DC Energy Services Inc. is a fully integrated multi-service company proving oilfield equipment rental and fluid sales and management services to the oil and gas industry. As demand for their products and services grew, their manual whiteboard system (with colored markers) started to show some strain. Writing was getting smaller and smaller, more boards were added to the wall and their dispatch team started talking with Grey Iron Media about a long-term solution.

Ideas

Grey Iron’s team worked closely with DC Energies IT Department and Dispatch team to propose a solution that would meet DC’s immediate needs and provide a long-term solution that would grow as the company continued to expand their services. Key idea’s that came from the planning sessions were as follows:

1. The whiteboard concept was outstanding. The dispatchers all sat in a large room and were very successful looking at the daily jobs and reallocating resource based on other jobs in the system. Dispatchers could walk up to the board and make comments and everyone immediately knows about the change.
2. The whiteboard concept was limiting. The whiteboard physically resides in a single location and with locations across Alberta it was not feasible for staff in Grand Prairie or Pincher Creek to see the same information as those standing in front of the whiteboard.
3. Dispatcher adoption is essential. With a large dispatch department and daily client commitments that are managed through the physical whiteboard – there really was no room for error. The system had to work right the first time and no margin for error existed for missteps as the impact on customers was significant.
4. Tied to the Accounting system. As every order starts and ends in the Accounting system we figured we’d reduce all that paperwork and tie information directly from the accounting system.

Grey Iron developed an “Electronic Whiteboard System” that effectively reproduced the manual whiteboard – keeping all that work in the manual system and adding some benefits. Key features of the “Electronic Whiteboard” include:

• Information flows directly from the accounting order entry system into the whiteboard.
• Have the “Electronic Whiteboard” available for a web browser so traveling executives and remote offices can all examine essential details on site
• Utilize color to differentiate regions – the old colored markers.
• Initially see an order summary and expand the order to see all the details.
• Comments can be added to the electronic whiteboard and available for everyone else to see immediately.
• Ability to filter information to find a specific order or group of orders
• The ability to full text search all orders to find the essential details required.
• Edit order to update information and schedule resources for future dates.
• Review past and future days to get a better sense of up coming orders.
• Extensive use of hover-over’s to see more information where available.