The Preliminary Specification Part XLVIII (C&G Part III)

In a capital intensive business such as oil and gas, access to capital is a critical capability the producer needs to develop their operation. In order to have access to the capital you must meet the regulatory requirements and compliance needs of the markets. Therefore the Compliance & Governance module of the Preliminary Specification is a critical capability to all those that are dedicated to building an innovative oil and gas producer. That applies equally to ExxonMobil and the start up oil and gas operation.

And it should be a concern of ExxonMobil that the start up oil and gas operation has its compliance and capital in good shape. Why? What’s that saying you can’t pick your neighbor's and you can’t necessarily pick all of your partners. Sometimes you have to deal with partners that you have no history with. You want to make sure that they are capable of operating in a fashion that is at least consistent with standard industry practices. It is those standard industry practices that include high levels of compliance and governance in today’s oil and gas industry operations.

As we have discussed in the past few days the level of expectation by regulators with respect to the compliance requirements are high. It would appear that there is no sense that any relief will be forth coming, on the contrary, we should expect the level of requirements to grow. This is the only reasonable expectation, however, I would ask, have we implemented these compliance frameworks correctly? Have the regulations which are submitted in technical frameworks, been “integrated” to the ERP system, or just attached?

We can see the answer to that question when we find that no current ERP system calculates the Gas Cost Allowance for royalty calculations. To conduct these types of calculations you would need to integrate the royalty frameworks deeply within the ERP systems, and that clearly has not been done. So when it comes to the automation of the compliance frameworks, which is the objective of the regulators in publishing these technical frameworks, nothing has been done from the industry side.

I have always argued that there is two ways in which to approach the problems that we face in oil and gas. One is to automate the processes to high levels with systems. This requires the high capital costs of software development like what People, Ideas & Objects have proposed. Or, you can employ the human resources to maintain the compliance requirements on a manual basis. This is the method that industry has chosen to pursue up to this point. I would ask in times where;

• The cost of capital is historically low.
• The demand for human resources is somewhat constrained.
• The regulators have published technical frameworks.

Why wouldn’t the oil and gas producers chose to develop the People, Ideas & Objects applications.

Automation of the compliance frameworks within the People, Ideas & Objects applications would provide many benefits to the innovative oil and gas producer. The costs of doing this engineering work is being amortized over the entire industry. Making these highly engineered software products, incidental in terms of actual cost to each producer. Access to these systems would be to the benefit to all of the producers in the industry. Enabling the capability of each individual producer to meet or exceed the minimum standard of industry expectations. In a world of increasing demands your partners capability could become a critical issue to your operation. There is a compelling argument here in the compliance part of the Compliance & Governance module. And I think its time for the industry to act.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part XLVII (C&G Part II)

Yesterday we discussed the opportunity that we have of centralizing the software development costs and efforts for Compliance & Governance frameworks under one roof. That is to say that instead of each producer building the in-house capacity to have their software and compliance capabilities maintained, it is possible instead to have it centrally managed through People, Ideas & Objects. Today I want to take that concept a bit further and break down another element of the cost of compliance and discuss how that element of compliance could also be done in a centralized manner. That element is of course the accounting and administrative costs incurred in meeting the regulations requirements. The costs of which are incurred in the human resources and associated overhead. Therefore these costs are an area where specialization and the division of labor could be applied and build real value for the producer firms.

It comes down to the question of where is the compliance work done at the Joint Operating Committee or the firm. It has to be done at the firm as all the variables are unique to each producer. However, that does not preclude the firms from having their accounting done by groups that work for many firms. Traditionally public accounting firms do work for many firms. People, Ideas & Objects will rely on our proposed network of Community of Independent Service Providers (CISP) who would be looked at to provide these types of services. These accounting services have been traditionally handled internally by the producer firm, however, I think from an efficiency point of view there may be an alternative means of having these types of work done. I think that it may be time that producer firms should consider that they undertake to have CISP member firms conduct the entire scope of accounting and compliance work for multiple producer firms. Why not.

If we were to approach the accounting and compliance reporting requirements on a specialization and division of labor basis we could add significant value to the industry. Taking the organization of the accounting across the industry and building the accounting and compliance needs for all of the producers would provide that value at lower costs and better service because of the efficiencies from the division of labor and specialization. Particularly in the area of compliance reporting, especially royalty, where the knowledge of the people who were employed in the compliance service could be so specialized that they are able to ensure that their clients royalty obligations are the lowest possible. With royalties being the largest cost component of a producer this would certainly be of value but there are greater efficiencies then these available. There would also be the ability to manage the process with the most efficient team available.

These are the two elements of the costs of compliance. First, as we noted yesterday the cost of maintaining the software in compliance to the regulations. And two, the accounting that is done in keeping the firm up to date. If the software can be maintained on a global basis on behalf of the industry by People, Ideas & Objects then the one time costs of the software can be amortized over the industry as a whole. And if the accounting costs can be managed by also centralizing the accounting function, and as a result, specialization and the division of labor coming into play. Then the industry is benefiting by reducing their costs by reducing the two largest components of the costs of compliance in the most cost effective way. Yet, they have also done so in the manner where their compliance is more accurate.

Another element of quality also comes into play as a result of the proposal from People, Ideas & Objects. That element is time. If the timeliness of the information that is provided is within the guidelines, or is earlier, then the quality of that information is much higher. I think that what is proposed here with the high levels of software automation, specialization and the division of labor provide an assurance that the timeliness of the information that the systems we are building will be better then the deadlines imposed by the regulators. This timeliness doesn’t appear to come at the expense of any accuracy either.

Lastly when we discuss moving the compliance and governance frameworks of the hierarchy to the Joint Operating Committees legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, innovation and strategic frameworks. We state that this provides an increased speed, innovativeness and accountability. For when you move compliance closer to operational decision making, accountability is the result.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part XLVI (C&G Part I)

Ah Compliance & Governance, the module everyone loves to hate. It is my hypothesis that it is here, at compliance and governance, that everything went wrong. What I mean by that is in the 1960’s when the first computers were being introduced into oil and gas companies. The question was asked what will we do with them. And of course the answer was accounting. Then as they became ever more powerful and more capable they began to add more tasks to their duties and added the natural follow on concerns of tax, royalty and SEC compliance. Soon the culture became focused on those “compliance” requirements of the “firm” and the Joint Operating Committee became something that was used over there. Soon after this engineers and geologists began speaking a different language to the “business” types, as they began development of management science and other such nonsense. Divisions grew and the business of the business was focused on the corporation and its need to file the appropriate paper work to the appropriate agency in the appropriate time frame on the appropriate colored form.

Anyway the real business of the business, the Joint Operating Committee somehow survived and if we align its legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, strategic and innovation frameworks to the compliance and governance frameworks of the hierarchy everyone can start speaking the same language as the engineers and geologists and start to get some real business done. And as People, Ideas & Objects research has shown this would provide the oil and gas producer with greater speed, innovation and accountability.

Compliance & Governance is the eleventh module in the eleven module Preliminary Specification. Please note, the number of modules is not set as the user community may certainly add more modules if they feel the need to. It’s also no accident that I added Compliance & Governance last, as the question that should be asked is. How are we going to ensure compliance to all the regulations for all the module specifications that we have discussed so far? And I would assert that is why these are user based developments. But seriously, one thing governments seem to be fond of today is regulations on oil and gas companies. With Information Technology enabling various governments to issue technical business rules, technical specifications, XBRL syntax’s and other technological frameworks for these regulations. The ability to write these “frameworks” only seems to have encouraged them to write even more regulations. The larger point is that these frameworks do provide software developers with distinct advantages in enabling the regulations within the software.

As we had indicated in an earlier post about the user communities determination of the scope of the People, Ideas & Objects application. Part of that determination of scope will include which regulations it will need to be in compliance to. With so many jurisdictions requiring compliance, each transaction may need to be assured to be in compliance with multiple jurisdictions. Add to that the transaction may be generated through a Joint Operating Committee owned by a variety of producers. And those producers maybe composed from an international background and the Compliance & Governance module takes on enhanced importance.

From the point of view of a producer maintaining the database and applications for all of the compliance frameworks that you have to be concerned with is a difficult task. The number of people you need to have to keep your applications up to date is significant. However, People, Ideas & Objects as one software developer acting on behalf of the industry as a whole, the job becomes much more specialized and therefore manageable. Then again if we were building these applications with the purpose of serving an industry we could use the division of labor and specialization to manage these tasks in a way that would significantly lower the costs of compliance, and increase the quality of the producers compliance.

I foresee just the royalty compliance requirements of these applications potentially including many dozens of different jurisdictions. To approach that as a sole producer is not cost effective in the least. To consider these costs are replicated across each producer firm, then we begin to see the costs of compliance escalating to the levels that they are today. There is another way, and that is what is being proposed here in People, Ideas & Objects, along with the many other innovative ways we are proposing to deal with the issues in the oil and gas industry.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification.

The Preliminary Specification Part XLV (A&S Part III)

This post will deal with the motivations of people to use the Analytics & Statistics and Performance Evaluation modules of the People, Ideas & Objects applications. Its one thing to have a very nice statistical analysis tools available for those who are inclined to use them. Its another to have these tools being used by people who are actively looking for the next measure of performance or metric that will reflect how their performance can be improved. This latter use is the reason for these tools in the eleven module Preliminary Specification.

We pick up on our discussion from the Research & Capabilities module in which we discussed the McKinsey article “The 21st Century Organization”. We now discuss the fourth element of that paper “Measuring Performance.”

The final set of ideas rounding out this new organizational model involves relinquishing some level of supervisory control and letting people direct themselves, guided by performances metrics, protocols, standards, values, and consequence management systems. 

In the Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning modules we presented a complex process of how ideas were generated, products and services were funded and built, capabilities were developed and transferred to where the decision rights reside and enabled the complex scientific and engineering learning to occur within the Joint Operating Committee. This process flowed through the entire entrepreneurial marketplace, the service industry, the oil and gas industry, the producer firm and the Joint Operating Committees that it is associated with. It is a comprehensive process that is unique in that it exists as a result of the interactions of entire industries.

The Joint Operating Committee is the net benefactor of all of these interactions. And as noted in the “The 21st Century Organization” people are not measured and told explicitly what to do in their jobs. There is too much activity going on for someone to be doling out task lists to mindless automatons. What the responsible and productive person needs to do in this world of massive information and activity is to focus on what is important. To deal with the critical value generating areas of their jobs that can add, and avoid destroying, value. That is where the Analytics & Statistics and Performance Evaluation modules of the Preliminary Specification come into play. Providing the user with the ability to focus on building value for their clients and employers, the oil and gas producers.

Whether they are earth scientists or engineers, business related or in any field that the oil and gas industry employs, access to the data and information through these modules will be critical to build value. Using the “dashboard” metaphor where algorithms are constantly monitoring various processes. The user could be running thousands of statistical and analytical programs that will look at data in new and innovative ways. It could be conceivable that some people may dedicate large percentages of their time of the day to thinking of new ways to analyse the data and information that is available to them.

As we indicated yesterday, the data that will be captured in People, Ideas & Objects will be voluminous. Add to that the industry related information already available and the new trend in unstructured data and we begin to see a trend that just doesn’t seem to quit.

I agree with the assertion that these tools are to powerful to be left in the hands of everyone. However, I think we have little choice. As we move more into the future, the education level of the average oil and gas worker will continue to grow higher and higher. Simply the basic maths of each person, particularly in the business areas, are going to have to be upgraded to fully understand and appreciate these tools. As that will be the key to gaining focus and building value.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part XLIV (A&S Part II)

Our first entry in the Preliminary Specification for Analytics & Statistics was very brief. Now that we have some of the modules discussed we have some substance in which to better discuss this module. The Analytics & Statistics module is similar to the Performance Evaluation module in terms of functionality. It is a firm focused module where as Performance Evaluation is focused on the Joint Operating Committee.

A major assumption in these modules is the bulk of the transactional work is handled by the systems modules that we are building. Application modules such as the Partnership Accounting and Accounting Voucher remove the demand for People so they can be much less involved in low level transaction related activities. Enabling them to move to the higher level work of designing transactions and assessing performance, analytics and statistics. These modules provide the higher level analysis where the creative and perceptive user will be able to determine the issue, the probable and possible courses of action, and take the appropriate action necessary to create value for the oil and gas producers.

One should recall that the Security & Access Control to the data and information contained within the modules provides the firm with continued limited access. Access to the Analytics & Statistics module could be open to the majority of the people within the firm, however that does not open the data and information of the firm to everyone. Only those that have authorized access to the information that they should have will be able to access that data and information through this module. This isn’t a back door to be used for unauthorized access.

And data there will be. As we have seen in the discussion of the modules up to this point there is a significant amount of data and information that is being managed by the application. From the ideas in the Research & Capabilities to the information contained in the marketplace modules. But there is even more then that. Particularly from a raw data point of view. To get a handle on the scope of that data we need to revisit the People, Ideas & Objects Technical Vision.

The Technical Vision consists of four cornerstone technologies that will fundamentally change the way in which the oil and gas producer approaches the business. These four technologies will provide growth in the volumes of data based on some simple facts.

1. The energy industry is based on the physics of heat and pressure. 
2. The ability to remotely monitor and control physical assets.
3. The ability to work anywhere, anytime.

The ability to analyse and compare these variables would provide value to the firm. Included in the Draft Specification for this module is the statistical application R. R is an open source embeddable application used for statistics everywhere. Its reliability and usability are familiar to those that are used to dealing with large data and statistical analysis. Also since the Analytics & Statistics module also relies heavily on the Security & Access Control module for access control we will also rely on it for the full communications capability. That consists of person to person, person to process, process to person and process to process communications.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part XLIII (K&L Part III)

Throughout our discussion of the Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning modules. We have been discussing the earth science and engineering research, developments, innovations and thinking of the oil and gas producer and the Joint Operating Committee. Many of you may be wondering what exactly does an ERP system have to do with these activities? Simply these activities are where the business of the oil and gas business are being conducted. It is imperative that the systems that manage the commercial aspects of the firm support the people and activities that occur in these areas. This post will hopefully convince you of this.

Up to this point in our discussion we have only discussed the activities of the modules from the point of view of engineers and geologists. As we peel this onion known as the Preliminary Specification we will begin to see the commercial end of the Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning modules. We began to see a bit of it yesterday with the re-introduction of Dynamic Transaction Costs. With these costs being incurred, a means to enable them and control them should be provided as a mechanism in the Knowledge & Learning module. Therefore the ability to issue Work Orders, budget and effective cost control would be part of the modules functionality. Also project management tools that are able to source from the Resource Marketplace module and use the Military Command & Control Metaphor are necessary to project manage the new idea or run the experiment.

The final look and feel of these two modules will ultimately be the result of the user input and their involvement. The point that I am trying to make in this post is that these modules are where the business of the oil and gas business are happening. It should be within these modules that the engineer or geologist should never have to leave. If they find an interesting idea within the research area of the Research & Capabilities module they should have the opportunity to right click their mouse to have a list of options to prepare a Work Order, Prepare a Budget, or Resource a Project. The ultimate list of options would include the supporting activities of a user defined commercially focused ERP system.

Today there are significant financial resources available for innovation. The commodity price increases are a reallocation of capital to fuel innovation. The reorganization of a producer to facilitate innovation is the purpose behind the research that People, Ideas & Objects conducted. That research was the basis of the Draft Specification of which the Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning modules are part of. These modules are the two key points where innovation occurs. Within these modules there is a flow of ideas from the service and oil & gas industries through to the producer firm, and then that knowledge is then sent to the Joint Operating Committee where it is applied and specific learning occurs.

The People, Ideas & Objects application modules are a critical part of how these ideas are aggregated, filtered and parsed. From having a free flowing, post your ideas on an industry wide publication, to generating funding for those ideas, to developing commercial products and services, to enhancing and developing internal capabilities, to focusing the right people on the right knowledge, and enabling them to learn from what is not known. This process is managed through these two modules.

There will be a lot of ideas and there will be a lot of money spent in the coming decades. Successful innovation is not cheap. Unsuccessful innovation is terribly expensive. If anyone can tell me the difference as to why Apple’s iPad is commercially successful and HP’s Touchpad lasted only seven weeks; probably has an idea as to the secret to successful innovation. The only way to participate is to get in the game. And understand that the areas that we will innovate in are not limited to any corner of the industry. We have focused on the key business of the oil and gas business. But just like People, Ideas & Objects is focused on the organizational innovations and systems developments, there are other areas where innovations will be needed to be funded and deployed in oil and gas.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification.

The Preliminary Specification Part XLII (K&L Part II)

The title of the Preliminary Research Report was “Plurality Should Not Be Assumed Without Necessity”. This being of course Occam’s Razor which in its simplest form means - the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one. Very appropriate when we are talking about using the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct of the innovative oil and gas producer. However, I also noted in the Preliminary Research Report that Occam’s Razor was referenced as “Its not what you know that you do not know that hurts you. Its what you do not know, that you do not know that will. It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carryout, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to bring about a new order of things.” Knoop & Valor (1997).

Imagine we are now in the Joint Operating Committee with full operational decision rights with respect to the course of action to take. Thanks to the work that is done at the producer firms we know what we know from their work in the Research & Capabilities modules. That information and data is populated in the Knowledge area of the Knowledge & Learning module. Now the rubber hits the road sort of speak and the theory comes to practice.

Through the process of elimination, it is at this point that only the substantial ideas are left standing. Those that are still functioning on paper and have not been refuted or proven false through the normal vetting process. If these ideas were the beginning of new products, services or innovations these would probably have begun their early stages of commercialization. The point being that the Learning aspects of the Knowledge & Learning module are where the innovative aspects of the oil and gas producer are learned. By that we are not turning the property into a science experiment, only considering what is known and what is unknown.

Once again we turn to Professor Richard Langlois for guidance. In his definition of “Dynamic Transaction Costs” he notes.

Over time, capabilities change as firms and markets learn, which implies a kind of information or knowledge cost - the cost of transferring the firm's capabilities to the market or vice-verse. These "dynamic" governance costs are the costs of persuading, negotiating and coordinating with, and teaching others. They arise in the face of change, notably technological and organizational innovation. In effect, they are the costs of not having the capabilities you need when you need them. p. 99

As everyone with any experience knows learning is costly. These costs are well captured and identified in Langlois definition of Dynamic Transaction Costs. It is reasonable to assume that these and failure are the two primary costs of innovation. The alternative is that nothing is done and that is always an option. However, as has been suggested in People, Ideas & Objects research before, the commodity price change is a “technological paradigm” that is financing innovation.

What I intend that to mean, and what the research imputes that to mean is very simple. That to stand still is to lose. We see in many producers today the costs of production has increased as quickly, and in many cases quicker then the prices of the commodities. Profits in some companies are quite healthy however, as an industry we don’t see windfall profits being earned from price increases that are in the area of 500% over the past 8 years. I think the ability to innovate will not only permit the oil and gas producer to find more oil and gas, increase the production of oil and gas from a field, but will also provide innovative ways in which to deploy its capital and reduce its costs. These are the domain of the Joint Operating Committee and these are the areas in which it can learn to do things in a more innovative manner.

As we explore the Preliminary Specification of the Knowledge & Learning module we will see how innovation is supported at the Joint Operating Committee. For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part XLI (K&L Part I)

We now move onto the Joint Operating Committee focused Knowledge & Learning module of the Preliminary Specification. This module shares many similarities to the Research & Capabilities module, and in fact is populated with the information from that module as its base of information. Recall that the objective that we are working to achieve is to move the knowledge to where the decision rights are held.

As I noted in yesterday’s post, the Research & Capabilities module should be organized based on geologic zones. This is so that the information that is pertinent to each zone can be separated into its own “packaging” within the Knowledge & Learning module. Additional ways in which data may be sorted in the Research & Capabilities module might include by geographical location. Where all the vendors who operate within a certain geographical location are referenced only in those regions.

With each Joint Operating Committee being concerned with one or a handful of geologic zones. The focus of the Joint Operating Committee can be limited to just those specific areas. What is particularly different about the Knowledge & Learning module, however, is that the information that is contained within the module is aggregated from multiple producers. Any of the producer participants who have information contained within their Research & Capabilities module will have that data and information for those geologic zones populate the Knowledge & Learning module for that Joint Operating Committee.

With the potential to have multiple companies contributions of research and capabilities about that zone. It is important to have the information organized within the Research & Capabilities modules in a manner that when multiple producers data is merged, use of the data is probable. (The old adage garbage in, garbage out.)

This would summarize the manner in which the Research & Capabilities information is populated within the “knowledge” area of the Knowledge & Learning module. Tomorrow the “learning” attributes of the module will be discussed. And on Saturday, I will discuss why we are even talking about these geo-technical and engineering points in an ERP system.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification.

The Preliminary Specification Part XL (R&C Part VIII)

To finish up our first run through the Research & Capabilities module, there are a few minor points to put across. As with all the modules, we will return to our review of the Research & Capabilities to look deeper into the functions and processes of the Preliminary Specification. One minor point is that it would be logical to organize the information contained within this module by geologic zone.

One of the key points about the use of this module is that the oil and gas producers receive 100% of the funds from the production of oil and gas. This entitles them to be the gate keeper on all subsequent activity with respect to how that money is expended. And that includes the “what” and “how” of service industry product and service innovations and offerings. In today’s capital markets little is tolerated for research and development that is not directly funded by customers. To expect that the service industry will divert its profits, or will raise capital to fund its research and development efforts is foolish. It is clear that there has to be a direct link between the research that is undertaken by the service industry and the customers (the producers) wallet.

At the same time producers don’t want to participate when the cash is simply thrown against the wall to see if it will stick. There has to be a clear direction and understanding given to the service industry as to the direction and need that the oil and gas industry has. For the past few years, at least in Canada, we have heard many of the independent producers calling out the service industry as greedy and lazy and taking advantage of the situation in the field. Implying that the demand for service in the field is so strong that the only means to control it is for the service companies to increase the prices they charge. I see this situation occurring as a result of a lack of investment in innovation by the service industry.

This situation in the field has led to “cost control” measures by the producers that have further constrained the communications between the service industry and the producers. To suggest that the industry should be funding service industry innovations is the last thing that producers want to hear at this time. But it is the long term solution to producer problems. Micro-managing and cost-controlling will get the job done to the satisfaction of no one. As the demands in the industry increase, the ability to increase the capacity and capabilities will be further constrained because no one is working on those capacity related problems today. When the time comes, the problems of today will be even significantly larger tomorrow.

What is needed is the Research & Capabilities module of the People, Ideas & Objects application to provide the communication between the service industry, the entrepreneurs and the oil and gas producers. Communication about the needs of the producers, backed up with dollars that are willingly spent in order to develop the innovation, capacity, service or product. Providing direction to the service industry certainly sounds more constructive then calling names, controlling costs or micro-managing.

Tomorrow we will begin our review of the counter part to the Research & Capabilities module, the Knowledge & Learning module. This module is for the Joint Operating Committee itself and is similar in nature to the Research & Capabilities.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part XXXIX (R&C Part VII)

So far in our review of the Preliminary Specifications Research & Capabilities module we have touched on how the module helps the user analyze the business from the long term perspective. Adding value by managing the transition from the hierarchy to the aligned organization under the People, Ideas & Objects software application modules. Today we want to discuss the additional perspective of viewing the marketplace of the service industry itself, and how value is developed through the interfaces of the Research & Capabilities module. With this post we want to focus on the service industry and how the user of the Research & Capabilities module initiates the development of new and innovative products and services.

They say that need is the mother of all invention. As we have discussed before the user of the Research & Capabilities module is predominately a senior individual within the producer firm who rose through the ranks from engineering or geology. And therefore knows the industry well and the characteristics of the producer itself intimately. Within the Research area of the module the user is able to review the “ideas” that are being generated in the marketplace of the service industry vendors. These ideas are the bases of claims to copyright law and patent filings by their originator, and are published in blog like format through the service industries access to the Research & Capabilities module.

There is nothing precluding a producer from participating from posting ideas to the marketplace. Its possible that they could engage in licensing arrangements with service providers to sell products and services based on their ideas. However, that is not really the business of the oil and gas producer. Competing on the basis of a better drill bit or packer is not going to provide them with any greater opportunity to further their business. The ideas to extend the product or service requires the full scope of the oil and gas industry to participate as customers for the ideas and technologies in order for the technology to be proven, commercialized and to bring value to all the producers in the industry.

Competing on the basis of ideas is the only method that the oil and gas industry will move forward to solve the difficult problems of providing the market demands for energy. No one will do the hard work needed to solve the difficult problems if their ideas are going to be taken by someone who will in “me too” fashion just steal them and commercialize them and ignore the developer of the ideas. The oil and gas industry has to understand this and respect the rights of the person who develops the idea. That these idea generators are the keys to the long term prospects of the industry. If people see that the industry will respect an idea, then they will know that they can risk everything on the chance that it may work out, and if it does, they will earn the benefits of it. If they find that the industry quietly shrugs its shoulders and says “oh well” so and so got scooped on their invention, too bad. Then they will continue on in much of the same fashion they are today. What industry needs to do is respect the inventor and deal only with them. By doing so, and as a result, they will find the market will flood with new ideas, products and services.

The Research & Capabilities module is a window on the activities in the service industry. An opportunity to peer into the research that everyone is doing. Publication of the ideas is how you earn the copyright. Therefore by using the Research & Capabilities module the developer of the ideas is earning the copyright on the ideas and securing their rights. From there they should be able to solicit interested producers to help fund the further development of the product or service and move the development of it along faster to market.

Lastly the Research & Capabilities is a marketplace module that provides for collaborative interactions. This marketplace will reflect producers expressing needs and entrepreneurs trying to solve problems. It joins the other marketplace modules, the Petroleum Lease, Resource and Finance Marketplaces where people will be spending more of their time and energy working in the future. As our phones continue to record transactions and conduct other “things” that we used to call work. It is these interactions that are the areas where the real value is generated. And are the areas that computers can’t do.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part XXXVIII (R&C Part VI)

What evidence do we have that the transition from the way things are done today, to what is suggested in the People, Ideas & Objects Draft Specifications Research & Capabilities module is valid? For the majority of producers it is a bit of a stretch that they will reorganize their firms in such a manner that will allow any “leakage” of proprietary capabilities from either the firm or the Joint Operating Committee. And that the parsing of the short and long term perspective across the JOC and the firm in the manner that has been discussed in these blog posts. It certainly will take some convincing in order to accept. And here I thought that “trust me” might work.

First of all this intuitively makes sense. From the Joint Operating Committee alignment of all the frameworks to having them focus on performance as the driving motivation. This also begins to make sense when we have the Joint Operating Committee pursuing the optimal short term horizon. Making the operational decisions based on the collaborative understanding of the partnership that makes up the Joint Operating Committee. And the producer firm undertaking the long term horizon of the firm by interacting with the Joint Operating Committee, the remainder of the industry and the service industry to build the needed earth science and engineering capabilities needed for the firm. However, as possibly the strongest and easiest evidence that I can provide that this is substantially correct is this quotation from Professor Richard Langlois.

The question then becomes: why are capabilities sometimes organized within firms, sometimes decentralized in markets, and sometimes coordinated by a myriad contractual and ownership arrangements like joint ventures, franchisees, and networks? Explicitly echoing Hayek, Jensen and Meckling (1992, p.251) who point out that economic organization must solve two different kinds of problems: "the rights assignment problem (determining who should exercise a decision right) and the control or agency problem (how to ensure that self-interested decision agents exercise their rights in a way that contributes to the organizational objective)." There are basically two ways to ensure such a "collocation" of knowledge and decision making: "One is by moving the knowledge to those with the decision rights; the other is by moving the decision rights to those with the knowledge." (Jensen and Meckling 1992 p. 253). p. 9

It is difficult for me to determine who, Professor Richard Langlois or Professor Giovanni Dosi, is the most influential in terms of the research that has been undertaken by People, Ideas & Objects. If the above quotation is inadequate to provide you with satisfactory evidence then I suggest that you review the papers of Professor Langlois, as we have in these 56 blog posts. His is a focus on organizational capabilities, and has provided us with sound direction in developing the Draft Specification.

To be specific, what we are doing in the Research & Capabilities module is “moving the knowledge to those with the decision rights”. And this is where the alignment under People, Ideas & Objects begins. What the bureaucracy is trying to do is “moving the decision rights to those with the knowledge”. And that is where the conflict is being created.

But more important then that, is that we have a sub-title for the Research & Capabilities module, and that is “How to ensure that self-interested decision agents exercise their rights in a way that contributes to the organizational objective.”

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification.

The Preliminary Specification Part XXXVII (R&C Part V)

Yesterday we talked about the role the producer would have in determining the long term horizon of the firm. How the Research & Capabilities module would provide a window on the various Joint Operating Committees to provide the ability to apply systemic earth science and engineering innovations at each JOC with out the risks of unnecessary duplications or repeated following of blind bunny trails. Today I want to discuss the risks and rewards of the leakage of earth science and engineering information from the firm through the Research & Capabilities module. As it would be apparent that the level of discussion and collaboration through the partnerships in the Joint Operating Committees, through the industry itself and the service industry in particular would lead to significant leakage of the producers proprietary earth science and engineering knowledge, understanding and capabilities.

In the Preliminary Research Report we learned an interesting point about the producers proprietary earth science and engineering knowledge, understanding and capabilities.

In Brown & Duguid (1998) they make the following observations: “The leakiness of knowledge out of and into organizations, however, presents an interesting contrast to internal stickiness. Knowledge often travels more easily between organizations than it does within them. For while the division of labor erects boundaries within firms, it also produces extended communities that lie across the external boundaries of the firms. Moving knowledge among groups with similar practices and overlapping membership can thus sometimes be relatively easy compared to the difficulty in moving it among heterogeneous groups within the firm. Similar practice in a common field can allow ideas to flow. Indeed, it’s often harder to stop ideas spreading then to spread them.” (p. 102) p. 32

We all know this leakage of information to be inherently true. When someone discovers something that is “news” within the industry, it is generally well known within industry associations for the geologists or engineers as soon as it is known in the firm. It is either imputed through what is known, or the leakiness is as porous as it is. What is a producer firm to do to ensure that the information they have does not leak. I think that the point lies in the meaning of “capabilities”; which is “an aptitude that can be developed”. Simply it is not possible to stop the leakage. The question therefore becomes, is it best to develop your aptitude by curling up with a text book or to participate in a marketplace.

According to McKinsey the solution requires...

... a company must develop organizational overlays in the form of markets and networks that help its professionals work horizontally across its whole extent. These overlays make it easier for them to exchange knowledge, to find and collaborate with other professionals, and to develop communities that create intangible assets.

These tacit interactions are what are captured in the “Research” area of the Research & Capabilities module. Interaction with the larger communities to develop the knowledge and understanding around the science of oil and gas not only expands the capabilities of the producer firm but will also expand the overall science. We learned two other important points regarding innovation in the Preliminary Research Report.

1. That new science fuels new innovations, and new innovations fuel new science.
2. Technical trade-offs facilitate the ability for industries to innovate on the changing technical and scientific paradigms.

People, Ideas & Objects research assumes that one technical trade-off in oil and gas is accurately reflected in the oil and gas commodity pricing. That these prices are providing the resources to fuel innovative oil and gas producers. Therefore the faster we iterate on the science and innovation, the more appropriate a producers strategy should be focused on a capabilities approach.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification.

The Preliminary Specification Part XXXVI (R&C Part IV)

If we reduce the business of the oil and gas producer down to the activities of the Joint Operating Committee. And concern ourselves only with the day to day activities of the property then we can generally be satisfied that we will know where our next meal will come from. But what about everything else. This is the classic conflict that a business must satisfy, the struggle between the long and short term horizon of the business. How much should be sacrificed in the long term and how much should be sacrificed in the short term. It should be noted that the name of the module is Research & Capabilities, this blog post focuses on the capabilities component of the module.

What is the firm capable of and how can that capability be enhanced? And more importantly since we are so dependent on our partners in the Joint Operating Committee and the service industry how is this apparent contradiction resolved? The traditional steps of the producer was to build the in-house capability. The assumption that is used in People, Ideas & Objects is that the resource constraints do not permit the luxury of each producer building these capabilities. The need to collaborate with partners to build the capabilities needed for the Joint Operating Committee is how these needs are met.

But we are talking about more then just the capabilities that each Joint Operating Committee demands when we are talking about the capabilities of the producer firm and the use of the Research & Capabilities module. McKinsey put it well in this quotation.

Ongoing multi-year tasks such as launching new products, building new businesses, or fundamentally redesigning a company's technology platform usually call for small groups of full-time, focused professionals with the freedom "to wander the woods," discovering new, winning value propositions by trial and error and deductive tinkering.

We have detailed that the focus of the producer firm is on its asset base and its earth science and engineering capabilities. This area of focus of the Research & Capabilities module is therefore a key focus of the producer organization. We are not talking about the people that will be deployed in the day to day of the various Joint Operating Committees. These are the core scientists of the firm.

We discovered something very interesting in our research. When we deploy teams of people in a fashion like we are with People, Ideas & Objects use of the Joint Operating Committee. The earth science and engineering capabilities of each Joint Operating Committee will atrophy. They need to be fed a constant stream of new and innovative ideas and possibilities to remain “current” with the science. This of course has to be steered by the mother ship so as to not duplicate errors or replicate blind bunny trails unnecessarily in each and every Joint Operating Committee.

Now it may seem that I have contradicted myself by stating that the firm needs to develop the capabilities necessary “in-house”. But I didn't say that. The Research & Capabilities module should be considered to be from an industry perspective. That although each firm will have specific people defined to support each firms needed capabilities, the service industry will take on a greater role in providing much of the innovative capabilities that are developed through the mindset employed by the producer firms.

Lastly I would want to talk about the scope of the Research & Capabilities module. Although it would have specific application in the earth science and engineering areas it should be used in other areas to build capabilities in other areas of the oil and gas business. One area that I would think would build value would be for producers to sponsor the development of People, Ideas & Objects software development itself. Just a thought.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification.

The Preliminary Specification Part XXXV (R&C Part III)

In our last post we went through the four points from the McKinsey article as to why we should use the Research & Capabilities module for the long term perspective of the innovative oil and gas producer. In this post I want to revisit the first point of that article and highlight the significance of the opportunity that is presented by separating the long term perspective into the Research & Capabilities module, and the day to day into the Knowledge & Learning module. In the McKinsey article it is noted;

The first design principle is to clarify the reporting relationships, accountability, and responsibilities of the line managers, who make good on a company's earnings targets, for all other considerations will get short shrift until short term expectations are met.

By making the Joint Operating Committee the key organizational construct of the innovative oil and gas producer. By aligning the legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, innovation and strategic frameworks of the Joint Operating Committee with the compliance and governance frameworks of the hierarchy. By providing an extension of the governance structure over the partnership with the Military Command & Control Metaphor. We have isolated the Joint Operating Committee as the day to day operation of the oil and gas producer. This frees up the remaining portion of the producer to concern itself with the long term value generation of the firm.

Recall in the last post that these Joint Operating Committee’s are autonomous in the sense that they are focused on providing the greatest performance. They are driven through the Performance Evaluation module that allows them to determine where and how they can build the greatest value each month. Because they are operated by the partnership, which is motivated equally by financially gain, the producers will have faith that the “line managers will make good on a companies earnings targets.”

The Research & Capabilities module is looking at the interests the producer has in any number of Joint Operating Committees. This number may total into the thousands. To concern themselves with the operational performance of each would be a daunting and impossible task. And based on the previous paragraph their involvement is limited. However, there may be systemic corporate similarities that can be applied to each that bring value to the overall producer firm. Systemic similarities that can only be seen from the perspective of the firm, and in the long term. These are where the business value can be generated through the use of the Research & Capabilities module. McKinsey notes;

Dynamic management and improved collaboration, as we show later, are better ways of accomplishing the purposes of these ad-hoc structures. A company that aims to streamline its line management structures should create an effective enterprise wide governance mechanism for decisions that cross them, such as the choices involved in managing shared IT costs.

It is through an iterative and collaborative approach to dealing with the various Joint Operating Committees that the users of the Research & Capabilities module is able to extract the value in the long term. By passing on new innovations or experiments for the JOC to try. The ability to influence any and all variables and to see any aspect of the firm and to analyze it is the domain of this application module. To define it as a set of fixed functionality will ultimately be the result of what the user community is able to provide, however, I am certain that they will also recommend that the application module remain open to analyzing any and all data.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification.

The Preliminary Specification Part XXXIV (R&C Part II)

Yesterday we discussed how the Research & Capabilities module would be used to help build value by managing the transition from the hierarchy to the aligned producer organization under the People, Ideas & Objects software. Where the legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, innovation and strategic frameworks of the Joint Operating Committee were aligned with the hierarchies compliance and governance. Making this transition will create opportunities for people to make changes to the work that they do in order to be more efficient and effective. What and how the software will do this little bit of magic is best described in a McKinsey article that is referenced in the Draft Specification.

In a four part recommendation McKinsey sets out in broad strokes what is required.

• Streamlining and simplifying vertical and line management structures by discarding failed matrix and ad hoc approaches and narrowing the scope of the line manager's role to the creation of current earnings.

The process of using People, Ideas & Objects software will achieve all of these objectives. By aligning all of the Joint Operating Committee and the hierarchies frameworks, imposing the military chain of command and having the financial interests of the producers drive the management of the Joint Operating Committee we are “narrowing the scope of the line manager’s role to the creation of current earnings”. These are the focus of the Partnership Accounting, Accounting Voucher, Petroleum Lease Marketplace and Performance Evaluation modules.

• Deploying off-line teams to discover new wealth-creating opportunities while using a dynamic management process to resolve short and long term trade offs.

These are the critical new roles that are being discussed in these “new” modules “Research & Capabilities” and “Knowledge & Learning”. Providing valuable insight to their users about the business that is above the day to day noise. Where the long term vision of the organization can be set, executed and realized through these two advanced software modules.

• Developing knowledge marketplaces, talent marketplaces, and formal networks to stimulate the creation and exchange of intangibles.

Within the Preliminary Specification, if we include the Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning marketplace definitions, we have five marketplace modules in People, Ideas & Objects. Marketplaces are things that people will be doing more of in terms of participation in the future. Computers can assist, but again are generally very poor at making decisions, bargaining, knowing what to do, etc. The other three marketplace modules in the Preliminary Specification include the Petroleum Lease, Resource and Financial Marketplaces.

• Relying on measurements of performance rather than supervision to get the most from self directed professionals.

We have already had our first pass through the Performance Evaluation and Analytics & Statistics modules. Handing the Performance Evaluation module to the team that is running the Joint Operating Committee will enable them to manage the property in the best possible fashion. They are going to be able to figure out what it is that makes the most sense in terms of value, and begin to generate more of it. It is as simple as that. Except it is a very complex business. And that’s why you have your best earth science and engineering staff on the job. And the best business / geological / engineering minds running the Research & Capabilities module.

It should be coming clearer that it is no longer the 20th century. That to manage an enterprise requires a different approach, and the first thing that is needed to manage that enterprise is the software to enable that approach. With real shortages in the quality human resources necessary to maintain the markets demand for energy, it will be the producer that is able to maintain a high performing organization based on criteria such as these.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. 

The Preliminary Specification Part XXXIII (R&C Part I)

The last thing that we want to do in the Security & Access Control module is to make it difficult for people to collaborate. Innovation is about ideas, and the free flow of ideas is the point of our next two modules review. Making it difficult for people to access the system should not be the result of all of these security requirements. People and Ideas once authorized and authenticated should be able to complete their work, not be involved in mindless security or access control warnings.

We now move on to the Research & Capabilities module of the Preliminary Specification. This is a dual specification module in that it shares strong similarities with the Knowledge & Learning module. The difference is that the Research & Capabilities is a firm, or producer, facing module and the Knowledge & Learning module is a Joint Operating Committee module. The best way to think of these modules is that they are “marketplace” modules. The Research & Capabilities module looks at the producer firm in the context of the greater oil and gas industry from the point of view of a market.

This module is difficult to conceptually understand as it is not in practical use in oil and gas today. If we think that the Joint Operating Committee is the day to day operation of the oil and gas producer. The Knowledge & Learning module will provide a means in which the producers will be able to optimize the earnings of the JOC. The Research & Capabilities should therefore be seen as the means in which a producer can exercise long term value accretion from the firm. The firm of course being a holding of many JOC’s.

The Research & Capabilities module provides a window on the producer firm that is above the noise of the day to day. One that provides the user with the ability to see where the value may be added to the firm. This module moves the work that people are doing away from recording transactions. The management science falls into the category of "interactions" which includes transactional, tacit knowledge, and transformational activities of the producer, its partners and the vendors or marketplace. The Preliminary Specification deals with the automation of transactions to free up the resources of the firm and market. The generation and application of ideas is the area that the innovative energy producer needs to have their resources spending most of their time. The producers will use the Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning modules to obtain windows on these activities.

In the future we need to concern ourselves with the kind of work that computers can’t do. These modules are involved in these new "types" of jobs that humans can do far better then computers. Making judgments, based on good data and information, and deciding on the best course of action. The scope of the application module is unlimited. The proprietary data and information that is accessible by the users of these modules would limit their use to a handful of senior individuals within the firm. However, that does not preclude them from receiving the full scope of engineering resources in terms of software developments. I could see substantial value being developed through the intuitions being confirmed in these applications modules.

What the People, Ideas & Objects application does for the producer firm is align the Joint Operating Committee’s legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, innovation and strategic frameworks with the hierarchies compliance and governance frameworks. This alignment provides new synergies in terms of operational performance in both the Joint Operating Committee and the producer firm. It also provides increases in the speed, innovativeness and accountability of both the firm and JOC. The Research & Capabilities module will be able to monitor and control these frameworks to see where the value can be gained and is maybe being lost. As we move away from the hierarchy this will be the tool that provides the window on “what” and “how” the transition will best be done. This is what I think will be one of the first uses of the tool.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification.

The Preliminary Specification Part XXXII (S&AC Part V)

People, Ideas & Objects development of the Military Command & Control Metaphor (MCCM) of the Security & Access Control module is not without some historical context. Before the hierarchy, which I perceive as somewhat of a commercial development of the 20th century, there was only the military structure in terms of large organizations. The main difference between the two is rather subtle but significant. The military structure is much broader and flatter then the hierarchy. That is one of the ideals that we are seeking, but the more important feature is the ability for the chain of command to span multiple internal and external organizational structures.

If we analyze the U.S. Military we find a number of interesting attributes of using the military chain of command that will provide value in the use of People, Ideas & Objects software applications. First is the title and assignment of an individual in the military.  For example, “Sgt. Richard Knuth, Company A, Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division”. A similar title and assignment for the people within a Joint Operating Committee would help to clarify the role and responsibilities, authority and capabilities the individual would have within the JOC. For example this individual might have the following “Richard Knuth, Chief Engineer, Field Straddle, Elmworth. Irrespective of which firm this individual is from each of the participants would recognize that the authority of a Chief Engineer was the same throughout the industry and that the designation of Chief Engineer entitled the individual to authorize the appropriate actions.

Now this is not fundamentally different from how the industry operates today. What is different is the ability to operate in a fashion where the interactions between the producers in the JOC are done as if they were all employed by the JOC. Where multiple producer firms are contributing many full time staff to the JOC. This interaction between producers through the JOC can only be replicated if there is a recognizable chain of command between the firms that make up the JOC. In addition to the recognizable chain of command each organization must have additional governance concerns handled, and compliance plays a big part in this as well. (We will talk more about these in the future in the Compliance & Governance module.) That although it would be an easy thing to implement from a people point of view, the actual implementation of pooling the staff from multiple organizations becomes complex when we consider all of the implications. However, with the Information Technologies that exist today, and the issues of the shortages of earth science and engineering talent we have few choices but to pursue this pooling concept.

The nature of the people that will be working through the chain of command that is layered over the Joint Operating Committee will include all of the disciplines that are involved in the oil and gas industry. The contributions of staff, financial and technical resources will include everyone that is employed by the industry today. I can foresee many of the office buildings being refurbished to accommodate the staff of a single JOC. There the staff from the different producers would be seconded to work for the JOC, working at a single JOC not at any particular producer firm.

In previous blog posts discussing the Military Command & Control Metaphor (MCCM). I noted this inter and intra organizational use of the MCCM was similar to that used by NATO. That armies of the various countries could work together and recognize personnel from each others armies and immediately recognize and use the same chain of command. Unfortunately then came Libya and the failure of NATO may be well at hand. And the unfortunate parallel may be seen as a striking example as why the MCCM might not work in People, Ideas & Objects. I think otherwise as the Joint Operating Committee is the financial framework of the industry. This means that all of the members of a JOC are equally driven by their financial interests. And that financial interest drives consensus. Therefore, the analogy to Libya would be inappropriate as their objective is not financially driven and the NATO members can not form a consensus on what the objective is. The point in using the NATO example was to show the ability to recognize the chain of command spanning multiple organizations. Not to submit that countries driven by politically different philosophies could agree militarily.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification.

The Preliminary Specification Part XXXI (S&AC Part IV)

Looking at the security aspects of the Security & Access Control module we find that today’s technologies provide levels of security that are substantially higher then just a few years ago. With the security needs of the industry being so high, I believe the following security policies would be more then satisfactory to those needs. And it is suggested that these are the base case, as time passes we will be able to build on these specifications.

For people to be available online anytime and anywhere presents problems from the point of view of authentication. What we can do is ensure that only registered devices have access to the applications, information and data. These devices would include desktop computers, notebooks, phones and iPads etc. Where only certain registered devices on certain IP addresses are available to access the People, Ideas & Objects applications. In addition user name and password protection for access would be required. But in addition, we would require two step authentication where we text a code to their registered company phone, which would then have to be keyed into the device they were trying to log into. These three steps ensure that only authorized users were gaining access to the system.

Next we would ensure that all network traffic was encrypted. It has not been determined as of yet how the application will be presented to the users (browser or otherwise). However, once logged out of the system all data and information will be cleared from the cache and the device will have no information or data stored of the session. It should be noted that one of the advantages of the tools that we are using is that we should be able to present to the user the same desktop environment that they had left when they last logged out.

In our Hardware Policies and Procedures we have discussed how the People, Ideas & Objects application is hosted. This separate company is proposed to be jointly owned by industry, People, Ideas & Objects and Oracle. It is also proposed to be operated by the oil and gas industry primarily to meet their needs of maintaining the control they need for SEC regulatory compliance of their ERP systems. With industry having de-facto control of the “Cloud” infrastructure. This provides them with the means to maintain the physical control necessary to maintain their SEC needs. People, Ideas & Objects will be able to deliver a runnable binary of the application for them to operate without the need to be physically on-site.

And as I mentioned the other day it was an oversight that the Draft Specification initially indicated that the data storage and data base systems were not encrypted. Oracle provides high levels of encryption of both the storage medium and the database, at the data level itself. This will in turn provide no one at the industry operated cloud infrastructure with the ability to read any of the producers confidential data or information.

Implementing the technologies in this fashion will provide the industry with the security that they need to ensure that their data and information remains secure. These technologies are only the beginning of what will be implemented in the People, Ideas & Objects Security & Access Control module as they are all standard fare for the base level technologies used in Oracle. It is a simple manner of selecting them for use.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Please note what Google+ provides us is the opportunity to prove that People, Ideas & Objects are committed to developing this community. That this is user developed software, not change that is driven from the top down. Join me on the People, Ideas & Objects Google+ Circle and begin building the community for the development of the Preliminary Specification. Email me here if you need an invite.