Interview: Expanding Digital Transformation Into E&P Workplace

Only a little over a month into 2020 and several major trends have already begun to take shape in the energy industry. One of the largest, however, has been driving oil and gas companies to reconsider their business operations entirely, according to Olivier Thierry, chief marketing officer of Quorum Software.

“Given the macroeconomic climate, the continued drive toward operational efficiency to attain free cash flow and reduction in operating expenses will be paramount for any E&P company in 2020,” Thierry told Hart Energy. “I think it all ties together with being smart, advanced and sophisticated. Companies that can utilize technology to drive the transformation will emerge as winners.”

In an interview with Hart Energy, Thierry discussed trends shaping the oil and gas industry this year and how Quorum, a Houston-based software company specializing in accounting and finance technology, fits into the overall outlook.

Quorum technology helps oil and gas companies unlock the potential of digital transformation by developing platforms for integration and collaboration, automating workflows, processes and systems, which Thierry added is important when identifying how to culturally transform a company.

“When you look at the fact that the industry’s workforce is aging out, we must address ways of attracting millennials to the industry and how to transition the know-how and industry knowledge,” he said, noting the companies that use data analytics, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence have a high potential of attracting millennials.

“If you create a modern energy workplace, which is collaborative and data enriched, the future workforce that uses digital tools to make decisions, is attracted to that kind of work environment,” he said.

Meanwhile, Quorum is in the midst of a transformation into a software provider, focusing on cloud operations and digital software. The company claims that 80% of the largest oil and gas producers in the U.S. use Quorum. Its technology also powers 80,000 miles of pipeline, which accounts for 80% of all-natural gas processed in the U.S.

Quorum released its first land management system in 1998, which gained popularity among the major oil producers. Thierry pointed out that even though the company had attained a strong foothold among the larger independents and the supermajors, they did not have an offering for the startups and smaller operators. With 18 out of the 20 top North American E&P producers as its customers, Quorum went on to release a new version of its software called Land On Demand, specifically packaged for small- and medium-sized business (SMB) operators. 

Land On Demand software offers smaller E&P companies a wide range of services including basic land and lease management and integrated GIS and analytics, in order to make quicker and more accurate decisions. The software also offers depth and formation management, which allows users to understand, manage and report acreage position by specific depths and formations. As a cloud-based software, myQuorum Land On Demand also allows users to access the platform remotely from any device at a lower cost compared to traditional on-premises software implementation.

“Land On Demand is a Saas based offering and is designed so smaller operators do not have to worry about any IT infrastructure and is based on the same products used by oil majors like Shell and BP. But it’s been tailored and configured specifically for SMBs,” Thierry said.

Quorum also attributes its fast-paced growth to the recent strategic acquisitions, which have diversified the companies’ portfolio of offerings. In August 2019, Quorum acquired Fort Worth, Texas-based OGsys, a provider of cloud-based oil and gas accounting software for SMBs. 

Commenting on the acquisition, Thierry said, “If you look at our customers as a pyramid, we have supermajors on the top, large independents and mid-sized operators in the middle and the SMBs at the lower end of the pyramid. For the top end of the market, we’ve created an integrated suite of software for accounting, production, measurements etc., but we needed to do the same for small businesses.”

Quorum’s acquisition of OGsys has provided further depth to its accounting solutions for mid-market and enterprise companies with upstream accounting software designed for growing businesses.

The company has expansion plans spurred by M&A activity, which is expected to double Quorum’s revenue of $200 million over the next three to five years.