Efficient upstream (often referred to as E&P) field data collection is critical to the success of your operation. The faster your office has access to environmental, security, and health & safety data, the faster you can respond to emerging situations. The rapid evolution of mobile technologies has changed the way the world does business and your partners and customers are changing too. Collecting field data using paper forms is increasingly viewed as an inefficient and antiquated way of doing business.
Mobilizing your upstream data collection processes has the potential to make a huge difference to your business as the drastically improved productivity will directly affect your bottom line. Here are 5 ways ProntoForms can help you achieve measurable results:
1. Documenting oil and gas extraction hazards
Extraction field workers can be exposed to hazardous materials like hydrogen sulfide, silica, and diesel particulate matter. It is imperative to carefully document the presence of these hazards, and the procedures your company has developed to protect them. You need to prove that your business has been compliant with regulatory standards, such as those outlined by OSHA. Paper documentation takes too long and is vulnerable to loss, damage, and illegible and incomplete data.
Using ProntoForms, field workers can fill out and submit hazard inspection forms in real time. Better still, we can connect the recorded data to back office systems or cloud services – and save you time and money by eliminating hours of manual data entry.
2. Streamline spill reporting
Spills should never happen, but they do. And the settlements can reach billions of dollars. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires that the owner of any facility responsible for an oil spill report the incident the moment it occurs. To do so effectively, field workers need to quickly record and report spill observations by travelling to impacted areas of the job site. Relying on paper forms for spill reporting leads to unacceptable and costly delays.
ProntoForms can help you streamline the reporting process. Our mobile solution lets field workers record and report oil spill information in real-time using their mobile devices. They can even use audio capture to document the sound of machines over time to prevent equipment failure. They can also capture, sketch on, and attach pictures to their mobile forms for precise, accurate and timely spill reporting.
3. Extract valuable information from field data
The American Oil and Gas Reporter recognizes that “increasingly complex production environments are driving the need to improve access to real-time data and analytics across the value chain.” It’s nearly impossible to access E&P data from the field in real time if the information is on paper. It’s even more difficult to extract critical data trends in a timely manner.
ProntoForms can connect your recorded field data to an analytics engine that provides you with insights on exploration and production data. That way, you’re equipped with the information needed to make data-driven decisions that bolster your bottom line.
4. Simplify data collection
Petroleum production technicians are often tasked with coordinating the collection of the field data used to analyze production rates, expenses, incident reports, and trends. That’s a lot of data to keep track of if you store it on paper. In fact, relying on paper is a good way to lose track of data while travelling between job sites.
But using ProntoForms, you can keep all that information in your back pocket. You can even embed GPS & time stamps into the forms to indicate when and where the information was recorded.
5. Keep up with customer expectations
Traditionally, customer satisfaction in the E&P industry used to be about meeting business commitments and providing best-in-class service. Now, you also need to make business decisions faster, justify them with real-time data, and be as productive as possible to keep pace with competitors. That’s difficult to accomplish with manual processes. You don’t have time to wait for field workers to record field data and deliver the forms back to you.
Integrating ProntoForms with your site operations will help you keep up with customer expectations – and keep ahead of competitors still relying on antiquated paper-based processes. You can dispatch partially completed mobile forms to field teams no matter where they are, bridging the gap between field workers and the office. You can also design the forms so that they’re easier to fill out by embedding answers (e.g. information from dehydration units, compressors, and vapor recovery systems) into the forms that field workers can select using drop-down menus.
Deploying a mobile form solution for your field workers can help you transform your business.
Want to see how ProntoForms can help you overcome your upstream challenges?
