What would it mean for your operation to centralize information-sharing and scheduling with your oil and gas service companies? Time savings, cost savings, a reduction in phone calls and emails to verify information — these are all big deals.

Yet, many operators are stuck using old methods of doing the same thing. Maybe you’re reliant on manual processes or using multiple oil and gas field service software apps that “kind of work,” but you think it would take a massive effort to change.

We’ll show you there is a better, simpler way to coordinate schedules and streamline reporting with the service companies that you work with on a daily basis. This way, your operation can achieve efficiency and your team can get home in time for dinner!

Address the Challenge of Coordinating Schedules

For many operators (especially smaller ones), there is no centralized handling of work orders (WO) for contractors. Multiple employees have to call or email service companies about individual WOs, jobs, or projects. You’re reaching out to multiple service companies such as the measurement contractor, welders, environmental, and mechanics to sort out scheduling issues. 

Then, there is the issue of the Hot Work Permit requesting the actual work to be done at a specific time and location after the contractor has represented that they have taken the appropriate safety precautions and have the necessary safety equipment. Managing Hot Work Permits across multiple sites ends up delaying work

Consider the law of multiplicity. Multiple service providers, multiple supervisors in the field, a manager for each service provider, and multiple lists of WOs to initiate the work to be done. How is your team supposed to keep track of what has not been requested yet vs. what’s completed vs. what’s still outstanding without spending the entire day trying to track down information from a bunch of folks that are hard to reach?

Furthermore, some tasks are calendar-based on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. Even if you have a scheduling program, you must still perform a manual update once the contractor’s report work has been finished. That’s another layer of complication and effort.

Plus, there’s the cybersecurity issue of sharing data. You would have to give employees of each service company access to your corporate network to input their data. In today’s environment where cyber threats are on the rise against oil and gas companies, operators need to reduce their exposure by practicing good cyber hygiene. This scenario of multiple people from multiple companies using multiple pieces of software to access your data creates additional risk.

Fortunately, there is a solution through the Muddy Boots all-in-one field operations platform. We’ll present more information after looking at the additional issue of streamlining reporting.

Address the Challenge of Streamlining Reporting

Many smaller service companies still rely on a phone call or email to tell you that their work is done. Then, the only documentation they send over may be in the form of a weekly or monthly invoice. These invoices usually lack detail, which is not helpful for your operation to understand exactly what was completed so that you can produce thorough and complete reports.

On the other end of the spectrum, larger service companies likely have work orders and billing software that generates more detailed reports. But, each service company will send the information in a different format, often in a PDF file. Managers at your operation then have to manually sort through this information in order to produce reports.

Going back to the rule of multiplicity, if you have multiple service providers using multiple pieces of software, each producing different report formats, then the result is a lot of wasted time and effort trying to manage all of these reports.

There is a better way for your managers to support this important responsibility. When you streamline the reporting process through Muddy Boots, your managers will be able to complete this process in a fraction of the time, freeing them up for more important activity.

How Muddy Boots Solves Scheduling and Reporting Challenges

Operating companies that use Muddy Boots can issue log-ins to each of their service companies. Your field supervisors and managers (or anyone else in your company) can use Muddy Boots to generate a work order for any service company or add a scheduled recurring task, such as maintenance on a new compressor.

The service company will receive a notification about the work to be performed and the company can see all outstanding WOs that are due on certain dates. As crews for each service company complete their tasks, they can use the Muddy Boots platform in the field to mark the task complete, provide any notes or other details that your operation needs, and attach photos to each of the WOs.

On your end, managers can see all outstanding work orders and scheduled tasks — regardless of who originated them — and you can use a dashboard view to see what tasks are overdue versus what’s been completed.

No more chasing down work orders, making multiple phone calls to verify the work has been completed, and no more multiple pieces of software to produce reports. One log-in for you and one log-in for each service provider. It’s simplified, secure, and safe to use.

The added benefit of using Muddy Boots to manage work orders includes the ability for your operation to:

• Use built-in workflows to route work orders for approval and track results.
• Track costs and resource usage.
• Create and assign work orders online or remotely.
• Create corrective actions automatically from inspections.
• Use the same system for Manage of Change and Hot Work Permit approval.

And all of this can be handled over your smart phone, laptop, or tablet. The Muddy Boots all-in-one field operations platform provides your operation with the software support you need to manage your field employees, plus each of your oil and gas field service companies, in one cloud-based application, reducing your overall IT cost.

It’s time to make life easier for your company and your contractors so that everyone can get the job done on time, every time.

Schedule an educational demo of Muddy Boots today. Let us show you how you can cut back on the amount of time spent tracking work orders, save costs and reduce cybersecurity risk by consolidating multiple applications into one, and maximize efficiency managing your service companies.