Together with Cyviz, KC has undertaken the major study The Future of Collaboration on the use of collaborative work environments in the Oil & Gas industry. This survey maps how companies in the Oil & Gas industry utilize collaborative environments (CEs) to achieve business objectives, and how technology is applied to support these structures and work processes. The survey further identifies and explores common shortcomings and bottlenecks experienced by companies trying to realize the potential value of collaboration. The survey concludes with a discussion of mission critical capabilities for Oil & Gas companies that are interested in using collaboration as a strategic enabler of productivity, decision making and knowledge sharing.
MAJOR FINDINGSSome major findings include the following:
- CEs are mission critical - a majority of survey participants view CEs as mission critical, and they also expect to see a higher demand for such facilities as the number of known uses and benefits continue to increase.
- Audio conferencing, video conferencing and data sharing are the most important functionalities provided by CEs, but many respondents find the applications difficult to use.
- Current and anticipated use is higher than expected. More than 75 % of users expect to see more CEs in their corporations, and in excess of 30 % work in CEs more than 6 hours per week.
- Integrated operations and related concepts are reaching a stage of maturity, resulting in business objectives driving investment decisions rather than AV integrators running the show based on technology driven opportunities and proprietary knowledge.
- The major challenges often lie within the organizational structures, work practices and implementation capabilities, not necessarily with technology as such. Many users believe standardization will speed up the introduction of CEs.
- Multi-purpose CEs are increasingly becoming popular. Layouts and solution offerings must handle a number of different locations, user groups, processes and settings in a flexible manner.
- The failure rate of CEs is too high. This is partly due to poor reliability and partly to poor usability in real life contexts. Intuitive user interfaces, standardization, reliable service concepts, awareness and training are identified as key remedies.
[Download The Future of Collaboration - Executive Summary]
Participating oil & gas companies have complimentary access to the survey report for internal use only. Contact KC to find out if your company participated in the survey. Additional findings will be presented at the 71st EAGE Conference & Exhibition in Amsterdam at the Data and Information Management session 9 June 2009. See EAGE Amsterdam 2009 web page for more information.
