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It’s a common scenario in the mining and oil & gas industries: the project has been approved to proceed and the pressure is on to get multiple parties – partners, consultants, contractors and suppliers – working together efficiently to meet an aggressive schedule. This challenge is often exacerbated by globalization and by the vast volume of data that flows between the project team.
Existing tools – such as paper documents, email and installed software solutions – were not created for the collaborative environment, and certainly weren’t designed to cope with the complexities of a large global project. The result is that these tools are exposing participants to delays in start-up, increased costs, rework and other risks.
As a solution to this, an increasing number of companies are using a web-based information management system. This software, delivered by third party companies on a project-by-project basis, is being used to facilitate the collaboration process and provide a project-centric approach to data control and information distribution.
Today’s oil, gas and mining projects are often complex and global. They are typically of very high value, with capital spend routinely in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Timelines are long and can be influenced by a wide range of external and internal factors such as government review, ecological factors, political risk, equipment lead time and financing. The project team can include many organizations and thousands of participants, which are spread across several countries. As a result, structured ways of linking the project team and reducing exposure to risk are becoming an integral part of successfully delivering projects.
Efficient, accurate information exchange is at the core of successful collaboration; without immediate access to the latest information, there is no collaboration.
Documents and formal correspondence are essentially the lifeblood of a project, and the consequences of not controlling this information can be high. Late, inaccurate or lost documents are often the primary contributor to delays, disputes, rework and quality issues. On an energy or mining project, the implications of making poor decisions during the early stages include: project schedules and key milestones missed; delayed commissioning and start up of facilities, impacting on incoming revenue stream; significant cost impacts in later phases, especially in the operations phase; unplanned shutdowns; and risk to health & safety.1 The ultimate outcome is that organizations can be exposed to the macro risks of financial loss, reputation damage and litigation.
Volume of Data
Due to advances in technology, companies are now in an information age where it’s become easier to produce and reproduce files and correspondence. The downside of this is that people and organizations seem to be drowning in data and emails.
Energy and mining projects are documentation heavy. Even on small projects there are thousands of documents, drawings, and specifications that need to be drafted, produced, reviewed, submitted, revised, approved and then released. These items can include: photos, GIS maps, drawings, vendor documentation, calculations, geological information, reports, geographic data, specifications, procedures and schedules. Even on a $100 million project, this can result in hundreds of thousands of documents.
In addition to the volume of files, formal correspondence items such as technical queries and requests for information can also amount to hundreds of thousands per project. The industry’s extensive use of workflows (or “squad checks”) only increases the number of revisions and approvals that need to be managed and the time it takes to manage them.
On any oil, gas or mining project, massive amounts of documentation needs to be stored and catalogued, and then be readily accessible to internal personnel and external companies. Documents and data must be current, as out of date documents can make the difference between an on time and on budget project, or a delayed start up and over budget project.
The Global Project Team
As technology advances and industries become more global in their outlook, project teams are becoming increasingly dispersed. On mining and oil & gas projects, it is virtually the norm to have organizations and consultants based across several countries. The up-side is that the world’s most skilled, specialized organizations are often working together, each bringing their own unique perspective and expertise. The challenge this presents, however, is how to effectively and efficiently collaborate when project team members are far removed from the project site, sometimes not even in the same continent.
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