Collaboration

Global economic uncertainty, fluctuating oil prices and the high cost of resources put pressure on owner operators to assure and improve the competitive performance of the assets used in their projects. As capital and change projects grow in scale and complexity, so project teams are extended to get the best global expertise for the lowest price. The logistical challenges of connecting internal and external teams may be obvious, but the direct and indirect cost of collaboration all too often remains hidden.

Collaboration Can Be Complex

Both owner operators and engineering contractors face significant logistical challenges when embarking on a project. Project team members such as contractors, suppliers, regulatory reviewers, internal and external stakeholders all need to be able to access information, regardless of their time zone or location. They must share and collaborate on documents during the project in order to achieve reliable and complete handovers.

Managing the flow of information and deliverables between project entities is time-consuming and complex. As a result, the administration, validation, distribution, reviewing and approval of project deliverables forms a significant part of the total project cost.

The Risk of Losing Control

Internal project members may have developed or adopted alternative methods to share documents with the outside world; costly and inefficient ways that are unreliable, insecure, uncontrolled and not approved by the organization’s IT department. As project members resort to manual processes that are straining under the pressure, it results in spreadsheets and shared files everywhere.

When non-approved and unreliable methods of sharing data and information are used during projects, further manual processes to verify, correct, validate and approve the data that is being exchanged become necessary. This leads to additional costs and delays – costs that were not included in the original project budgets and delays which were not anticipated. These manual handover processes may fail to ensure the quality and completeness of data, leading to loss of data integrity, rework and potential disputes.

A Single Solution

What is needed is a collaboration solution that provides all project stakeholders with easy access to accurate information. The solution must give full control and visibility over all exchange processes and lead to reliable and complete handovers at the lowest possible cost.

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