Digital Decisions

The Integration Decision

Nobody is as smart as everybody. It is a cardinal rule of good decision making: A roomful of smart people will reach a better decision than a lone executive will -- as long as those smart people are reaching their decision based on the same parameters. That's why Landmark's first rule of integration is sharing the data within a team. This is no small challenge. A single seismic file can be as large as a terabyte -- the equivalent of 500 two-GB PCs. And that's just the information for one domain. There are also tons of log readings from a 20-year-old oil field with hundreds or thousands of older wells, along with the data necessary to create a multimillion-cell fluid-flow model of a reservoir that's 800 feet by 6,000 feet. "We're talking huge, huge, huge amounts of data," Wille says, shaking his head. "Billions of pages." And yet, because a single well costs millions of dollars, all of this information still seems like it's not quite enough.

Landmark developed software that performs everything from subsurface modeling to reservoir management, and its OpenWorks application provides the integrated framework for all that information. It combines the various project data into a single database and a shared earth model, so that the exploration geophysicist and the production geologist can access separate data simultaneously. Even so, the software failed to integrate the experts. "The team members used the shared database at their individual terminals," says Gibson. "We were supplying teamware that ran on personal technology, so instead of teamwork, you still had individual work. How many people can fit around one terminal? Not many. We realized that we needed a screen big enough for the whole group."

That's where the Decisionarium comes in. Those who see the facility as nothing more than a data-management tool, a fancy visual aid, or a catchy name don't get it, Wille argues. Still, during their first exposure to the facility, most scientists and engineers do enjoy the giddy thrill of data immersion -- an experience similar to the rush that filmmakers get upon seeing their work on the big screen for the first time. "You switch off the lights, and they start hitting each other and going, 'Oh, look at that! And that!' " says Watson of BP Amoco.

The screen, which measures 9.5 feet high and 19 feet wide (that's 3,000 by 1,200 pixels), allows participants to "walk into the data," says Wille. This includes not just their own data, but that of their colleagues. The seismic and well-log analyses appear simultaneously in a shared earth model. Instead of processing disconnected measurements from outside their domain, participants look at 3-D images. Instead of drowning in paperwork, they're seeing the data in its richest form. Since characteristics like porosity or velocity are indicated by different colors, geologists can easily explain why they're convinced that this is a hydrocarbon reservoir. Then other team members can offer their own analyses. They don't hand off information or toss it blindly over barriers. Instead, they share knowledge and expertise.

"Visualization," says Peebler, "is a key integrator." In a sense, the screen gives team members a common language -- without stifling their specific vocabularies. "Someone may be talking about amplitudes, but he's pointing to this orange thing, saying 'See? That's where the oil is,' " says Wille. In time, "it becomes a badge of honor to use each other's terms." With little prompting, the geoscientists and engineers are busy collaborating, trying to reconcile their interpretations and agree on one vision of the earth model.

"You have a climate of creativity but also trust in each other," says Adolfo Henriquez, 50, a manager at Statoil, an oil company in Stavanger, Norway that adopted the Decisionarium early on. "Last week, I watched one of those discussions, and I have to say, it warmed my heart. In Norwegian culture, consensus is highly valued." Landmark practices what it preaches. Its leaders realize that it takes a well-integrated company to design technologies and processes to help other companies make more-integrated decisions. "It gives you instant credibility with customers," Peebler says. "You can empathize with their struggles because you've experienced them."

That's why integration and innovation have been part of Landmark's culture from the beginning. In 1984, the company shipped its initial product, a computer workstation dedicated to 3-D seismic interpretation -- an industry first. Up until then, geoscientists relied primarily on 2-D images. By studying countless readings, they identified patterns and irregularities in the squiggly sound waves. Interpretation was more of an art, really, limited to the select few who could visualize a 3-D cube of earth from 2-D data. Once the interpretation was complete, they painstakingly plotted well paths by hand. The process was arduous and time consuming.