A map-based Web site that links customers with vendors may be the E&P e-commerce solution that actually works.

I remember covering the dot.com boom a couple of years ago as it washed over the oil and gas industry. I attended industry breakfasts, industry luncheons, industry cocktail parties, show-and-tell PowerPoint presentations, and the hope was always the same - that my colleagues and I would write about this new, exciting initiative and how it would revolutionize the way business was conducted between oil companies and their suppliers.

Many of the folks who cover this industry are rather hard-nosed journalist types, and one of us must have asked the same question at every one of these gatherings - how do you expect to make any money at this? Why would anyone pay a third party to add an extra layer of complexity, and cost, to the standard client-vendor relationship?

That was, as we all now know, the right question to ask. And yet, in the ashes of that ill-fated "boom," there are companies finding new ways to tweak that model. And they're making it work.

One such company is Tobin International. Tobin has long supplied map-based products to the E&P industry, and developers there have recently launched the Tobin Vendor Data Index. The concept is disarmingly simple. A user can pull up a map of a region (mostly Lower 48 right now, although eventually it will be worldwide) and, by clicking on various menus, find out what data is available in the area, who is selling that data and how to contact them for the purchase. Seismic, well log, production, leasing and ownership data are all available through the service.

What makes it rather amazing is Tobin seems to be succeeding where other initiatives have failed by acting as an independent third-party site. It simply hosts the information for the vendors and doesn't attempt to capture any of the transaction price. The site makes its money by charging a subscription fee to its clients, but since this is a small part of Tobin's overall business, the fee is not exorbitant. Perhaps most importantly, the company is getting buy-in from the vendors because they don't see Tobin as a competitor. This, in turn, will eventually mean that subscribers will know that they're seeing almost all of the available data for an area, not just data from the select few who have signed up on the site.

"So far all of our discussions with the vendors have been positive, and everybody's on board," Jim McNeil, executive vice president of marketing and product management for Tobin, said. "They see it as a good idea."

McNeil explained that the site is filling a void on both sides. Customers have been facing the age-old data management problem of not knowing what data they have or where it is, and to avoid buying the same dataset three or four times, they're spending time and money attempting to catalog their own data stores. When they find a gap, they need the vendors to provide the data and update it in a timely fashion.
Meanwhile, the vendors are having trouble keeping up with that demand. "They've got 50 different companies asking for copies of things, and they've got to get it to them and keep it updated," McNeil said. "It's a major pain for them."

Still in its infancy, the Tobin Vendor Data Index will ultimately enable operators to find data quickly and easily. Soon clients will be able to actually order the data they need online. Most of the vendors are setting up e-commerce engines in their own Web sites which will handle the entitlement aspect, and customers will be launched to that Web site from the Tobin site to take care of the transaction details. Ultimately, customers will be able to download the data while they're working.

Any company with a Web browser can use the service, but Tobin can also host the information and stream the data to the customer as it's ordered. "They don't need to manage it at all, and they can still bring in different layers of information and compare them through their different databases," McNeil said.
Currently the company is planning pilot projects that will allow customers to test the product before they purchase it. "I think once you've got two or three customers using it, it will take off," McNeil said. "Right now we've got everyone saying they want it, but we're trying to get them to the next step. That takes a little time. They always want someone else to go first."
For more information, visit www.tobin.com.

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