Oil and Gas Industry Sees Boom in High-Tech Collaboration

The oil and gas industry has realized that keeping information flowing among its workers is key to continued flow in its pipelines.

According to a survey released today at Microsoft’s Global Energy Forum in Houston, oil and gas professionals are relying more than ever on collaboration – and real-time collaboration tools like social networking – to get their jobs done and remain competitive within their industry. The survey, conducted by Microsoft and Accenture, shows that the global nature of the oil and gas industry is driving the demand for real-time information and knowledge sharing, said Craig Hodges, Microsoft’s general manager of U.S. Manufacturing and Resources.

“Whether it’s in the same office building or across the globe, these folks have a strong need for collaboration both inside and outside of their companies,” Hodges said. “This industry is very concerned about safety and security, but these results show big progress in the area of collaboration.”

The survey of 205 professionals at oil- and gas-related companies from around the world found that nearly three-fourths are using social media tools for business collaboration, a significant increase over last year’s survey responses (62 percent). Overall, professionals are collaborating more than ever, with 34 percent reporting that they are collaborating more this year than last.

“Only 24 months ago, none of this would have been on people's radar screens,” Hodges said. “But today 84 percent of respondents said that they have the ability to contact colleagues anytime, from anyplace, on any device. To me, that's a pretty strong indicator of great momentum in adoption of these tools.”

The goal of the survey, the third annual survey commissioned by Microsoft and Accenture, was to capture what is driving increased collaboration among oil and gas professionals and determine current thinking about the business value of collaboration tools to enhance processes and workflows. Hodges said the results support industry trends and build upon the feedback from last year’s survey. They also helped identify areas where cloud services can drive collaboration and innovation.

“The industry is beginning to wake up to see the cloud as a vehicle to drive their business and increase collaboration,” he said. "Cloud computing holds enormous promise not only in accelerating the implementation and adoption of technology, but also in creating the ability for oil and gas professionals to collaborate around the world.” That means greater business agility and increased operational efficiency and profitability, he added.

As the geographical and demographic landscape of the oil and gas industry continues to evolve, the workforce will require new technologies that better connect people, data and resources across continents and supply chains, Hodges said. The energy sector faces some of the biggest management problems on the planet – wild swings in supply and demand, volatile prices, and shifting worldwide energy policies have made oil and gas exploration and production more complex than ever.

At the Global Energy Forum, Microsoft is showcasing how its products can help companies face these challenges. “Our technology toolkit is well-suited to be applied to the problems these companies face day in and day out,” Hodges said.

At the conference, companies will learn how they can use Windows Phone 7 to build applications that enable them to do business on a smartphone, for example. Microsoft Lync will be used to illustrate the benefits of unified communications and presence. And attendees will see how Microsoft StreamInsight can help companies uncover hidden patterns of data to provide insights and help solve problems.

Several Microsoft partners will talk about their experiences with Microsoft technologies. For example, a member of the board of directors at Bharat Petroleum, one of India’s largest companies, will use Lync to give a video presentation on its use of Microsoft’s unified communications tools. Shell will talk about its use of Microsoft Online Services to drive its vision for increased collaboration. And Chevron and industry standards group Energistics will showcase their experience with the Windows Azure platform and SQL Azure to utilize data more effectively.

Hodges said that the push toward unifying communications in the cloud will likely continue as oil and gas professionals becoming increasingly spread out around the world.

“Like every other industry, oil and gas companies are trying to do more with less, and it becomes even more important to move strategically and swiftly,” he said. “This is especially true in the oil and gas industries, where the availability of natural resources is constantly in flux and decision-making – often between business units spread across the globe – needs to happen swiftly. The cloud can address this need with flexibility, agility and cost efficiency.”

Adoption of Real-Time Collaboration Technologies Continues to Grow Among Oil and Gas Professionals, According to Microsoft and Accenture Survey

Oil and gas professionals are collaborating more than they did one year ago and are adopting the use of social media tools into their daily work, according to a Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) survey released today at the Microsoft Global Energy Forum 2011 in Houston.

The survey of 205 professionals within international, national and independent oil- and gas-related companies found that nearly three-fourths (74 percent) are using social media for business collaboration — a significant increase over last year’s survey responses (62 percent). Public instant-messaging tools are used the most for business collaboration (38 percent, an 11 percent increase over last year), followed by internal company social networks (33 percent, a 17 percent increase over last year).

Overall, professionals are working together more than ever, with 34 percent reporting that they are collaborating more this year than in the previous year. This trend is anticipated to grow in coming years, primarily because of the aging oil and gas industry work force that must prepare its younger generation to take on leadership roles. Almost a third of respondents (31 percent) said that improved technology-driven access to information could lessen the business impact resulting from the scarcity of skills and talent stemming from the aging work force.

In addition, the global nature of the oil and gas industry is driving the demand for the ability to collaborate from anywhere, at any time, using any device for real-time information and knowledge sharing. However, this ability is often hindered by what survey respondents identified as the biggest barriers for collaboration: broken workflows that prevent information flow (47 percent) and no unified solution for knowledge sharing (45 percent).

To address these collaboration barriers, respondents identified that the following technology enhancements are needed to further a company’s success: improved timing to streamline decision-making (52 percent), improved interaction capability through any device (42 percent), and improved computing power for data analysis and computer simulation (35 percent).

“As the industry continues to expand globally with workers dispersed across multiple regions, oil and gas companies are challenged to find new, innovative ways to help employees collaborate and share information remotely, in a security-enhanced manner,” said Craig Hodges, general manager of U.S. Manufacturing and Resources at Microsoft. “The cloud is driving this business transformation, providing flexibility, agility and cost reductions to the enterprise and providing information workers with anytime, anyplace access to information, across a wide variety of connected smart devices, powered by Windows.”

“Diversification, developments in oil and gas technology, talent, and regulatory policies are just a few factors demanding oil and gas companies to make information available to their work forces and partners in a timely and efficient manner,” said Brian Miller, senior executive in the energy industry group at Accenture. “The survey results show the industry’s recognition of the strategic benefits in utilizing IT solutions such as cloud computing, enabling easier accessibility to data and knowledge sharing within a security-enhanced environment. Companies need to accelerate the implementation of these solutions to help them innovate, operate more successfully in dynamic environments, and increase their productivity and business performance.”

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 211,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$21.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2010.

Organizations Speed Business Results With New Appliances From HP and Microsoft

HP and Microsoft Corp. today announced a portfolio of four new converged application appliances that fuse applications, infrastructure and productivity tools into a single system. These solutions help organizations optimize employee productivity and decision-making, while simplifying the delivery of applications for IT. The HP Business Decision Appliance is available now to run business intelligence services, and the HP E5000 Messaging System for Microsoft Exchange Server is planned to be available in 45 days to run messaging services. Two other appliances are expected to be available later this year.

Until now there have been two ways to deploy critical business applications: highly customized deployments that take too long or proprietary stacks of applications and infrastructure that are inherently rigid and slow to change. The result is only 32 percent of IT projects that deliver critical business applications are rated as “successful” by the organizations implementing them.

Delivering on the companies’ extended partnership announced a year ago, the new converged application appliances from HP and Microsoft are the industry’s first systems designed for IT, as well as end users. They deliver application services such as business intelligence, data warehousing, online transaction processing and messaging. The jointly engineered appliances, and related consulting and support services, enable IT to deliver critical business applications in as little as one hour, compared with potentially months needed for traditional systems. One of the solutions already offered by HP and Microsoft — the HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance — delivers up to 200 times faster queries and 10 times the scalability of traditional Microsoft SQL Server deployments.4

“Customers are looking to significantly reduce implementation and decision times,” said Mark Potter, senior vice president and general manager, Industry Standard Servers and Software, HP. “With our converged application appliances, HP and Microsoft enable customers to shorten the time required to deliver information, which helps to reduce risk and cost.”

“Microsoft and HP are helping IT professionals fight their biggest foes — time and complexity,” said Ted Kummert, senior vice president, Business Platform Division, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft. “With these appliances, we’re helping to put critical business information in our customers’ hands when they need it.”

Expanding the Reach of Business Intelligence

With the HP Business Decision Appliance, HP and Microsoft have greatly reduced the time and effort it takes for IT to configure, deploy and manage a comprehensive business intelligence solution, compared with a traditional business intelligence solution where applications, infrastructure and productivity tools are not pre-integrated. This appliance is optimized for Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft SharePoint and can be installed and configured by IT in less than one hour.

The solution enables end users to share data analyses built with Microsoft’s award-winning5 PowerPivot for Excel 2010 and collaborate with others in SharePoint 2010. It allows IT to centrally audit, monitor and manage solutions created by end users from a single dashboard.

Red Wing Shoe Company, a worldwide manufacturer and retailer of premium work shoes and boots, was an early adopter of the HP Business Decision Appliance through GNet, an HP/Microsoft Frontline channel partner.

“We were intrigued by the idea that we could implement a turnkey solution that was fully integrated into our environment with minimal effort,” said Mike Cleary, director, IT Architecture and Operations, Red Wing Shoe Company. “Previously, to install all the required software and configure the components would have taken us several days. Now not only our business analysts but the broader user community can use a familiar tool, Microsoft Excel, to create and analyze data in new and unique ways.”

Scalable from midsize organizations to large enterprise environments, converged application appliances also offer HP/Microsoft Frontline channel partners such as GNet significant sales opportunities. Because the appliances are open, based on industry standards, and can be integrated into heterogeneous data centers, they are ideal offerings for channel partners.

The HP Business Data Warehouse Appliance is a data store designed for small and midsize businesses that delivers enterprise-class functionality with increased simplicity and administrator-free operation. This appliance complements the HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance, which is designed for large organizations, is optimized for SQL Server 2008 R2, and was introduced in November. The HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance improves data access with massive scalability and faster queries than traditional SQL Server databases. Through interoperability with the Microsoft Business Intelligence platform, customers can deliver managed business intelligence solutions to everyone in an organization.

Enterprise-Class Messaging in Hours

The new HP E5000 Messaging System for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is the industry’s first self-contained, preconfigured platform for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 that delivers enterprise-class messaging to businesses of all sizes. This messaging system, which can be deployed in as little as a few hours, delivers large mailboxes at a low cost, centralized archiving and 24x7 access from any device, and it can scale as business needs grow.

Customers benefit from built-in features such as the HP Quick Deployment tool, which validates configuration and active directory permissions to enable faster implementation. In addition, compatibility between management tools such as HP Systems Insight Manager and Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, as well as support, help reduce the amount of time required to implement the solution.

To help ensure uninterrupted service, the appliance features designed-in best practices with fully redundant hardware and Database Availability Groups, a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 feature that continuously replicates data.

Delivering on the Promise of Private Clouds

In addition to workload-specific appliances, HP and Microsoft plan to deliver the HP Database Consolidation Appliance. This appliance consolidates hundreds of databases into a single, virtual environment, providing customers with a private cloud database solution that offers self-service, on-demand scalability and dynamic elasticity with the additional control offered through an on-premises deployment.

Optimized for SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Hyper-V Cloud, the appliance will be delivered as complete, pre-installed, pretuned hardware with rapid deployment and enhanced manageability. Similar capabilities of the appliance will be offered as a reference architecture to customers who have advanced IT skills and prefer to build their own appliance with best practice guidance from HP and Microsoft.

Accelerating Business Service Delivery

HP and Microsoft will offer support and consulting services for the converged application appliances to help customers accelerate business service delivery. The services portfolios include assessment, design, proof of concept and implementation, as well as ongoing support. The services use HP and Microsoft’s expertise in delivering comprehensive, simplified solutions for data management, business intelligence, data warehouse and messaging.

Availability and Pricing

• The HP Business Decision Appliance with three years of HP 24x7 hardware and software support services is available today from HP and HP/Microsoft Frontline channel partners for less than $28,000 (ERP). Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft SharePoint 2010 are licensed separately.

• The HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance with services for site assessment, installation and startup, as well as three years of HP 24x7 hardware and software support services, is available today from HP and HP/Microsoft Frontline channel partners starting at less than $2 million. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse is licensed separately.

• The HP E5000 Messaging System with three years of HP 24x7 hardware and software support services is expected to be available in March from HP and HP/Microsoft Frontline channel partners starting at $36,000. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is licensed separately.

• The HP Business Data Warehouse Appliance is expected to be available in June, and the HP Database Consolidation Appliance is planned to be available in the second half of this year.