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Are You Managing Your IT Solutions orIs IT Still Managing You?J. Douglas UffenPetrel Robertson Consulting Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, Canada

What Geo-Science Data Architecture Can DoFor You!

Preface

Informational technology (IT) in the last couple of decades hasconsiderably changed our lives and how we interact with the world.The IT revolution has forced each of us to learn new skills in theworkplace as we attempt to keep abreast of technological innova-tions. The title of this paper however provokes an interesting ques-tion, one that should not be taken lightly nor dismissed for itsapparent sensationalism. It is a rather simple question to ask butanything but a simple response ensues. Are you managing yourinformational technology (IT) solutions or is IT still managingyou? The answer is rooted in the issue of control. Who or what hasthe control could determine whether technology passes you by orwhether you grasp a hold of it and make it work for you. It could bethe difference whether your company truly leverages IT technologyor whether IT is just the cost of doing business. To take control, acertain amount of knowledge about informational technology is aprice of admission requirement. This paper is designed to providethe geo-science reader just that;- a broad perspective about informa-tional technology as applied to geology and geophysics within theoil and gas industry along with some fresh, new insights that maypositively impact productivity and ultimate value to a corporation.This paper frames this discussion in the context of geo-science dataarchitecture.

BackgroundInformation

Over the last couple ofdecades, the geological andgeophysical disciplines withinthe oil and gas industry havewitnessed many technologicalchanges that showcase theevolution of information tech-n o l o g y. Large mainframecomputers have been replacedby Unix based workstations orpersonal computers (PCs)using a Linux or Wi n d o w sbased operating system.Rather than hand timingseismic sections as was the casetwenty years ago, interpretivesoftware now permits the accu-rate timing of seismic profilesections and the posting ofvalues onto a map.P rogrammed with the capa-

bility to facilitate the manipulation of the data and extractadditional information, the interpreter now uses interpretivesoftware to measure properties of the seismic data and toprovide a better quality understanding of the sub-surface.Data that was normally provided in hardcopy form is nowprovided digitally from various service companies throughsecured internet portals or FTP sites. Well-log data can betransmitted via a satellite network to the desktop of the geol-ogist. Access to data, reports and information via the internethas permanently changed how people handle and store dataand information. Gone are the central libraries within oil andgas companies that faithfully archived this information. Evencommunication between people or business units is nowfacilitated readily by e-mail. Documents are ro u t i n e l yattached to correspondence rather than photocopied andcouriered to the other party. Clearly, much has changed.Numerous additional examples can be cited to prove thepoint. Information technology has altered how business isconducted and how people conduct their work

During this time period, spending on informational tech-nology ballooned as companies who viewed technology as astrategic advantage, invested capital and human resources toe n s u re their competitiveness. Most corporations cre a t e dentire IT departments that focused upon accessing this tech-nology. As the potency of IT increased, so did its ubiquity. Anarticle written by Nicholas Carr, entitled IT Doesn’t Matter,

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published in the Harvard Business Review magazine in May of2003 encapsulates the evolution of information technology. Inwhat is being described as a seminal piece, Nicholas Carrcontends that it is not the ubiquity that provides strategic valuebut its scarcity. He contends that what defines a competitiveadvantage is the ability to do something that a competitor cannotdo. As informational technology becomes more common andaccessible, the strategic value of IT decreases. Proprietary tech-nology and internal strategic advantage gives way to infrastruc-tural technology with shared open access as an integral part ofdoing business. The lack of standards provides an entitypossessing a proprietary technology a competitive advantage,whereas the presence of industry standards for an infrastructuraltechnology levels the playing field and equalizes things for mostcompanies.

Carr contends that as an infrastructural technology, IT simplytransports, processes and stores data and information. IT hasprogressed from a proprietary technology twenty years ago to acommodity that is easily and readily accessible. As informationtechnology spreads, the cost of acquiring the technology drops,standards evolve and the strategic advantage to a corporationdiminishes. In the July 2003 edition of the Harvard BusinessReview magazine, just two months after Carr’s article, a rebuttalby John Seely Brown asserts that IT by itself seldom providesstrategic differentiation. IT provides the opportunity, possibili-ties and the option to separate oneself from the competition.Companies that act upon these possibilities will differentiatethemselves from their competition. Although the technologymay be ubiquitous, the insight to harness its potential is notevenly distributed. “Companies that mechanically insert IT intotheir businesses without changing their practices… will onlydestroy IT’s economic value.” For this reason, Brown contendsthat IT spending has seldom led to superior corporate financialresults. As Carr asserts, IT has become a negative enforcer thathas become a cost of doing business. To be without it wouldmean to be uncompetitive. Brown contends that the competitiveadvantage in today’s IT environment is to know how to harnessits capabilities and change the way of doing business by estab-lishing new business practices. However, the ability for IT tocreate economic value and the insight to organize technologicalcomponents into value adding architectures, is in short supply.Brown contends that competitive advantage is maintained bythose who successfully do just that. They harness today’s tech-nological capabilities, thereby truly leveraging technology.

Within the oil and gas industry, IT departments and softwarevendors expounded the utopian solution of IT applications. ITapplications and system hardware were sold as panacea solu-tions to maintaining corporate competitiveness. Maintainingcompetitiveness was portrayed as the requirement to obtainenhanced functionality with ever faster hardware, equippedwith operating systems that facilitated computational speed anddata transfer. This utopian dream quickly evaporated as corpo-rations realized that data format, data transfer, file import andexport, hardware compatibility, operating system compatibilityand even employee education, were all factors in deployinginformation technology effectively. The competitive advantageof IT was no longer an access issue for those who could afford it;it was fast becoming an implementation problem.

The geophysical discipline is a mathematical based sciencerequiring computational speed and memory capacity to processlarge arrays of numbers. For this reason, many innovations ingeophysics have often paralleled developments in computertechnology. In the early years, large mainframe computers wereused to perform calculations of large numbered arrays. With theroll-out of Unix, the geophysical community migrated to themore cost effective platform of desktop workstations for theyprovided computational speed with the convenience of distrib-uted local access. Recent developments in personal computershave provided geophysicists with the computational speed andcapacity to perform these calculations on portable laptopcomputers. Software vendors have responded as Wi n d o w sbased versions of Unix-coded programs were made available tothe industry.

The geological community did not require the expense associ-ated with the computational speed of the mainframe computersor the Unix platform. Geologists working with well-log datarequired access to digital log databases to build cross-sectionsand to analyze the properties of various rock formations. Assuch, their pre f e r red hard w a re platform was the personalcomputer as it was the least expensive platform. Such hardwaredisparities between geologists and geophysicists hindered thesharing of information between the two disciplines. For years,the industry solution was to contour the resultant maps simi-larly, using the human factor to correlate and integrate the twodata sets. Some software vendors responded by pro v i d i n ggeological functionality within new modules designed for Unix-based geophysical workstations while other vendors developedgeophysical interpretation software for the PC platform. As oiland gas companies requested enhanced file export and importcapabilities, so these companies began the process to integratedata and share information between geologists and geophysi-cists. They began to link and network software packages into amulti-disciplinary digital workflow that combined knowledgefrom various disciplines. A push for standards ensued. Industrystandards began to evolve that supported generic file import andexport structures across different operating systems. This furtherassisted data transfer and data sharing.

This has lead to the information technology environment that wefind ourselves in today. Oil and gas companies are migrating tocommon operating platforms with common operating systems.The Windows NT or Windows-based personal computer, morecommonly available as a laptop computer, is the preferred plat-form of choice. Companies with considerable capital invest-ments in Unix based technology are delaying their migration tothe PC environment until the functionality of this platform fullymimics and emulates the computational speed and capacity ofthe Unix-based environment.

What is Geo-Science Data Architecture?

Geo-science data arc h i t e c t u re is the design of geological,geophysical and petrophysical information workflows and theinteraction of databases and various application software pack-ages to facilitate data interpretation and ultimately the re t e n t i o nof the knowledge derived from the analysis of information. It isthe ability to accurately store the data, readily access it, deriveinformation from it and then retain the knowledge learned.

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Database management practices will assert responsibility andaccountability for the initial capture of data, emphasizing theaccurate and complete population of the database. Data arc h i t e c-t u re is much more than data management. Data arc h i t e c t u re is amanagement system that contains practices, policies and pro c e-d u res that facilitate this pro g ression or workflow. Data arc h i t e c-t u re is an umbrella that spans numerous IT issues as illustrated inF i g u re 1. It encompasses data management, hard w a re and soft-w a re issues, operating systems, system security and back-up,information analysis, knowledge retention, result pre s e n t a t i o n ,system integration, data file transfer and the like. It is a contextthat re-frames IT issues and captures the breadth of issues associ-ated with facilitating data workflows for the end-user.

Managing Your Digital Data Workflows

To fully appreciate the concepts of data architecture, it is imper-ative to follow the data through its path and evolution into infor-mation and ultimately knowledge. A flow chart such as theexample shown in Figure 2 can be used to roadmap this progres-sion. The process begins with the database as it is the foundationupon which the process is built. Accurate and complete databasepopulation becomes essential to the process as any errors, inac-curacies or poor data input practices quickly nullify the integrityand value of the data source. Databases can be registered andsupported internally within an organization or they can beaccessed externally through some form of subscription feeservice. The obligation to populate the database resides with thedatabase owner. Over the decades, oil and gas companies haveinvested considerable amounts of capital to acquire proprietarydata so as to mitigate the drilling risk associated with findingand producing hydrocarbons. One would anticipate that thisdata is dutifully catalogued and archived in a database withseemingly religious vigor but this is seldom the case. Oil and gascompanies are not in the database management business, theyare in the business to find and produce hydrocarbons. Numerousservice companies have attempted to fill this data management

void by providing access to public data such as well-logs, mapgrid files yet some data such as land entitlement and seismicdata coverage are unique and proprietary to each individualcompany, requiring the oil and gas company to assume theirown responsibility for accurate database population. Never hasthis plight been more evident than when an oil and gas companywishes to divest itself of a property or asset, often having to audittheir records to clarify entitlement prior to divestiture. Hence formuch of the 1990s, service companies preached the merits andbenefits of practicing good data management principles.

Whether the database is located internally or offsite, oil and gascompanies most typically access geo-science data through aGeographical Information System (GIS) browser. The browsercan communicate with various hubs at once in order to access thedata requested. Numerous industry browsers exist. Sometimesthe data is then placed into a project database prior to beingloaded into an application software package. Data begins tobecome information at the application software stage. At thisstage, geo-science professionals use various application softwarepackages to make interpretive judgments regarding their data.Often the technical problem demands a higher level of technicalrigor, so a specialty application software package can be utilized.The resultant maps that geo-scientists create depict their knowl-edge and understanding of the subsurface features. The knowl-edge is often presented in a meeting, sometimes captured in amemo, report or poster-like montage. The natural progressiondepicted in Figure 2, is for data to evolve into informationthrough technical analysis and for knowledge result.

Many things inhibit this ideological solution. Different hardwareplatforms can make it difficult for software packages to transferdata or information. Operating system driven file structure,vendor specific formats and file re-formatting can make a simpleexercise take days to accomplish. Vertically integrated softwarethat accesses this data and facilitates the data analysis to createinformation, resulting in increased knowledge, is often perceivedas a huge advantage to the end-user, however added function-ality in a competing software package often entices a “best ofb reed” solution which spurns the multi-vendor solutionproblem. Industry standard groups such as POSC and PPDMattempt to provide a common data model for the development ofsoftware, nomenclature and file formats. Software vendors havebeen trying to make life simpler by providing numerous fileimport and export formats. Now that PC based hard w a repossesses such computational speed, migration to this platformis now occurring.

Carr contends that once a technology becomes more common,the competitive advantage has diminished. Workstations wereonce reserved for the domain of the large oil and gas companies.Today, junior companies can access the necessary technology ona PC platform for a fraction of the cost of just a few years ago.Carr would conclude that any competitive advantage had eitherdisappeared or diminished appreciably. However, Brown assertsthat new practices, policies, and procedures must be put in placeto truly leverage information technology. If this is accomplished,then competitive advantage is restored. This is essentially thestage we find ourselves in today. Streamlining workflows withinan organization will lead towards less confusion, faster cycletimes, higher productivity and less frustrated personnel.Removing software redundancy and the need to support

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F i g u re 1. The Data Arc h i t e c t u re umbrella covers numerous InformationalTechnology issues which are best viewed in a broad context as many of theseelements are inter-related.


multiple solutions will simplify things appreciably. Just think ofthe technologist who has to support 3 or 4 geologists orgeophysicists who all wish to do the same thing but on differentsoftware. The technologist often has to learn numerous vendorspecific file formats to support a team of professionals. Such asituation is hardly efficient. Brown asserts that competitiveadvantage can be restored to the situation. Those who learn howto manage these problems and drive end-user based solutionswill succeed. However, a lack of talent to do this currently existsas a seasoned multi-disciplinary approach is required combinedwith a basic understanding of the IT world. In other words, anarchitect is required to design the house that everyone is to build!The data architect is the one that provides an understanding ofthe IT world and what is possible. The architect also knows whatthe end-user or consumer wants! Whether the architect isdesigning houses or digital data and information highways, therole is essentially the same. Within the oil and gas industry thisinvolves designing workable solutions compatible with today’sbusiness unit structures. Competitive advantage can be achievedby those who accomplish this feat first as these organizationswill be more productive, more responsive and more cost effec-tive than the competition.

A mind shift however is required to achieve thissuccess. Reflecting back upon the title of thispaper, one needs to wonder who is in controland driving the solutions. The solutions need notbe based upon “bleeding edge” technology. If theend-user is driving the solutions with the aid ofexpert architects, then a practical, meaningfuland value added solution will result. Harnessingyour IT capabilities rather than being a victim ofever evolving technology is the key to competi-tive advantage.

Conclusions

Information technology (IT) is fast becomingmore common. While some people may believethat the competitive advantage associated withIT is mitigated due to this ubiquitous availability,competitive advantage is maintained by thosewho harness the technology currently available.By adopting new business solutions, practices,policies and procedures, digital data workflowscan be stream-lined to better support geo-sciencep rofessionals and technologists. Various ITissues such as hardware, back-ups and commonoperating environments need to be reviewedm o re holistically with various softwarep rograms, data management and knowledgearchival in order to fully appreciate the conceptof data architecture. By applying this perspectivefor data architecture, competitive advantage isnot only maintained but it becomes a strategicadvantage. R

ReferencesBrown, John Seely, IT Doesn’t Matter, Harvard Business ReviewMagazine, July 2003, pp 41-49.

Carr, Nicholas G, Does IT Matter?, Harvard Business ReviewMagazine, May 2003, pp 109-112.

Jackson, Stuart A. and Lasseter, Thomas J., Workflow-Derived Applications: A CostEffective Multi-Vendor Solution, The Leading Edge, September 2003, pp 832-835.

McKenzie, Ben, Information Technology and The Oil Industry, The Leading Edge, 2004

Roche, Pat. The Workstation Wrangle, New Technology Magazine, Jan / Feb 2004, pp12-16.

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Doug Uffen, P. Geoph., has over 22 years ofindustry experience as a geophysicist andChief Geophysicist for both large and smallcompanies within the oil and gas industry.He possesses an appreciation for accuratelypopulated databases and he understands thevalue of streamlined digital data workflowsfor the geo-science professional whocontinues to look for hydrocarbon accumula-tions. Doug is currently the Manager of Geophysics at PetrelRobertson Consulting Ltd. in Calgary.

F i g u re 2. A typical geo-science workflow chart for a fictitious oil and gas company is shown, the gre e na r row indicating the pro g ression of digital data through the system. The diagram classifies various soft-w a re packages according to their functionality. Some of the third party software packages shown aresupported on other platforms aside from the ones depicted in this hypothetical example.