E-FORM & WORKFLOW APPLICATION IN OIL &

GAS SEGMENT

Brief Report on the E-Form Technology, Its emergence & Future and Solution Providers

E-Forms & Workflow Application in Oil & Gas Industry

pg. 1 CONFIDENTIAL

VENDOR STUDY: MICROSOFT

Oil & Gas Industry Focus Highlights

Microsoft has partnered with leading industry solution providers worldwide to address the challenges faced by the Oil & Gas industry. Although not considered as an Enterprise Solution Providers few years back, Microsoft has put in effort and resources to change the perception. In oil & Gas Segment combined solutions with partners address industry specific challenges in upstream operations, refining and petrochemical operations, regulatory compliance and controls, capital project management, supply chain visibility and collaboration, and retail and marketing operations.

Microsoft provides the most complete set of cloud-based business solutions and around-the-clock support. Organizations who have undertaken Microsoft cloud services speak of greater productivity possible as the technology is scalable and familiar from day one for employees. Microsoft positions software architecture for different business units in Oil & Gas supply chain. The solution positioning is done as the following heads:

Upstream Operations

Refining and Petrochemical Operations

Regulatory Compliance and Controls

Capital Project Management

Supply Chain

Retail and Marketing Operations

In June 2010, Microsoft announced the launch of the Microsoft Upstream Reference Architecture (MURA) Initiative, an endeavor led by Microsoft and its industry partners. Microsoft is leading the initiative, comprising over 35 oil and gas industry software vendors, systems integrators and standards organizations, as well as operators who serve within an Advisory Board, to build industry consensus and development of MURA. The goal of the MURA Initiative is to develop and deliver an architecture that drives commonality among industry players; accelerate the delivery of industry solutions built on a common IT reference architecture to meet rapidly changing demands; and lower the total cost of ownership. The MURA Initiative is not a Microsoft product- mandated system; rather it seeks to develop a common information technology framework that allows for the easy flow of information across upstream units that offers benefits to both partners and customers. The Reference Architecture is based upon five foundational “pillars”, or principles – Performance Oriented IT Infrastructure, Enhanced User Experience, Optimized Domain-Specific Infrastructure, Rich Application Platform and Comprehensive Interoperability. MURA is an enterprise-oriented and service-oriented architecture.

Microsoft’s Global Energy Forum 2012 now in its 9th year is a major platform for the Oil & Gas Community and Technology Providers to have insight into the latest technology innovations and solutions.

E-Forms & Workflow Application in Oil & Gas Industry

pg. 2 CONFIDENTIAL

EFORM & WORKFLOW

Microsoft InfoPath Form Services

EMERGING PLAYER OVERVIEW

Product SharePoint 2010 Server Enterprise Ed.

Microsoft InfoPath Form Services is part of SharePoint 2010 Server Enterprise Edition. The product is Microsoft’s comprehensive, server-based e-forms and workflow solution that works with the InfoPath client. While it is part of the SharePoint Enterprise Edition, it is not a standard module and must be purchased separately.

Employees Headquarters Website Founded Presence

89,000 Redmond, WA Microsoft.com/Office/InfoPath 1975 MSFT. FY10 Revenue: $62.48B

STRENGTHS

InfoPath is part of the Office suite and is designed to integrate with other Office products (e.g. Word, Excel, Outlook)

SharePoint-enabled workflow and dynamic form assembly; submitting forms to SharePoint can trigger workflows – e.g. for routing, notification, or updating data in other lists and libraries

Fully integrated with Microsoft SharePoint library services, allowing users to stay within the SharePoint user interface

Employs InfoPath’s XML-based format

Connects to many back-end data sources, including SharePoint, SQL databases, Access, and any web service that interfaces with a non-Microsoft database

The forms can be directly integrated with SharePoint through form libraries, which allows the data to be discoverable by search across all SharePoint sites

Allows browser-enabling of forms, enabling use of different, non-Microsoft platforms and non-Microsoft browsers without needing the InfoPath client

Pricing varies, depending on licensing arrangements and other variables, but it is generally $100,000 to $250,000.

CHALLENGES

The form-fill client, InfoPath, is not free (unlike Adobe Reader), limiting the scope and the market footprint of Microsoft forms-based solutions

Some product risk, as Microsoft’s strategy and roadmap for the product are unclear

Some advanced features are available only through partners (e.g. optical character recognition [OCR], barcoding, support for industry standards)

EXPERT RECOMMENDATION

For SharePoint Server Enterprise Ed. users, SharePoint forms services offers strong integration and a robust architecture. Uncertain product strategy and price of InfoPath limit the value though.

E-Forms & Workflow Application in Oil & Gas Industry

pg. 3 CONFIDENTIAL

Microsoft InfoPath Form

EMERGING PLAYER OVERVIEW

Product Microsoft InfoPath is Microsoft’s XML-based desktop client e-forms solution, without the server-based component of InfoPath Forms Services. Pricing is relatively low per client, but can get costly, depending on the number of licenses required (unlike Adobe Reader).

Employees Headquarters Website Founded Presence

89,000 Redmond, WA Microsoft.com/Office/InfoPath 1975 MSFT. FY10 Revenue: $62.48B

STRENGTHS

Member of Microsoft Office family, with integration and familiar user experience

Strong form design and authoring

Strong support for XML standards and arbitrary XML schemas

Provides data analysis and survey capabilities

Pricing varies, depending on licensing arrangements and other variables, but it is generally $100,000 to $250,000.

CHALLENGES

Microsoft offers no free e-form filler (unlike Adobe)

Requires Form Services for enterprise e-forms capabilities

As with Form Services, it has some product risk, as Microsoft’s product strategy and roadmap are unclear

As with Form Services, some advanced features are available only through partners (e.g. OCR, barcoding, support for industry standards)

Future roadmap and Microsoft commitment to eForms is uncertain.

EXPERT RECOMMENDATION

While easy to use and great features, InfoPath remains an eForms gadfly without a free form-filler client.

Important: One of the major USP is its integration with Visio which can be directly brought on SharePoint Designer 2010 to get a head start creating workflows, and then export it back to Visio to collaborate.

Conclusion : Microsoft is very focused on creating mindshare in Oil & Gas Industry and have been pretty successful. Brand recall for e-forms are lower than Adobe and IBM but certainly very popular for die-hard fans of Share Point Portals.