The Drilling Manager's Quick Guide to Drilling SaaS

What is SaaS?

SaaS, aka Software as a Service, is software that lives on the cloud.

Users or businesses typically pay a monthly or annual subscription fee rather than a licence fee.

Unlike traditional software, SaaS customers don’t need to install anything onto their hard drives to use the software. Just log in to a website or portal using any device and you’re good to go!

Examples of SaaS that you might be familiar with include Zoom, Dropbox or Xero. Even Spotify, Netflix and Google G Suite are also SaaS products.

SaaS for drilling companies

The popularity of SaaS has exploded across a range of industries, and now it’s drilling’s turn. Drilling professionals and software developers have identified that pen and paper workflows no longer make the cut, and that it's time to enter the modern age.

To serve a new wave of tech-savvy drilling professionals, the number of SaaS options available for use in drilling has quickly grown. Today, there are many options on the market for the technologically inclined driller to choose from, covering a wide range of needs and budgets.

Here are the three most common types of SaaS used by drilling companies on the market today:

Digital plod products: a web or app-based product that replaces pen and paper plods with a digital form. The form will allow you to enter and submit data, but it will need to be reviewed using another platform like Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets or an additional paid platform. Examples: Simbio Plod, ePLOD.
Digital form builders: a web or app-based platform where users can build and enter forms or complete checklists. Completed forms are consolidated into a web portal. These are not purpose-built for drilling but can be configured for purposes such as creating digital plod forms or equipment inspection checklists. Examples: iAuditor, Sitemate.
Digital operations platforms: a comprehensive software that encompasses the entire drilling workflow, from drilling holes to filling plods and billing clients - and more. Examples: CorePlan, Lantern.

Each SaaS type looks and performs differently. The best option for you will likely depend on your budget and how many metres you're drilling throughout the year.

If you'd like to read about the different types of drilling software, this article explores this topic in depth.

What are the pros and cons for drilling?

A Google search for ‘why use Software as a Service’ will reveal endless pros and cons of SaaS products - but how do these relate to the specific needs of a drilling company?

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Pros of using cloud-based SaaS in your drilling business

Reduced overheads

Drilling businesses that switch to any kind of SaaS from a traditional pen and paper workflow will benefit from saving on supplies like paper, plod form books, printing and physical document storage space on site. Win!

But what if you're already using software that isn't SaaS?

If you’re a medium to large-sized drilling company, you might be paying a consultant to build and maintain custom software. Not only can this hit your wallet up-front, but you’ll also need to shell out for continuous maintenance to make sure your system remains secure and works with endless operating system upgrades. A significant cost to factor into your budget for the long term.

SaaS is significantly more cost-effective, and maintenance and updates are built into the monthly subscription price. Ongoing maintenance is constantly run in the background for you, so you'll never have to think about this again.

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Efficiency Gains

Digitising repetitive paperwork like plod forms, or automating your billing and reporting, has the capacity to save a lot of your team's time each day. Time that could instead be spent on finding more cost-effective or sustainable ways to work - or winning new clients.

There are efficiency gains in digitising any part of your workflow (eg just your plods or just your inspections). But the benefits are compounded when using a digital operations platform. This is because it reduces the overall time and cost of using multiple products to run your business by consolidating them into a single platform that is capable of performing multiple functions.

The bigger the drilling company, the bigger the efficiency to be gained.

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Flexibility

The subscription-based pricing models used by SaaS providers mean that you aren’t locked in to using a platform. Tiered pricing options mean that you only pay for what you need, with the ability to easily scale up or down or move to another provider if your needs change.

You’ll also have lower upfront costs as you’re not having to pay for someone’s time to build you a system from scratch (that you also won’t be able to use until it’s built!).

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Work from anywhere

SaaS is a convenient solution for the modern drilling professional on the go. You don’t need to install software on your computer and you aren’t subject to device limit restrictions, so it’s possible to work from just about anywhere using a SaaS product.

If you’ve uploaded data or documents to your account, you’ll be able to access them from any device. Whether you’re working from the office, the field or from home, all you need is an internet connection to log into your SaaS platform and you’re good to go.

🔥 Hot tip: if you're drilling in remote locations, make sure to choose a product that will work offline so your drillers can still record their plods when out of service.

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Approval and validation of data

Drilling SaaS products like a digital operations platform usually incorporate some kind of approval process that empowers your supervisors, or even your clients, to accept or reject data supplied from the field.

There are a few key benefits to having a centralised approval process.

1. It makes it easy to keep track of the status of each plod, from drafted, to outstanding, submitted, approved or rejected.

2. It helps your team to track changes and easily review the history of data as it moves through each step of the work process. Less time is wasted looking at multiple versions that live in different ‘homes’ like paper copies, multiple versions of spreadsheets, emails etc.

3. It's more clear who is required to take the next action in a process. For example:

Plods not submitted? Drillers need to upload and submit their plods.
Plods sitting in the approval inbox? Supervisors need to review, accept or reject, query or send to the client.
All plods have been marked as approved by the client? The admin team need to generate a proforma.

And so on.

The result is less back and forth between your field and the office teams as there is enhanced transparency and accountability across the organisation.

Note: some software providers charge for editing, rejected or resubmitted plods. Depending on the type and complexity of your drilling projects, this cost may add up quickly so make sure to read the fine print!

Increased visibility from real-time data

From conducting downhole activities to monitoring consumable usage to drilling through stubborn terrain or even waiting on clients - there are a ton of moving parts in the day-to-day operation of any drilling organisation.

It’s no secret that it’s a pretty tough task to try and create efficiencies in between the chaos, let alone if you’re unable to be physically present onsite or whilst supervising multiple projects.

So, how can managers and supervisors optimise their team’s performance in real-time?

Reporting features included in some drilling SaaS products can help increase the decision-making power of Drilling Managers. Having access to clearly displayed amalgamated data in real-time across all of your projects can give you the oversight you need to make data-driven decisions when they are needed - not days or weeks later, or even worse - after the completion of a project.

Imagine being able to take a deep dive into your consumable usage and charges, rig utilisation hours, drill production by rig, by project or at the organisational level in a matter of seconds. What powerful changes could you make to decrease your costs and increase your profitability?

Happier staff and clients‍

Removing operational silos by having your entire team working from a single source of truth relieves internal and external communication pressures. With everyone on the same page, the stress of back and forth is reduced. Time spent doing repetitive and thankless administrative tasks can be reallocated toward doing work that your staff actually want to be doing.

Data presented clearly and received on time makes for happier clients, with a lot less stress at the end of the month as plod data has already been signed off before invoicing.

It’s a recipe for happier staff and happier clients, not to mention you’ll also have more time to do things like:

reviewing your performance so you can set and track goals
nurturing your existing clients and pursuing new business
upskilling your team
going to the pub!

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Ongoing support and improvements‍

Customer support is typically built into a SaaS subscription. This means you can get assistance on an as-needed basis without paying extra fees. This can also relieve pressure on your team from a training and onboarding perspective as they aren’t ‘the blind leading the blind’ when rolling out the software across your organisation.

🔥 Hot tip: it’s an instant red flag if customer service isn’t included in a SaaS subscription package. Not sure what to ask a SaaS provider when negotiating a deal for your drilling business? Download our free list of non-negotiable questions to ask a software provider at a demo here.

Because SaaS is a relatively new way of doing business, providers can’t rely on legacy as a selling point. They need to be agile and respond to competitive pressures to attract and retain customers by constantly improving their products. This is great for customers like you, as the value you get from the product increases over time.

Cons of using drilling SaaS

Software has kind of a bad rep in drilling circles

It’s easy to forget that SaaS technologies have only emerged in the past two decades. This is even truer when it comes to the mining and drilling industries.

As the industry lagged behind, future-focused drilling professionals were faced with no choice but to create their own DIY digital workflows using multiple SaaS products like SharePoint, Dropbox, Google Sheets and mobile form apps (á la the digital plod and form submission SaaS products we touched on earlier).

The result? A complicated web of platforms and logins has exasperated drilling teams at crosshairs trying to perform simple tasks and data spread across multiple platforms. Or, even worse, drilling companies have gotten themselves locked into outdated platforms that overcharge and underdeliver. Yikes!

With such a sub-optimal way to work, it’s not surprising that mining and drilling have been reluctant to embrace digital.

Consequently, it's (understandably) kind of scary for drilling teams to think about embracing digital solutions when these are the only experiences they have to draw upon. This puts managers in the tricky position of figuring out how to walk the line between keeping their teams happy and modernising their businesses.

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A change of mindset is needed‍

A major challenge in moving your business across to a modern SaaS solution is the change in mindset required to be successful.

Even the best SaaS product won’t be successful if your team aren’t ready for change. Moving your team onto SaaS will require managers to challenge existing conventional workflows and reimagine how their team might operate by leveraging automation and unlocking efficiency gains.

If your leadership team aren’t ready to embrace this new way of working, it might be best to go back to the drawing board before you make a financial and time commitment to this level of organisational change.

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Risk of selecting the wrong product

As with all industries, due diligence is an important consideration for drilling professionals when selecting a new software product. The good news: if you’ve gotten this far into the article, you’re well on your way there now!

Making the right decision in the first instance is key to preventing wasted time onboarding and trialling a product that doesn’t suit your needs; not to mention a disappointed team that may be put off giving SaaS a second chance in the future.

💡We recommend focusing your search on an end-to-end digital operations platform so you’ll only need to onboard your staff to one product, not multiple products. This way, you won’t have to invest time and resources in recreating your entire workflow from the ground up.

Most modern software companies will offer demos or trials that are well worth investigating before you make a big commitment. But if you don’t have the time to test every product on the market, how can you narrow down your search?

First, make sure to check out this list of the three things every drilling manager should know before booking a demo.

Then, don't forget to download our free guide that lists all of the non-negotiable questions to ask a SaaS sales rep during your demo. This will make sure that you can get the answers you need during the demo to make an informed decision for your business.

Bonus step! Save yourself some research time by reading this list of the best software for running a drilling business.

What should Drilling Managers do now? (Tl;dr)

To recap: SaaS is software that lives on the cloud and is accessible from any device by purchasing a monthly or annual subscription.

The subscription pricing model means you aren't locked in to a long term contract, giving you the flexibility to adjust or cancel your plan if your needs change. Ongoing development and support are usually included in the subscription fee, so you don't get any nasty surprises in your monthly bill.

SaaS customers can also expect exceptional customer support by choosing a high-quality provider and asking the right questions before committing to a deal.

It's important to remember that most SaaS products haven’t been built for drilling. Thorough research by decision-makers is required to make the right decision and avoid wasting time with inadequate products.

We suggest focusing your search on drilling operations platforms (we have a list of them here!). This way you'll reap the most benefits from the change and avoid having to design complicated workarounds or outgrow a product that wasn't built for the specific needs of a drilling company.

Ready to take the next step in your drilling SaaS journey? Download our free list of questions every Drilling Manager should ask their SaaS provider before committing to a platform or talk to us about about getting started with a digital operations platform.

The Drilling Manager's Quick Guide to Drilling SaaS

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