The oil and gas industry, like many complex industries, is one often battling challenges with operational efficiency and collaboration—but why? And is there a simple solution?
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What Are the Collaboration Challenges for Oil, Gas and Energy?
(Image Ref: Unsplash)
Traditionally, oil and gas companies have become understandably plagued by siloed information. With so much sensitive data being handled, the focus historically was more on protection than collaboration and this, in turn, has bled into the technological advancement of tools within this space.
It was commonplace then for software in this realm to be created in-house, resulting in niche platforms designed purely to hold information internally, with very little concern for data sharing or collaboration. With an industry-wide hesitancy in data sharing, it’s easy to see how operational efficiency within companies such as these has hit a roadblock where other industries have thrived.
The issues come in many forms and lead to problems besides just cost. Take, for example, the all-too-common communication breakdown between Planning and Operations Teams. It’s an area that oil and gas companies are frequently trying to fix that often increases the health and safety risks, not to mention slowing entire projects down and much of it is down to no concrete means of collaboration.
It’s a problem many SaaS companies have tried to answer, and with the oil, gas, and energy sector starting to appreciate how much this digital deflection is costing their bottom line, it’s also one that’s becoming increasingly important to fix.
How Effective Collaboration Software Can Improve the Oil and Gas Industry
As with any complex industry, oil and gas companies are always striving to streamline their workflows to cut back on wasted time and lost money. With the right collaboration software, the common challenges surrounding the oil, gas, and energy industries can be vastly reduced and profit margins can be increased in the process.
So what do you need from collaboration software to really see the impact?
Seamless Integrations
Whether it’s integrating with key logistics software like Softmar, or keeping track of opportunities with Salesforce, it’s essential that your collaboration software gives you direct access to your most valuable platforms. With a more integrated set of softwares at your disposal, oil and gas companies can increase communication while removing the disconnect between teams, ultimately saving time but also vastly improving safety for ground teams too. Some collaboration softwares like those offered by SEDNA have a wealth of integration tools ranging from general platforms like Google Drive and Sharepoint to niche softwares such as Veson IMOS. Better still, the right collaboration software will also give you Open API access, to provide your company with endless integration options.
Clarity and Context
With so many players involved in the gas, energy, and oil industry, it’s easy to see why a collaboration software that provides a 360° view of business operations would be valuable. This is especially useful when it comes to bridging the gap between disparate teams like those gulfs often found between managers, third parties, and supply chain partners, for example. With the right collaboration software, the oil and gas industry can discover a new level of transparency, allowing all the moving parts within their business to come together in one core location for a complete overview of the timelines and goals of projects. Clarity such as this doesn’t only greatly reduce costly mistakes, but it also completely eliminates the wasted hours typically spent emailing back and forth attempting to gain insight. Some features of great collaboration software that bring this clarity include Shared Inbox features like tagging and auto-tagging for easy tracking of specific jobs, activity panels to see what emails have been viewed or actioned, and integrations with other tools.
Speed and Prioritization
With the oil and gas industry facing many challenges—a major one being reducing cost in an increasingly stringent world that demands tighter environmental controls—it’s essential for leaders within this space to be able to access information quickly. Excellent collaboration software must radically speed up workflows, but also make it much easier for oil and gas managers to cut through the noise and take action based on priority level. Typically, individuals within this space are left fielding an increasingly large inbox and must manually wade through endless threads with no easy way to get to the core projects. As such, businesses lose their competitive edge, more money becomes wasted on missed opportunities, and the day-to-day running becomes sluggish. The most successful collaboration softwares will optimize your team’s time by giving them access to smart boolean search functionality as well as clever prioritization tools, vastly downsizing the sheer volume of communications to only the essential and minimizing the potential for costly system crashes too.
Intelligence and Data
Collaboration software should be clever enough to reduce time spent manually organizing workloads while also giving you data-driven information for more informed decisions. Emails, for example, should be data points, able to be taken by collaboration softwares and routed to the right team and individual automatically, reducing individual email volume and allowing people to get to the real work easily. Third-party data should also be able to be utilized accurately and securely, with collaboration software able to embed this data into workflows automatically via smart integrations. Lastly, collaboration software for oil and gas companies should always make use of internal company data, providing leaders with key analytics to better improve customer service, identify poor performing workflows and give you the competitive edge.
(Image Ref: Unsplash)
What Collaboration Software Should You Choose?
When it comes to collaboration smart email platforms for the oil and gas industry it’s vital that the tool in question provides security and transparency across the business. At SEDNA, we have been providing a single source of truth for complex businesses for many years now, always ensuring that we place collaboration at the heart of all our features.
Why SEDNA for Oil, Gas and Energy Companies?
SEDNA knows data sharing is both the key to successful collaboration as well as a sensitive commodity. We also know that the disconnect between teams—especially in high-risk industries such as the oil, gas, and energy sectors—can cost more than simple time and money. It’s why our intelligent communication software is the chosen collaboration software for companies like global energy company Cheniere.
SEDNA creates a single source of truth via one platform that can integrate with many of your other must-have software. Here, all actions revolve around emails, but without the headache of threads, duplications, and Ccing. Instead, SEDNA employs clever features like auto-tags, boolean search, and in-built document management for seamless collaboration.
Download SEDNA’s Product Overview Here
SEDNA in a Nutshell:
- With SEDNA’s auto-tag feature, you can turn data into action automatically, all within the SEDNA platform
- Integrate with your existing platforms for harmonious workflows
- Share Notes to other team members and use the Activity Panel to discuss next steps and get an overview of what’s been actioned
- Manage documents with SEDNA’s Flexdocs, which ensures you’re working with the latest version of any document
- Only receive the emails that matter to you and reduce overall email volume by up to 95% with no threads in sight
- Create Buckets of communications you want to keep easily accessible and Follow conversations you’re particularly invested in
- Benefit from accountability and a 360° overview via SEDNA’s Shared Inbox
- Boolean Ultra-Fast Search can scan thousands of emails within seconds, boosting efficiency