Infrastructure Optimization | Oil & Gas Upstream

Upstream Company Partners with RSA Corp to Improve Assimilation Process

Headquartered in Houston, this upstream oil and gas company focuses on the development and acquisition of oil-producing properties and is recognized as one of the top 25 largest independent producers in the United States. It focuses on mature-producing basins located in three regions – Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma, Appalachian Basin, and California. The company’s 2007 reserves were recorded as 1.6 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe) and made up of approximately 64 percent gas, 20 percent oil and 16 percent natural gas liquids.

Challenge

Growth through acquisition is an integral part of this company’s business strategy. Rapid and efficient assimilation of acquisitions is crucial. However, the company’s network infrastructure, security design and deficient information technology processes created a bottleneck, which congested the integration of acquired companies. One acquisition out of Oklahoma was at a standstill.

The company requested that RSA Corp engineer a network infrastructure and design processes to migrate 12 business units with 300 computers in six remote locations onto a single network. RSA Corp was also tasked with designing and implementing an infrastructure to support geophysical and geological applications, in addition to supporting terabytes of seismic and well data.

Solution

As the company’s high-level engineering and strategic IT consulting partner, RSA Corp began developing a solution.  We began by analyzing the data and security requirements of each application to support the new acquisition.  Then, we identifed and examined user configurations, data ownership and location, and security issues.  Finally, we created a plan to preserve and reconcile any issues before merging the two networks.

Once the plan for the technical merger was created and tested, we worked with the company’s vendors and IT resources to execute the migration of the acquisition’s assets. We also wrote custom software to automate the migration of user accounts, applications and data into the company’s technology environment. This automation streamlined the process, guaranteed consistency and created less chance for human error.

Result

With our solution, the company was able to seamlessly assimilate the Oklahoma acquisition in a timely manner. The improvements to the network infrastructure and IT processes strengthened the company’s security and streamlined its assimilation process. Because of the success of this engagement, we managed this company’s implementation of Citrix - an enterprise infrastructure system that manages software applications.