The OGM Interactive Canada Edition - Summer 2024 - Read Now!
View Past IssuesAs operations and movements of people coincide with an increase in the upward production of energy resources, managing operations becomes a priority and a growing challenge to many corporations.
Management tools have embraced the need for industries to be more cognizant of their movements and accountable for their growing assets.
Innovators from all over the globe are tapping into the opportunity to build exemplary software programs, designed to create accountability for employees, track and manage costs, facilitate safety, and secure live reporting.
Software companies, like D4H out of Ireland and Aeviex, Inc. of Calgary, have long recognized the importance of how accurate accounting and flow mitigates risks in all aspects of business. These companies have propelled themselves into a very hungry market to fulfill the need for reliable management in all areas of operations.
Over in Ireland, while out undertaking emergency response operations as part of the Irish Coast Guard, Robin Blandford discovered a major need for response team management software through some very real pains. He discovered a better way to manage response teams to ensure they always had the right data on equipment, training, personnel, incidents, qualifications, and resources when things went wrong.
Blandford’s entrepreneurial spirit and motivation to establish more reliable solutions and to improve what was typically an onerous spreadsheet and paperwork ordeal catapulted to what would become D4H Technologies. As the CEO of D4H, Blandford has seen his original technology grow from Ireland to Tier 1 clients in over 11 countries, including the Alberta oil sands.
The government of Alberta has recently become a D4H client, purchasing the software suite for over 40 response units in the province. Live statistics are now generated and analyzed centrally when these units are tasked by the RCMP and Office of the Fire Commissioner to perform specialist functions in rope rescue, swift water, flight teams, man tracking, search management, and advanced life support.
According to Marc Healy, head of International Business Development and Marketing, “D4H is a tool for emergency responders, built by emergency responders. Safety is why we exist.” Emergency response teams are integral to all major industries; D4H’s North American clients include Titan Salvage, CKR Global, CHC Helicopters, Albertan oil sands projects, Irish Coast Guard, and U.S. Homeland Security.
Fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) operations to remote sites can wreak major havoc with travel departments and on-site operators managing daily, weekly, and monthly movements, and “one-offs,” who are contractors not on regular schedules to these locations.
Live software makes sense and saves cents for companies who value all aspects of their employees’ work experiences. Aeviex Inc., a logistical management software startup out of Calgary, reduces air travel emissions through the automation of workforce travel management for FIFO operations by maximizing the capacity of the flight charters. Currently in stealth mode, Aeviex has customized a program for their beta clients whose production in the Athabasca oil sands is gathering steam and requires increased movements.
“We’ve created trackability in two ways: financially and operationally. We advance FIFO operations, so they become more scalable and operationally economical, and thus can meet the increasing demands of oil and gas production,” says Feras Nasser, CEO of Aeviex. “Having travel and aviation teams on the ‘accountability table’ ensures efficient and cost-effective workforce mobilization and travel management.”
Understanding that many companies are currently using existing software licenses, such as camp management software, they’ve designed their programs to be agile and flexible, and many happily plug in to existing technology programs.
Energy corporations are eyeing the associated risks very seriously, resulting in an increasing interest in new technologies that mitigate those risks, save time, resources, costs, and increase accuracy.
Enhancing the safety of their crews means improved investment where training, quality of life, volumes of production, and job satisfaction are concerned. These measures increase the value of the companies’ assets, but also enhance the overall experience for their employees in the areas of safety, reliability, and longevity of employment.
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