In this ever-increasing digital world, people and companies rely more and more on the Cloud for data storage and integration. IIoT brings that missing piece where field data and process data can join the rest of your information on the Cloud.

Technology is constantly evolving, leaving many oil and gas producers wondering when the right time is to replace the old with the new. When producers invest in new technologies for their business, they can expect more profits, more production, and more sustainability.

Deciding how to upgrade, or when you're ready to upgrade isn't always easy, but we're here to help you with the change that's involved.

The first patent for Amazon Alexa was filed in 2012. Since then, there has been an incredible growth of skills to Amazon's voice assistant, and the credit for this growth goes to machine learning. Many of these skills include asking Alexa to tell you about your schedule, to play music, or update you on the daily weather.

We've also been using machine learning (or ML as some people reference it) for years. It's been a factor in our growth to help oil and gas producers on their digital transformation journey to autonomous operations using the exact solutions that will bring them more production, profits, and sustainability.

The daunting task of keeping track of your expenses can be time-consuming and overwhelming if not managed correctly and efficiently. With the increase of mobile apps and other productivity tools, managing expenses has gotten easier.

For oil and gas, managing lease operating expenses (LOE) has gotten easier with automation and software solutions. Now, there are fewer reasons not to have the costs eat away at your companies’ ability to operate wells and keep costs within budget without having to shut-in operations.

We tend to lose a lot of things around the house like the TV remote, keys, or phone making us add more stress to our lives as we tend to frantically search for these lost items. Fortunately, we live in an era when automation exists, and you can get key finders to locate items. These detectors can be easily attached to things such as keys, bags, wallets, or even your pet, allowing you to quickly find your lost item, saving you time and stress from searching for them. It's as easy as clicking a button and you know where they are.

For the oil and gas industry, tracking the location of assets can also be a challenge. Using Emerson's Zedi Roughneck, a fixed asset management software solution, allows you to track equipment like compressors for example. When a compressor is not used, it is sometimes moved to be utilized at a different site. In my experience, the only person who would have known about this relocation would be the area foreman.

Way, way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I had a very annoying flip phone that was really only able to make and receive calls and (upon the rare occasion) get and send a few random text messages from other techie types. The main reason I found this phone so annoying is I wanted it to be able to do so much more; and it seemed like it shouldn't be all that difficult to make it happen.

But, that's all there was on the market at the time.

I continuously wondered why on earth someone didn't make them to fetch my email, or have a decent camera in them. Then it finally became a reality and just like that we all became more mobile than we had ever dreamed of being! It was AWESOME being set free from waiting for an email, and unchained from my desk where I would often be found waiting for information to be sent.

We’ve been innovating in the automation arena for decades. Still, recently, we realized that we had several departments working on this separately—and that we could benefit from pooling our efforts and getting an even bigger picture of the possibilities.

So, we asked ourselves this critical question “What should we be doing to innovate on a larger scale to help our oil and gas production customers become even more efficient?”

Have you read about the advance of self-driving cars? With an array of sensors “seeing” obstacles, speed limit signs and other vehicles, tracking the speed, noting highway conditions such as rain or sleet, and using maps and tracking to plan the route, self-driving vehicles are approaching us in their own fast lane.

You may not be surprised to find that we have the same dreams for a self-operating oil field.

Now there will still be the need for repairs of worn-out equipment, damaged well-bores, and to perform PMs such as oil changes. There’s the need to do that for vehicles as well. The autonomous oil change is not here yet, but even that might be in line for cars someday.

How do you like working from home? Since our world turned upside down I think it's been easier for some of us to adjust than others to remain, or even become more productive. Most of which completely depends on how you access your files and data to continue to WOW the boss, even in the strangest of times when people are told we have to stay home.

You need your files and data to all be easily visible from top to bottom without relying on thumb drives, portable hard drives, old drives, or clunky undependable drives that should have been replaced years ago or, worst of all—boxes of paper files (I'm cringing at the thought of that one)!

When we’re placing an order for a great breakfast, we want the server to be an expert on what’s on the menu—especially if we have special dietary needs. And we want them to listen—to be all ears.

That “all ears” attitude is me when I meet with a new client for the first time. I want to know all about their field automation needs and how we can chauffeur them to their destination. Like, be their tour guide.

I’m not pushing a widget or a program. My purpose is to learn about their business and how they are operating today.