Introduction

Australia’s oil and gas development industry is becoming increasingly competitive, with companies keen to boost efficiency and streamline costs in order to gain a competitive edge.

This is particularly true for start-ups, which must quickly gain commercial momentum while managing smaller budgets than more established rivals.

However, with the right technologies and approach, small businesses with big ambitions can revitalise back-end functions, boost collaboration and ensure they are flexible to changing market conditions.

Unencumbered by legacy systems, start-ups can pursue efficient and effective solutions to business problems that can actually give them the edge over many more established competitors.

It was with these benefits in mind that Perth-based drilling services provider Advanced Energy Group (AEG) sought a new electronic document management system (eDMS) to overhaul the company’s existing set-up and deliver scale and efficiency.

The challenge

Despite being a relatively young business, AEG is dedicated to demonstrating industry best practice and the effective implementation of robust policies and procedures.

Neil Canby, Chief Information Officer at AEG, says the company immediately understood the importance of introducing a document management system to underpin its business operations.

AEG had previously been using Dropbox, but as a file management system it lacked the required functionality, rigour and flexibility. Problems included users creating their own file structures and poor document version control.

Furthermore, Dropbox also had to be switched off on AEG’s rig because of the challenges associated with frequent document updates being pushed over a very constrained satellite link.

“We set about finding an appropriate solution and we were quickly drawn to SharePoint because a lot of our environment is already Microsoft - both on desktops and servers,” Neil explains.

Case study: Advanced Energy Group (AEG)AEG steps into the cloud with Bluebox Solutions

Searching for a partner

According to Neil, the company quickly realised that its ability to configure and implement a SharePoint solution in-house was low. As a new business, cost was also going to be a factor.

AEG partnered with Bluebox Solutions after being impressed with the organisation’s preconfigured eDMS modules and professionalism.

“Their whole approach is to work collaboratively with the client and help us to achieve our outcomes,” Neil says.

“That sense of collaboration flowed all the way through the organisation - everyone we dealt with was committed, understood our objectives and was very professional.”

AEG invested in a new intranet solution and a document management system designed for two audiences - one for internal use and the other for enhanced collaboration with clients.

The company opted for cloud-based solutions using Bluebox’s preferred partner Amazon WebServices (AWS).

“It became evident early in the process, that going with a fully hosted service made the most commercial sense for us,” Neil says.

The solution

The eDMS solution has a number of features that have helped AEG streamline document management processes.

These include standard and consistent metadata classification; version control and checkout capabilities; fast, powerful search functions; security and access permission control; and an automatic document naming function.

Neil says: “I’ve done a lot of system implementations during my career, and while this was one of the smaller implementations, it was very successful.”

“If you measure it in terms of the quality and completion of planned schedule, cost variations and user experience once it went live - it was all very good.”

The benefits

Implementing the new document management system has resulted in various business benefits at AEG and the company predicts future improvements as more users become familiar with new functions.

“I think having a single source of truth is the biggest benefit,” Neil says.

“With the Bluebox eDMS solution, you know that the document you are viewing is the latest version, including whether it’s been published, which gives people a lot of confidence in their work.”

The new system has also vastly improved collaboration, allowing users to view, send and edit documents in a more intuitive and interactive way.

Neil says AEG hopes to emphasise this aspect of the system over the coming months, including supporting the reinforcement of the company culture through its intranet.

“The technology gives us the opportunity to reinforce some of our key messages, such as our commitment to safety and our proactive feedback loops,” he says.

“The homepage has the ability to support bringing a young business together around a set of central core values.”