The Digital Cloud

In this series of posts we are looking at the challenges facing any organisation who wants to effectively manage their information. I am using the Oil industry as an example but I am sure that most of these challenges will exist in any organisation.

Information challenge 3 - Information complexity and shadow applications

Even in not particularly technology driven companies organic growth and industry consolidation can result in information system environments that encompass a number of merged technologies, processes and attached culture which will quite probably be spread across many diverse locations. You can easily imagine how quickly the data flows and the supporting systems can become very complex and a challenge to manage.

Systems complexity

For technical companies with work flows driven by a large range of different technical information this underlying complexity can be increased significantly. A typical oil company for instance will often be making use of hundreds of different technical applications in addition to the standard business systems and desktop productivity applications.

Data complexity

Most of these systems are all potentially driven, certainly within the oil industry and I am sure others, by many different data types and needs, often requiring additional different views of the same or similar data. Providing support for and managing all this is challenge enough. Often however these applications are geographically dispersed, do not talk to one another and can in many cases may have multiple roles, acting as sources of data as well as being users of data for instance. Add to this similar roles being played by different applications for the same data type and the result is significantly increased complexity!

Shadow Applications

If you are a knowledge worker and a user of these complex systems, you often will to have to integrate results and consolidate data from different applications and data stores. Often the spreadsheet is the chosen method to do this. Additionally results from both technical applications and spreadsheets are often presented to management in a presentation format usually PowerPoint. But the problem with this even if your information is well managed is structured and unstructured data repositories, some of the key business decisions are being made in shadow applications like error-prone spreadsheets, where it is often difficult to manage or validate data quality, duplication and version control. If not addressed this can lead to a significant gap in the management of a company's information and the retention and knowledge of key business decisions.

To begin to address these issues requires that an Information Manager takes the time to gain an overview of the systems they have in place. Of course spare time is not something that most managers have, so finding the time away from operational issues will be an issue in itself!

Read the other posts in this series.

The Challenges of Information Management
Information challenge 1 - A Data Explosion
Information challenge 2 - Data Quality

I am presently involved with helping the SPE organise a Information Management forum, the general theme of which is demonstrating the value of information management. I wrote the following draft abstract for the brochure to introduce the theme. What do you think? Any feedback?

Demonstrating the Value

If you were to ask any CEO in the oil industry or indeed any other industry about the importance of information to his business what would his answer be?

It has been reported that over 90% of organizations view their ability to manage electronic information as critical to their future, that information is a key asset that should be managed appropriately and one which provides a significant opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Historically though, and especially within the Exploration & Production domain, many information and data management professionals have found it difficult to demonstrate the true value of information management to the business. The challenge is that while information management is the enabler of the business processes which deliver the business results, there is often no clear direct link between information projects and business performance. As a result of this, especially during periods of low commodity prices and a challenging business environment such as the one we are presently experiencing, information management finds itself a potential target for cost reduction and project cancellation.

Meanwhile the information management challenges are growing at an ever increasing rate. The amount of data now generated during the lifetime of an reservoir has moved into the Petabytes and is fast heading towards Exabytes. Integrated workflows and next generation technical applications offer greater capabilities for modelling, visualisation, running simulations and analysing multiple scenarios but are placing an ever increasing demand for easy and timely access to quality data sources.

We need to think differently, possibly very differently to meet the information demands of the industry, successfully solve the problems that lie ahead and demonstrate the value of information management.