Posts tagged ‘Survey’
Oil Industry Embraces Social Media Tools, Yet Corporate Policy Lags
Nearly 75% of oil and gas professionals see value in using social media and collaboration tools at work — an 83% jump from last year’s poll — but corporate-wide endorsement of these tools continues to lag behind, according to a Microsoft Corp. and Accenture survey released at Microsoft’s Global Energy Forum in Houston.
The Microsoft and Accenture Oil & Gas Collaboration Survey 2010, which surveyed 275 professionals within international, national and independent oil and gas and related companies, found that social media and collaboration technology adoption is primarily a grassroots phenomenon within firms. At the same time, half of those surveyed said their companies prohibit or restrict the use of many of these publicly available tools, such as photo-sharing and social networking sites.
Oil and gas employees stated that productivity gains (37%), work flexibility (95%) and the ability to complete projects on time and on budget (36% and 38%, respectively) are the primary reasons for use of social media and collaboration tools. However, company-wide endorsement has not mirrored employee demand. The survey found that only 11% of social media adoption is driven by the executive suite, and higher-ups’ greatest concerns center around a “limited ability to control or provide a secure environment” (39%).
“With fewer resources overall and colleagues scattered across continents, it is no surprise that oil and gas professionals are increasingly turning to technology to connect and share information,” said Craig Hodges, general manager of US Manufacturing and Resources at Microsoft. “However, we recognize that securing company data and intellectual property are obviously key company priorities, and there are many corporate collaboration technologies today that achieve both goals.”
“The survey shows that companies are not realizing the strategic benefits from their collaboration tools investments such as increased workforce performance, improved sharing of knowledge or skills across the work force,” said Craig Heiser, Accenture senior executive in the Energy industry group’s management practice. “To realize the full potential of collaboration investments, companies need to change work processes and individual roles while training their employees on how to achieve improved business performance through collaboration.”
Johan Krebbers, Group IT architect at Shell, confirmed the industry’s need for heightened workforce collaboration.
“The challenge we have with exploration is that we have people positioned globally to explore for oil and gas,” Krebbers said. “Eighty percent of our teams are global teams, with members in multiple locations around the world. We must offer world-class collaboration capabilities so that our people can work at a global level.”
More information about the survey methodology and the full results are available at: www.microsoft.com/oilandgas
PetroSkills Hosts Open House at New Conference Center
I attended the open house event at PetroSkills’ new conference center near Katy Mills mall, upon invitation of my friend Patty Davis. In addition to tours of the facility and a nice box lunch, PetroSkills VP Gerry Ross revealed the results of a Zoomerang survey of about 60 Gulf Coast area training executives at energy companies (2% response rate).
The top five areas requiring training, according to respondents, were: Drilling and Completions, Shale Gas, Geology and Geophysics, Deepwater, and Gas Production.
The survey also showed that practicality and customizability of course content were more important that price, according Gerry Ross, who promised not to use that as an excuse to raise course tuition.
Ross said PetroSkills updates its Competency Analysis Tool every year and updates each course every three years, garnering input from major oil companies on its board. Instructors are also vetted by that Board.
PetroSkills is looking for oil and gas equipment, models and simulators to showcase at its large, new conference center to help students learn and understand the latest technology better.
AIIM Survey – Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0
Twice as many organizations are now taking active steps to implement Enterprise 2.0 technologies, such as wikis, instant messages, FaceBook-style employee profiles, compared to 15 months ago, according to a survey by AIIM, the Association for Information and Image Management. Knowledge-sharing, collaboration and responsiveness were given as the main drivers of this increase.
The online survey, which was taken by 789 individual members of the AIIM community between May 11 and May 26, 2009, also found that:
- LinkedIn is twice as popular as FaceBook for business networking;
- 68% of those surveyed think professional networking on the Web is vital to career progression;
- 27% of people aged 18-30 consider Twitter is an important rapid-feedback tool for business. Only 7% of those over age 45 agree.
- 71% of respondents agree that it is easier to locate “knowledge” on the Web than to find it within their companies’ internal systems.
Support for Global PIDX Deployment
Support for Global PIDX Deployment.
Tell Us What You Think, and maybe Win an IPOD
You may, or may not be familiar with PIDX, the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) committee on Electronic Business Standards and Processes. But, they are interested in your opinion on how best to provide support for international deployments of the PIDX standards.
The PIDX Global Business Practices Workgroup (GBPWG), which was founded in 2006 to develop and document best practices for global e-Commerce in the Oil & Gas industry, captures, aggregates and publishes country-specific best practices and information, including legal, fiscal and business practices, in the form of Country Profiles.
The GBPWG is surveying both PIDX members and non-members to better understand the importance and relevance of the workgroup to the international e-Commerce expansion efforts of the industry. The survey can be found at
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228T4AC9ZCE
The survey closes on Monday 23rd February 2009.
Eiro Consulting, a professional services firm specializing in e-Commerce, will hold a drawing to allow one lucky survey responder to win an IPOD Nano.
PetroComputing 