The SOA approach differs radically from the traditional tiered architecture of large, monolithic software solutions. The main appeal of SOA lies in the ability to reuse existing IT resources, improve interaction among departments and provide faster and more cost effective process integration. (Image courtesy of P2 Energy Solutions)

Many legacy systems traditionally used to manage processes and data are no longer capable of dealing with the complexities of current day-to-day operations or providing the flexibility needed to meet increasing business requirements. Recognizing this staunch reality, Maritech Resources Inc., is implementing P2 Energy Solutions Enterprise Land software that will allow it to create composite applications combining numerous business processes from multiple applications into a single user interface. The application is built using Service Orientated Architecture (SOA).

SOA technology is ideally suited for the upstream oil and gas industry. The SOA approach differs radically from the traditional tiered architecture of large, monolithic software solutions. The main appeal of SOA lies in the ability to reuse existing information technology (IT) resources, improve interaction among departments and provide faster and more cost effective process integration. Composite solutions are particularly important to the upstream oil and gas industry because users are constantly accessing disparate systems to manage highly complex and specialized business processes.

The appealing aspect about P2 Energy Solutions’ approach to the design of Enterprise Land was the active role it allowed its customers to play in the software’s development. The company formed a customer advisory board comprised of representatives from 13 major oil and gas companies who helped shape the SOA technology to best serve the specific land management needs of the upstream oil and gas businesses. Leveraging Tobin LandSuite (TLS) software as the basis for the new product, Enterprise Land will likely redefine the way companies use software to manage their land assets.

The new system provides user-level configuration capabilities related to forms, fields, processes and validations as well as integrated workflow and alert capabilities, all while maintaining detailed audit trails. Making full use of the fluidity provided by SOA, processes and functionality are loosely coupled and, therefore, expand how the system is configured, deployed, accessed and integrated with other applications.

First to implement, first to benefit

Martitech Resources Inc., a subsidiary of TETRA Technologies Inc., is a rapidly-growing energy company that acquires, develops and produces oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico. Maritech is a relatively new company that is just beginning to implement core IT systems; key among them is land management. As the first company to implement Enterprise Land, its goal is to fully automate the processes that involve:

  • The timely payment of delay rentals, royalty payments and shut-in payments for oil and gas leases. Previously, all obligations regarding payments and critical dates were tracked manually. The company’s senior management felt it was essential to automate most of these land management business processes in order to ensure data accuracy and compliance as the company continues to grow.
  • The management of future data conversions related to acquisition growth. Historically, many of the company’s acquisitions have consisted of properties from companies that were already using the Tobin LandSuite. With such a large number of customers migrating to the new software, the reliable data model will allow for easier transfer of data between Maritech and the companies from which it is purchasing assets. This includes important access to historical land information. With Enterprise Land, which Maritech will use to manage all domestic, international, onshore or offshore assets, it will outperform the competition in oil and gas land management.
  • Tracking all contractual obligations associated with joint operating agreements and farm-out agreements. This requirement allows the company to meet its development-driven business strategy.
  • Auditing, reporting and SOX compliance. Because Maritech is a subsidiary of a publicly traded company it must comply with SOX, which demands a high level of transparency, controls and on-system processing. Unlike the legacy approach which used a series of manual business processes that were both complex and time consuming, the new software allows for much better compliance through secure user access, audit trails and quickly accessible data.

In addition to specific land management functional requirements, Enterprise Land’s reliance on SOA expands the company’s ability to integrate other third-party applications. All the existing land management systems are built on legacy, hard-coded architectures, which make integration and configuration extremely problematic. Enterprise Land’s SOA design increases the agility with which the system can be extended and evolve as the company grows.

The technological issues normally associated with being an early adopter were largely negated by the new application’s use of familiar functional concepts. With the company’s limited in-house IT technical resources, the flexibility this software provides is a major bonus. Deployment strategy is simple and can be handled by sending a link out to staff members. Additionally, a straightforward, intuitive interface simplifies the learning process for end-users, thus reducing training and support requirements.

Within TETRA, Maritech is the only business unit to run on completely separate systems from the rest of the organization. Enterprise Land will help Maritech meet TETRA’s strategic goal of integrating as many systems as possible across its organization and control its IT costs going forward. The potential for eventually bringing Maritech onto the same accounting platform as the rest of the organization is yet another benefit the flexibility of the SOA adoption makes possible.

With many unknown factors affecting long-term oil and gas business strategies, the company recognized that SOA offered the best chance of harnessing the level of functionality and flexibility required to meet potential challenges and opportunities. This realization also fits with Maritech’s ethos of selecting IT solutions based on strategic goals. By implementing the new software, the company feels confident that it now has a highly sustainable land solution that will meet today’s challenges as well as anything the future might hold.

Visibility, clarity and accuracy

A misconception about SOA is that it is an integration software product. In reality, SOA is a design philosophy. SOA requires companies to conceptualize their business processes and IT needs in a radically new way. A holistic view of the business, combined with detailed understanding of the facets that make up specific processes, is crucial for a successful SOA implementation.

Maritech will benefit significantly from the Enterprise Land implementation because the software was designed specifically to provide greater visibility, clarity and accuracy to the management of oil and gas land assets. The system was purpose built by land people, for land people. Using the full suite of modules, Maritech will gain competitive advantages through an improved strategic decision process and by managing land-related processes more efficiently.