. And who is going to provide that infrastructure to those industries in the next decade?

IBM’s technology isn't there anymore. They sell very little hardware and the software they do sell is Linux based. Not even their own proprietary operating system. DB2 was a challenger in the database in the past, but can’t hold a candle to Oracle in the distributed computing world. And Oracle was dominant there a decade ago. Sybase is a SAP technology, which is an ERP system, and only an ERP company. HP is on life support. Dell is restructuring. Most of IBM is Lenovo which is Chinese, and therefore government. Where exactly is the competition to Oracle’s unified, diversified, integrated, hardware, software and services offering going to come from? There is no choice. And anyone will need at least two decades to catch up to Larry Ellison's current position.

I’m sure Larry Ellison is frustrated with the impatience of his investors. He still holds 25% of the company and would like to see the developments happen quicker too. He however has seen his impatience get the better of him in the past. He still pays dearly for his attack on his partners in February of 1997. I wasn't the only one. He has been moved to the Executive Chairman position which means he’s still full time. And he is also now the Chief Technology Officer. So maybe it is his chief responsibility to make a coherent message of this broad product range. I see this as removing the constraints of being a CEO and enabling him to focus on where he builds the most value. On developing the overall vision and delivering the products of the firm.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and 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 is a Precedent

There is a precedent where the investment community was able to pressure the bureaucracy to change their business model to one that was more amenable to the interests of the investment community. This is the strategy that People, Ideas & Objects are employing in having the Preliminary Specification, the user community and service providers implemented within the North American marketplace. Our business models value proposition provides trillions of dollars in incremental profits to the investors if the producers change their business model to the Preliminary Specification. This strategy on the surface seems to be a chance in a million that will never have the desired effect. However, there is one pertinent example that is directly on point and occurred in the 21st century. It is the Canadian Royalty Trust example.

Royalty Trusts were enabled in Canada through tax legislation in a number of administrations. It was felt that it provided a means for smaller oil and gas companies to provide their investors with a means to recapture their investments from the oil and gas producer in a safer and quicker fashion. This involved the Royalty Trust declaring monthly dividends to the investors that represented a taxable income to the investor. Essentially the producer firm was not having to pay income tax or what is commonly believed to be the double taxation normally associated with the traditional corporate model. In the early part of this century the pressure to convert your organization into a royalty trust was quite strong. And if the firm did convert, the results were that you would receive a higher stock market valuation and greater access to capital. Those that resisted were treated poorly by the investment community by way of receiving little attention in terms of new capital investment.

The trend therefore became quite strong to convert to a Royalty Trust in Canada. The pressure then grew to the intermediate producers with the majority of them converting. Then it became fashionable to employ the business model outside of the oil and gas arena and other industries began actively pursuing this corporate model. It wasn't too long afterward that even large producers were contemplating the conversion to a trust model, and even large corporations outside of the oil and gas industry began converting. It was at that time the Canadian government stepped in and announced an end to the tax legislation defining and supporting the Canadian Royalty Trust model. Effective as of 2011 all active Royalty Trusts have had to convert back to regular tax paying corporations. This was done by the Federal government to mitigate the large and growing loss in their corporate tax base.

Here we have an example of the ability of the investment community directly pressuring the organization to make the necessary changes to affect their business model. If they didn’t make the changes then the producer was somewhat ostracised in their ability to raise capital in the investment community, and their valuations were encumbered by the premium that was attached to the Royalty Trust model. In the financial investment community you have to compete. By opting out of the Royalty Trust model you essentially stated that you would not compete for capital.

We can, and we are implementing this same strategy. The investor can state that they want their producer firm to implement the Preliminary Specification in order to provide for the most dynamic, innovative, and profitable means of oil and gas operations. The material affect of our value proposition is significantly more pronounced than it is in the Royalty Trust business model. We provide real value increases, not just a minor reduction in the taxes that would otherwise be paid. As each individual producer converts to the Preliminary Specification. A conversion that is done by simply paying their share of our development costs and issuing a press release stating that they have done so. It will be at that point that the investor will begin to see the benefits of the pressure that they put on the producer through the fact that the valuation of the producer firm will have been adjusted to reflect the new realities. Then the pressure will build on the other producers to convert to the Preliminary Specification as well.

The decision to support People, Ideas & Objects in January 2017 doesn't seem to far away, nor as impossible now. Investors do have power to make the changes that we are asking of them. And we will continue to appeal to them to make these changes at their producer firms.

The Preliminary Specification and user community provides the oil and gas producer with the most dynamic, innovative and 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.