News & Insights

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Company News

Arnlea in the Americas

[29 April 2022]
Arnlea, global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the energy industry, has opened its new Houston offices and will be attending OTC at NRG, Houston, TX from 2-5 May 2022.

The new Houston offices will be led by Paul Goonan, Arnlea’s Head of Business Development for the Americas. Starting with North America, Paul will also focus on business throughout Central America, Brazil, Guyana, and other opportunities in South America

Paul's move to Houston, delayed for two years because of the pandemic, sees his wife and family all move with him to start their new life personally and professionally. One of his first activities stateside is to host the Arnlea stand at OTC. Arnlea Systems Inc will be in Booth #3513 where customers and partners are invited to attend.

Arnlea has been fostering closer ties with services, software,and specialist equipment providers, to provider a broader and more attractive proposition to potential clients.

Allan Merritt, Arnlea’s CEO said,

“The first quarter of 2022 has been strong and we’re anticipating an equally strong second quarter, which will continue to cement our market position as a key SaaS provider within the Energy industry, while forging partnerships with like-minded businesses that put clients’ requirements at the heart of everything we do.

Paul’s presence in Houston will continue to build that profile across the Americas. Arnlea is in the data business and more than ever, decision makers are seeking better control of their technology to give them access to data in real time. Arnlea’s SaaS and digital products mean every decision they take is sharper, forecasting is clearer, resources create more value and consequently, our customers make better choices locally, regionally, and strategically.”

Arnlea is a tried and trusted partner for a number of global energy clients, with more than 25 years’ expertise in supply chain management and operational management activities, providing software solutions to the energy industry.

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Company News

Bluewater signs new contracts

[8 March 2022]
Arnlea Systems Ltd, global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the energy industry, has announced that it has signed new three and five-year contracts with Bluewater, to upgrade its Ex asset management software and hardware for two of its FPSOs in the UK Continental Shelf.

Bluewater has been a customer of Arnlea’s for a number of years and the contracts are for two different FPSOs to deliver the latest Arnlea software, to accompany the upgraded hardware that Bluewater’s inspection teams are already using.

Bluewater is moving towards full digital transformation and Arnlea provides hazardous area asset management software, which is regularly updated, together with a commitment to ensure that Bluewater continues to use the most contemporary hardware to obtain key benefits the upgrades deliver.

Bluewater’s inspection teams use Android tablets from Arnlea that, in conjunction with the software, have evolved the inspection process for its operations by including a number of functional benefits that have enhanced asset management and inspection. These benefits include the ability to take and upload photographs of asset failures, and the creation of work orders via a PC application to the tablets while charging, to speed up communications between inspectors and supervisors.

Arnlea’s software, IntrinsixEX, provides standardised inspection and reporting to accelerate data interpreting, comparisons and understanding, which facilitates better management decision-making at all levels. It also enables clients a much faster turnaround of faulty and ineffective equipment because of its Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) platform and full IEC 60079 compliance.

Arnlea’s CEO Allan Merritt, said,

“It’s always rewarding when clients like Bluewater renew. We are finding that clients receive multiple benefits on renewal because they always have the most up-to-date hardware and software, with the latest UX/UI. Customer teams use the most recent phones and tablets in their personal lives, so it makes sense they perform their jobs with hardware and software products that confer similar advantages, making their working lives easier and more efficient. Job satisfaction and better decision-making, combined with higher levels of productivity are attractive outcomes for both clients and their employees, who are all working in ever more demanding commercial environments. I’m delighted that we will be taking this strong relationship forward for the foreseeable future.”

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Company News

ISO27001 certification

[8 February 2022]
Arnlea Systems Ltd, global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the energy industry, has announced that it has completed its accreditation for ISO27001, the international information security standard.

Arnlea customers enjoy the ability to carry out inspections using the latest innovative software, eliminating paper trails and creating more efficient and effective processes. The key brand Intrinsix has three main offerings: IntrinsixEX (for Hazardous Area Inspections), IntrinsixIM (for Inspections and Maintenance) and IntrinsixMM (for Materials Management). These different software packages facilitate improved supply chain and operational management in critical areas of business.

In the 21st century, relevant, reliable and timely data is extremely valuable, and as a leader in its field, Arnlea strives to streamline data capture and data analysis processes, to enable safety compliance and empowers businesses to make better critical decisions.

Jeremy Lai, Arnlea’s CFO, who oversaw the ISO27001 project stated, “As a SaaS provider, we work with customers’ data every day. It’s incumbent on us to demonstrate that their data is secure.

“Many of our customers are global operators and our accreditation to ISO27001 provides them a high level of confidence in our data security. We take data security incredibly seriously and invest consistently in that area as part of our value proposition. Achieving certification to the ISO27001 standard builds on our ISO9001 accreditation and builds on our commitment to the highest standards. Frankly, most credible information technology businesses carry ISO27001 accreditation, and we believe this will become a default requirement for all our customers going forward.”

The accreditation is announced following its recent announcement of a new three-year contract with Equinor, to provide its IntrinsixEX asset management software to Equinor’s Mariner field in the UK North Sea and a contract renewal for five years with TAQA, encompassing TAQA’s six operational offshore assets in the North Sea and including new technical additions to reduce inspection administration and labour costs, and improve productivity and data management for the global operator.

IntrinsixEX enables a quicker turnaround of faulty and ineffective equipment because of its Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) platform. IntrinsixEX enables clients full IEC 60079 compliance and provides standardised inspection and reporting processes to speed up data interpretation, comparisons and understanding which facilitates better management decision-making at all levels. Arnlea’s software also fully integrates with SAP and Maximo to achieve additional financial, HSEQ and operational advantages.

Arnlea is a tried and trusted partner for a number of global oil & gas clients, with more than 25 years’ expertise in supply chain and operational management activities, providing SaaS delivered mobile apps to the oil & gas industry.

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Disruption

In the light of the past two years and the physical challenges that the global pandemic has caused to business – working and meeting with colleagues and customers, managing supply chains, understanding daily business barriers – digital transformation has suddenly become one of the most critical business imperatives of our time. Arguably, without the now ever-present need to work at home at the drop of a hat, access corporate data remotely and support cloud-based working, digital transformation may well have remained in the still be in the ‘talking shop/nice-to-have’ stage in our industry.

Now in 2022, the concept of digital transformation is far more widely seen and understood as the correct corporate response to this fast-evolving digital world. It’s no longer up for debate that companies large and small need to embrace digital transformation to stay relevant and retain high calibre people in an ever-changing, unpredictable and competitive environment.

The shock of the pandemic forced businesses across the world to fundamentally change old operating standards in exchange for innovative and disruptive models to keep up with market evolution and growing customer expectations. One of the key words of the pandemic as far as business is concerned has been ‘pivot’ as businesses have sought to adjust their focus, change their service model, alter their customer base, in order to stay afloat. Digital transformation has been forced rather than embraced but it’s allowed for a fuller and valuable gathering and using of data – often (and preferably) anonymised data – to support superior management decisions and streamlining business processes, with the ultimate purpose of making the best use of resources to achieve the successful outcomes every company needs.

This shouldn’t be a surprise. Pandemic aside, digital transformation has always been about changing corporate and individual mindsets and encouraging cultural change that allows companies to continue to be reliable business partners and deliver value to their clients, all via a digital context.

Digital Transformation in the Oil and Gas Industry

The definition of digital transformation applies differently to every business. It comes in multiple forms, depending on the industry, geographical area, or even the markets where a company operates. That’s why we see industries, like automotive or aerospace, which embraced change much earlier than many others, have enjoyed notable and substantial outcomes, compared with industries where digital transformation before the pandemic was still in its infancy.

The Oil & Gas industry stands in the latter category, at least it did but the crises of the past two years has galvanised some key players to drive forward plans they already had in slower motion. It’s still true to say though that for Oil & Gas businesses, particularly in the US, but also in the UK and Europe, the pace of digital transformation is varied at best. The industry in Asia, on the other hand, has been making diligent and dramatic steps towards digitisation and data intelligence implementation and continued apace, pandemic or no pandemic.

Alongside the pandemic, the drive to carbon net-zero has also intensified digital transformation discussions in the UK, although many companies still have a great deal of time to make up before they can talk about a true conversion to a digital business model. In the US surprising numbers of large and small operators alike continue to rely far too often on pens, paper, and spreadsheets, focusing on data capture rather than on data management in multiple business spheres. In the area of maintenance and inventory (which Arnlea knows best), some systems are old and prone to error, which leaves little room for data-driven decisions and long-term growth. Like it or not; the conversation around digital transformation in this industry is still rarely more than just talk.

It’s a paradox. Oil & Gas companies operate in a highly technological industry but are reluctant to go all-in with digital transformation. In terms of drilling, UK operators use the latest technology to reach new sources of oil and natural gas to meet national and global energy demand, while reducing the environmental impact of energy production.

On the other hand, they’re at least a decade (and more in many cases) behind the automotive industry when it comes to the digitisation of their internal operations. Most operators use SAP enterprise software yet on the whole, large numbers of Oil & Gas plc still seem content to stay in this halfway house, unwilling to deploy integrations into the SAP landscape from cloud-based servers, holding on almost stubbornly to on-premise servers – with many potential pitfalls ahead. Those few Energy businesses making those changes are also those embracing the bigger energy demands of this century, to their credit.

Making Digital Transformation a Higher Priority

At Arnlea, we see digital transformation as a two-step process. In the first stage, companies need to go digital in all business areas, including our specialism of asset management. Once this phase is completed, the next stage is to move to SaaS software products to facilitate substantial step-changes in the gathering and then sharing of anonymised data which can be used to identify patterns of behaviour, process and purchasing to optimise business operations, to revolutionise the whole industry in which they all operate.

In this second stage of the digital transformation process, it is the value and efficiencies that come from sharing their data, in anonymised form, which will support industry growth. In this scenario, they can analyse information from multiple sources and make educated predictions about future outcomes, even automate decision-making using artificial intelligence, with financial benefits for all parties involved.

Our industry is on the cusp of this second phase. Even in the past two years, there have been sea-changes in the way some of the global brand leaders have pushed forward to take this next step. Many though are still hesitant when it comes to even allowing their data to be stored in a highly secure cloud, let alone to begin to agree to anonymised data sharing. It’s hard to believe but we have witnessed, in more than one company, situations in which the business operates multiple instances of SAP, instead of a shared centralised SAP environment. Data-sharing can be rare between different business units in the same company, let alone sharing data with third parties.

This objection to data sharing keeps the industry blocked in old business models and is preventing growth. But change is coming and those that are striding forward, embracing digital transformation now, together with a higher focus on Big Data, means they will be the Energy companies that will thrive in a business environment that’s been under pressure for years. The accelerated changes forced by the pandemic, and the drive to net-zero, means savvy operators are realising they can no longer wait to upgrade their processes and systems and that is something we are able to move with them – and be that step ahead that they need – so that they can continue to meet their commercial core needs for years (decades) to come.

For more information on Arnlea’s experience and capabilities contact the Business Development team, by calling +44 1224 620000 or emailing info@arnlea.com.

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Company News

New business vision and values

[11 January 2022]
Arnlea Systems Ltd, global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the energy industry, has announced new vision and values for its business, to better communicate what it stands for and who its people are. Its core key message is that Arnlea is in the data business and it’s this that is driving value to customers and consequently the growth strategy for the next three years and beyond.

ARNLEA’S VISION

To be a trusted partner by forging positive relationships with global businesses that rely on our SaaS asset management products for greater data control, safety, insight and sustainability.

ARNLEA’S VALUES

Relationships & people
Technology & control
Safety & security
Insight & clarity
Collaboration & sustainability

ARNLEA’S VALUE STATEMENTS

Relationships & people

We’re in the data business but without people, data doesn’t become information. Without the people in our business our SaaS products won’t evolve. Without positive business relationships we can’t anticipate your needs and help you stay one step ahead.

Technology & control

We’re in the data business and we know that technology is a valuable business tool. It’s not enough to have the right technology – you have to know how to use it. Arnlea empowers its customers to enjoy optimum control of their business data.

Safety & security

We’re in the data business and we understand that the biggest issues for our customers are all about trust. Arnlea invests in industry-recognised security and systems, underpinned by accreditations, to start that conversation.

Insight & clarity

We’re in the data business and we know from experience, decision-makers need access to data in real-time. Then, every decision is sharper, forecasting is clearer, resources create more value and customers make better choices locally, regionally, and strategically.

Collaboration & sustainability

We’re in the data business and we see the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. When we collaborate with our partners, together we build long-lasting solutions for everyone involved. Our SaaS products support sustainable businesses for mutual profit, innovation and legacy.

Arnlea is a tried and trusted partner of many global energy clients, with more than 25 years expertise in supply chain and operational management activities, providing SaaS-delivered mobile apps to the energy industry.

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Infographics

px group

Energy operator px group needs to make sure St Fergus is operating optimally because the UK Government has designated the gas terminal as critical to the UK energy supply. When px realised their Intrinsix software was due to be upgraded, they worked with Arnlea to ensure the benefits they already enjoyed, would be enhanced through new handsets, the software upgrade and deployment plan that together would improve inspection efficiency and technical analysis, with safer, more efficient and highly compliant operations.

See our infographic ...

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Blogs

Partners

In my previous blog, I said that the journey many customers are taking towards digital transformation could be described as ‘steady as she goes’. I discussed how there are a number of different steps along that journey, and part of that is also ensuring that Arnlea is always understanding and anticipating the needs of our customers, in terms of software updates and the latest hardware. In this respect, we actively seek out commercial partners who share our values and have similar goals.

A critical reason for creating strong partnerships with other suppliers is that organisations are looking for fewer interfaces; they’re simply after high performing solutions from partners who understand and meet their needs. It’s also about forging stronger customer/supplier partnerships as well because customers are now getting more seamless service delivery and spend less time involved with procurement. Partners are finding synergies and shared values to bring their complementary services together. From our perspective, it’s far better to be in control of that process than on the receiving end of a buying decision that forces you to work with partners you’ve no track record or common understanding with.

This strategy means that Arnlea can better serve our customers and our partners can better serve theirs. Sometimes this means we collaborate on customer projects, sometimes we use each other’s capabilities with our own customers. We work closely with our partners, at different levels, depending on the relationship we establish and we work hard to establish good operational relationships early on, so that if any issues arise, we can resolve them together because of the good communication and can-do attitudes we share.

Strategically, the market where we’re going to drive Partnering to the next level is in the US. We’re creating a Partner Tool Kit and also developing a set of benefits for partners that will mean they’re communicated with effectively, get our latest news before the market does and so on. It’s vital because partnerships only work in reality if they truly are genuine partnerships, rather than just lip service and a contract. What is clear is that partnering is going to broaden our route to market and our SaaS model makes our software product easier to buy.

Arnlea partners get our focus. We make every endeavour to support the vision our partners have for their operations and our customers have for their businesses. Part of that comes from how we progress and develop our Intrinsix software solution to optimise our asset management data with other operational information and controls. Our technical capability, continual upgrade capacity and superior UX/UI means that we intentionally seek out partners who also value long term relationships and provide exceptional service, because those are precisely what our customers seek. We’re expanding in all areas of our business and our ambitions mean we need partners who can support us as we grow.

The benefits we get from working with different hardware and inspection businesses means that our customers are able to significantly reduce their inspection times and the many associated resources that go with it. It ensures they achieve much better control of their inspection and asset data, so we are able to anticipate further upgrades and developments, and assist as they continue to pursue digital transformation projects for their global operations.

Arnlea’s partnerships are already bearing fruit across a number of sectors and we are always actively seeking more, not just in the Energy industry. No one can afford to work in silos any longer; instead, we’re benefiting from good relationships, and all the high-end collaboration and productivity those relationships drive. By working closely together, we can identify any potential challenges customers may be experiencing, and we can resolve them before they become fully aware of those issues. We can demonstrate and implement our solutions, which allows the customer to focus on running their business.

Partnership for us is a win/win and the way forward for any right thinking proactive global organisation seeking to grow, expand and thrive.

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Company News

TAQA renews

[31 August 2021]
Arnlea Systems Ltd, global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the energy industry, has renewed its contract with TAQA’s UK business for a further five years. The renewal will encompass TAQA’s six operational offshore assets in the North Sea and includes new technical additions.

As an existing client of Arnlea, four of TAQA’s assets currently use Windows-based tablets for inspections, with two new assets now deploying smart phones and android tablets, both of which have Hazardous Area Zone 1 rated bodies. Arnlea’s Hazardous Area inspection software reduces inspection administration and labour, as well as improving productivity and greater data control for the global operator.

Allan Merritt, Arnlea’s CEO said,

“We are seeing many of our customers seeking better control of their data, consistency of software and seamless upgrades so that their operational control is at an optimum level. Our technical teams work to anticipate future client demand so that whenever a client like TAQA requires more, we’re able to deliver. As a SaaS provider, every digital step forward clients take, means that we’re providing the means for their operations to streamline further and deliver more to their stakeholders. We look forward to working with the team at TAQA and taking their hazardous area inspection software even further forward.”

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Company News

Equinor win

[29 July 2021]
Arnlea Systems Ltd, global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the energy industry, has announced that it has signed a new three-year contract with Equinor, to provide its Ex asset management software to Equinor’s Mariner field in the UK North Sea.

Equinor is a new customer for Arnlea and the contract includes access to the latest IntrinsixEX software and a range of tablets for their offshore inspection teams. Using tablets allows photographs and other images to be easily uploaded for reporting and comparison by inspection and other teams, improving efficiency and communication for all. In a recent webinar by leading inspection specialist Dron and Dickson, Bob Banks demonstrated that digital inspection software reduced inspection times by up to 50%; the average time saved was 22 minutes per item, against 55 minutes per item using pen and paper.

IntrinsixEX enables a quicker turnaround of faulty and ineffective equipment because of its Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) platform. IntrinsixEX enables clients full IEC 60079 compliance and provides standardised inspection and reporting processes to speed up data interpreting, comparisons, and understanding, which facilitates better management decision-making at all levels. It was also a requirement that Arnlea’s software would fully integrate with SAP to achieve additional financial, HSEQ, and operational advantages. This enables higher-level automated communications and delivers superior management reporting, ensuring that asset registration is kept up-to-date and is synchronised in real-time, with work orders generated in SAP, which significantly improves both the inspection team’s workload and the subsequent data collection.

Allan Merritt, Arnlea’s CEO said,

“It is rewarding to secure a new contract with Equinor. Arnlea has a successful track record of working with major operators who are seeking highly functional, user-friendly, easy-to-manage digital software to meet their asset management challenges. This contract will also facilitate future innovation to meet Equinor’s ongoing and ever-challenging operational demands. I’m excited and really looking forward to developing our already strong relationship further.”

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Company News

Welcome Ross Chapman

[26 April 2021]
Arnlea, a global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the energy industry, is furthering its commitment to customer service via digital transformation as a SaaS provider with the appointment of Ross Chapman, who joins the Business Development team.

Ross joins the successful team and will be responsible for new business as well as supporting customers in the UK and further afield. With a background in business development and sales, his experience of identifying and winning new business by listening to and understanding customer needs, will prove invaluable as Arnlea continues to upgrade its cloud-based software solutions.

CEO, Allan Merritt said,

“Providing our customers with high quality SaaS products and exemplary service levels that solve their operational challenges is what Arnlea is all about. Bringing Ross into the team is enhancing our business and the strategic direction we’re heading in. The global pandemic notwithstanding, Arnlea has been able to grow and support customers during this unprecedented set of economic and personal circumstances and we are delighted to see the role that cloud-based technology generally has played, improving business operations across many industries. Arnlea is neatly positioned for further growth because of this step-change.”

Arnlea is a tried and trusted partner for a number of global energy clients, with deep expertise in supply chain management and operational management activities, providing software solutions to the energy industry.

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Blogs

Scale and Scope

Intrinsix has tremendous scale and scope … giving power to your people. Companies in the energy industry need smart solutions for data collection and reporting. Our Intrinsix software product suite makes inspections and asset management easy, while ensuring safety and compliance for companies operating in this industry. By switching to a SaaS provider, like Arnlea, you can get rid of pens, paper, and complex Excel spreadsheets and use cloud-based software for your inspection campaigns, reporting and operational decisions.

You need tools that increase productivity in tracking, inspection, and maintenance
You want a product that gives you visibility in the supply chain and inspection processes for greater understanding and better decision making
Most importantly, you want to ensure compliance and the safety of remote employees, supply chain workers (warehouse, quayside, logistics, drivers etc.,) inspectors, inspector supervisors and technical authorities that operate in your company.

We can show you how to increase productivity and improve employee engagement using data. In the current digital landscape, for Oil & Gas operators and throughout the supply chain, you need to be able to gather, track and share data to ensure success. This blog – and our Power for your People Guide – will show you what SaaS providers like Arnlea can do for your business and how companies like yours can benefit from using industrial mobile software for asset management.

Will the implementation of Intrinsix be disruptive? Yes, it will.

Is it worth the effort? We’ll make sure it is.

We commit to being a trusted partner, and it’s in our best interests that you get the most out of working with Arnlea’s Intrinsix cloud-based software.

It’s also important to be realistic and understand that things don’t always run smoothly with any level of digital transformation. However well prepared your employees, there are going to be moments of tension, deadlines, and long training sessions that might discourage even the best of us. That’s why our team will guide you throughout the entire process and make sure nothing gets lost on the way. We’ll build a tailored plan that is suitable for your company (and your company only), and we’ll help you to implement it to the very last detail to make sure you meet your business goals.

We can show you how to increase productivity and improve employee engagement using yours and others’ data. In the current digital landscape, for Oil & Gas operators and throughout the supply chain, you need to be able to gather, track and share data to ensure success. This conversation about Big Data and Digital Transformation has never been more timely, as businesses begin to recognise the importance of integrating a digital infrastructure into your existing processes.

When you work with a SaaS provider like Arnlea, you can benefit from using industrial mobile software for asset management and a host of other operational tasks. We’re working with Energy companies onshore and offshore, in the UKCS and around the world who are sharing the benefits of our cloud-based software, Intrinsix. Our latest innovation on our website is a map detailing the scale and scope of what we offer and who we’re working with.

Increased efficiency

All our customers and their teams appreciate that Intrinsix helps all their different people work better and faster. At the same time, it enables them to gather the valuable data necessary when you’re planning to continuously improve your processes and increase the efficiency of business operations.

If we consider hazardous area inspections and maintenance, here’s how the teams of inspectors who already use our software benefit from our collaboration:

IntrinsixEX can improve inspectors’ efficiency by an average of 150%. Not only does the software boost productivity, but it also creates a greater sense of ownership during a campaign.
Our RBI strategy can reduce inspection campaigns by up to 50%, which frees teams up to focus on other areas of responsibility.
At the same time, inspectors get a full picture of RBI alarms and thresholds for individual tags, areas and work orders, which automatically improves inspector recognition and speeds up the process.
The software gathers all data in one central location, which allows people to work and edit simultaneously, enhancing team productivity and uniformity of data.
Intrinsix reduces the risk of human error by using uniform recording methods, digital input and user-friendly displays.

Improved reporting

For many workers and supervisors, reporting is a hassle. With so much data to write down and analyse every day, this activity eats up many working hours. Furthermore, it increases the levels of stress, as any missed information can have consequences on the health and safety of everyone on the team.

How does our software make reporting easy?

IntrinsixEX generates real-time remedial notifications. These are raised and passed through your ERP with work orders, then passed back to handhelds to streamline the inspection process within planned inspection periods.
The use of IntrinsixEX enables a quicker turnaround of faulty and ineffective equipment, which results in greater outputs for inspectors and the overall installation.
All records are registered in your digital system in real-time and synchronised in and out of your ERP, which means you get to minimise the risks of inaccuracies, lost inspection information, and missing inspection requirements.
The software improves visibility of your workflows, which gives your supervisors more control of safety and equipment integrity so they can ensure compliance with the latest safety regulations.
You get to implement standardised inspection and reporting processes to speed up data interpreting, comparisons and understanding.

Data analysis for a better view of your business processes

Digital solutions give you increased visibility of overall business operations. It helps you analyse the tasks that your teams perform every day and control the procedures that permit your staff to complete every organisational goal in time. For companies in the Oil & Gas industry, it’s also a cost-effective tool to ensure compliance in all environments, at all times.

Here’s how Arnlea software can improve your existing processes:

You can make data analysis more efficient, as you have access to accurate, reliable and consistent asset information, as well as to asset updated history easily and regularly.
The usage of IntrinsixIM can reduce equipment failure and unplanned plant shutdowns by swiftly identifying problem areas before they become an issue.
The system updates records in real-time when working in online mode.
You overcome the challenges of working in difficult and remote environments. When working in offline mode due to no internet access, the system automatically updates itself once our devices find a safe internet connection. This way, no data gets lost.
Overall, your teams save time, as the software streamlines production processes and provides up to the minute maintenance data and reports.

Improved decision making for Senior Managers

Here are some of the benefits that most of our partners have seen since using Intrinsix:

Reduced inaccuracies and minimised risk of losing materials and inspection information and missing requirements, thanks to the ability to record data in real-time and synchronise in and out of ERP.
The elimination of most paperwork and a reduced carbon footprint, which brings cost-savings, traceability and progress towards HSEQ KPIs.
IntrinsixEX and IntrinsixIM enables standardised inspection and reporting processes, which speeds up data interpreting, comparisons and understanding, facilitating better management decision-making.
Better management with instant access to real-time analytics and reports to support organisational efficiency and performance.

If you’d like to understand more about our scale and scope and our strength and depth and importantly how Intrinsix could bring power to your people, please contact our Business Development team.

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Company News

Welcome Glenn Sangster

[11 February 2021]

Arnlea, a global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the energy industry, has strengthened its commitment as a SaaS provider to drive customer digital transformation, achieving Microsoft Silver Partner status, Cyber Essentials certification and appointing a new dedicated business analyst as part of the Product team.

Glenn Sangster, Arnlea’s new business analyst will report to Andrew Ayton, Arnlea’s recently appointed Head of Product and work with the technical and business development teams to better understand customers, opportunities in the market and new software challenges Arnlea should address. His background is in similar roles in software businesses.

Achieving both Microsoft Silver Partner status and Cyber Essentials are stepping-stones in raising Arnlea’s reputation and expertise as digital transformation partners in asset management for the energy industry.

Chief Technical Officer, Andy Powrie said,

“Our objective is to become fully established in the marketplace as a leading SaaS provider and seen as a key lead for customers seeking to improve their digital transformation programmes. Enhancing our capability to both understand what customers need now and will want in the future is a critical element to ensuring Arnlea’s growth and dominance in the market. Achieving Cyber Essentials certification and becoming a Microsoft Silver partner, as well as adding new talent, are instrumental in this process and we are excited about the way this will take our business forward and improve our understanding of customer needs, expectations and future challenges.”

Arnlea is a tried and trusted partner for a number of global oil & gas clients, with more than 25 years’ expertise in supply chain management and operational management activities, providing software solutions to the energy industry.

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Infographics

Equinor

Arnlea and Equinor have signed their first contract, which includes access to the latest IntrinsixEX software and a range of tablets for their offshore inspection teams. Using tablets allows photographs and other images to be easily uploaded for reporting and comparison by inspection and other teams, improving efficiency and communication for all.

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Infographics

Vermilion

A few years ago Vermilion upgraded their hazardous area inspection software from paper to Arnlea’s IntrinsixEX, which included handsets, for inspections of all Ex assets on the premises. This year the decision was taken to upgrade to the latest android tablets to further improve the inspection process, due to the enhanced UX/UI software that Arnlea now deploys on its Zone 1 and ATEX-certified tablets.

See our infographic ...

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Company News

Double First US wins

[9 Deccember 2020]
Arnlea Systems Inc, a subsidiary of Arnlea Systems Ltd, global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the oil & gas industry, has signed its first two US contracts with TOTE Services LLC (“TOTE Services”), an affiliate of TOTE, LLC, in a brand new sector, through its partnership with SourceIEx, a double first for the Houston-headquartered business.

Arnlea specialises in the energy industry where clients deploying Intrinsix are experiencing multi-million-pound savings and payback of the system well within a year, whilst improving operational excellence, compliance, asset integrity, and reducing their OPEX.

TOTE, LLC’s family of companies includes leading transportation and logistics companies. TOTE Maritime Alaska, LLC, and TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico, LLC bring unmatched reliability and service to their respective markets. TOTE Services, LLC offers crewing and technical services to meet the needs of commercial, privately owned, and U.S. Government vessels.

The US market is a clear strategic target for Arnlea, with International Business Development Manager Paul Goonan due to relocate there as soon as Covid-19 restrictions are lifted. Yet this hasn’t prevented Arnlea from signing its first US contracts with TOTE Services, who operate the world’s first LNG-powered – Marlin Class – container ships. TOTE is in the process of converting to LNG a second class of vessels, Orcas Class and, as such, is now required by the US Coastguard to conduct regular Ex inspections. The installation dates will be in the Winter of 2020 and there’s no doubt the US market is prime for Arnlea as it looks forward to the next decade.

TOTE is in the process of converting its West Coast vessels from diesel to LNG in a bid to lower their carbon footprint and this brings with it a new responsibility to conduct IEC inspections. This is the first contract of its kind for Arnlea anywhere in the world, outside its core market of oil and gas, as well as the first two contracts in the US.

The IntrinsixEX software will be deployed on a fleet of five different vessels. The first contract is for two vessels and a barge (TOTE Puerto Rico) on the Atlantic Coast and the second is for two vessels on the Pacific Coast (TOTE Alaska). The contract has been signed as a direct result of Arnlea’s relationship with US-based Ex training and equipment supplier, SourceIEx, one of Arnlea’s first strategic partners in Houston.

IntrinsixEX plays a central role with industry regulations and IEC 60079 standards compliance, as part of the management of hazardous areas and equipment. It can also help to manage headcount and improve safety; and being cloud-based provides a number of strategic advantages for its clients, which has had greater resonance with clients since the Covid-19 pandemic. It deploys on handheld technology to provide visibility, accuracy and control of assets, helping to improve efficiency and reliability and, ultimately, extend the asset’s life. Integrating with SAP and IBM Maximo, improving management reporting and overall operational efficiencies IntrinsixEX also improves inspectors’ efficiency by an average of 150%, compared with pen and paper, boosting productivity, and creating a greater sense of ownership during a campaign.

Commenting on the appeal of Intrinsix for commercial ship management businesses, Allan Merritt, Arnlea’s CEO said,

“This opportunity is part of a greener solution that marine businesses, from commercial ship management to the cruise industry are seeking by converting from diesel to LNG fuel transmissions. TOTE is a pioneer in this respect, and we are delighted to be working with such a forward-thinking organisation and are looking forward to future opportunities together.”

Paul Goonan commented,

“As soon as it became clear that we were expanding the business Stateside, we began to foster closer ties with specialist equipment, software and service providers, to provide a broader and more attractive proposition to potential clients. This strategy is paying off, as this is a direct result of our relationship with US-based Ex training and equipment supplier, SourceIEx, who will be helping with the initial installation and first inspections.”

Bob Johnson, President, SourceIEx said

“We specialise in international partnerships and our relationship with Arnlea is both strategic and timely. The opportunities for cloud- based Ex inspection software in both the energy and maritime industries are immense, due to a shift towards digital transformation and a move to LNG fuels. We welcome Arnlea’s first US contracts with TOTE and see them as just the first of many to come.”

IntrinsixEX uses auto-ID mobile technology to increase compliance and decrease costs in Ex inspections and maintenance activities and is compliant with global IEC 60079 standards and ATEX directives, including the US Coastguard’s regulations for LNG fuel. IntrinsixEX materially improves operations across a host of different profit centres, include Finance, Deployment, Data & Reporting, User and HSEQ levels, and will continue to bring together a host of cost and productivity efficiencies for any business’s overall inspection operations.

Arnlea is a tried and trusted partner for a number of global oil & gas clients, with more than 25 years’ expertise in supply chain and operational management activities, providing software solutions to the energy industry.

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Company News

Head Of Product To Speed Customer Digital Transformation

[19 November 202]
Arnlea, global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the energy industry, has appointed Andrew Ayton as Head of Product to provide additional focus and strategic direction for the development of its cloud-based software product Intrinsix and take the business forward as a SaaS, to speed its customers’ own digital transformation.

Chief Technical Officer, Andy Powrie said,

“Bringing Andrew in as our Head of Product is timely. We’ve been proactive and productive during 2020, listening to customers and we understand the direction our software needs to go next. Now Andrew will take the lead role in this process. It will elevate our Intrinsix product further and mean we’re able to support customers as they invest in their own digital transformation processes by having cloud-based software ready to meet requirements they’ve not even yet identified.”

Ayton joins Arnlea with 10 years’ experience developing product strategies for global clients and will be responsible for working with CTO Andy Powrie and the technical team while providing a valuable link with the Business Development and Marketing teams.

Allan Merritt, Arnlea’s CEO said,

“2020 has been, to say the least, a challenging year across our industry. At Arnlea, we have been able to carry on, with the team that we have, meeting customer needs by working from home, and latterly with some days in the office, as we’ve navigated the twists and turns of the pandemic. We didn’t need to furlough anyone and to be finishing this extraordinary year with newly signed contracts and in a position to recruit into a new role, and a more senior member of our team as well, really speaks of the strength and depth we have in our business. Bringing Andrew on board will only add to Arnlea’s capabilities and bring new operational benefits to our customers as Intrinsix is continually developed and upgraded.”

Arnlea is a tried and trusted partner for a number of global oil & gas clients, with more than 25 years’ expertise in supply chain management and operational management activities, providing software solutions to the energy industry.

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Asset Integrity

For Arnlea, the journey our customers are taking towards digital transformation could be described as steady as she goes. Some are taking their first step, others have moved to the second, and our challenge is to ensure that when they need the third step (and the fourth and the fifth), we have already prepared the way and have shown them what is next.

So what are these first, second and third steps? What do we mean by this journey our customers are on?

There has been a shift in asset management and inspection in recent years, but the traditional model was, for example, an inspection team with pen and paper doing regular weekly, monthly, or annual inspections on assets that fall under the ATEX regulations. Even in 2021, there are energy businesses on and offshore conducting asset inspections this way. Our first step is to see customers embark on a digital journey and decide to deploy our Intrinsix asset management software. We provide the latest handsets, and our most recent updates have a UX/UI that rivals consumer software, something rare even in this landscape.

Many of our customers are at Step One. They have not moved to cloud-based software, rather Intrinsix is deployed on their servers. It integrates and functions well with SAP and other operational systems, and delivers high value inspection software, and facilitates far better and more efficient reporting and decision-making. Sales pitch aside, Intrinsix is delivered to customers on a variety of different handsets. Many are now upgrading to our preferred and latest option but there are some who are still engaged with older handsets and other equipment.

As we’ve discussed elsewhere, we have a set of objectives for our business and customers that begin with a cloud-based approach to business – our platform for the future. This in truth is our Step Two. Our other two objectives, Mobile First and Product Agility meet our Step Two pathways for customers and also lay considerable groundwork for Step Three. Step Two is the decision taken by customers who wish to move to a cloud-based software platform. In other words they decide to use Intrinsix as a cloud-based web application, because of all the flexibility and operational efficiencies this approach delivers.

What then is Step Three? We already have global operators pushing at the door for the next level again and this is the logical destination for customers who choose to partner with Arnlea. This Third Step is really a question for our CTO and his team, but from where I sit, our third step is about helping our second step customers take even greater advantage of their data by combining it, anonymously, to paint a fuller picture of how different assets perform in different environments or with different criteria. This is something that the automotive and aerospace industries have been doing for years now and it’s something our industry would benefit from enormously, particularly as energy is, more than ever, under greater scrutiny and more pressure from all sides.

When I talk with senior industry figures about this digital journey, there is a real sense of the value and role of partnership relationships in this process, rather than just seeing businesses like Arnlea as mere suppliers. We wish to be more widely recognised as the SaaS providers that we are. We want to be able to behave in this manner with all our customers, and this is part of our second and third steps forward. We believe, like them, that it makes for far more productive relationships. Furthermore, it drives goodwill and a more open, productive collaboration, rather than the traditional approach to the supply chain that often still persists in our industry.

The global pandemic has also highlighted the benefits of an operational environment that is based in the cloud. The energy industry has effectively had its own pilot scheme in experiencing what it’s like to be chained to an office-based server, rather than the freedom, flexibility and financial benefits cloud-based software delivers. It’s rather a shame that we all had to endure something like this to see a physical demonstration of the benefits digital transformation brings, and it’s fair to say that many of the barriers to understanding those benefits are moving rather more quickly than they might otherwise have done.

We have customers embracing cloud-based SaaS provision, clearly understanding the value of controlling all their own data, directly connected with SAP or other systems. They have made the step-change forward and their mindset has also changed to consider that they do not have to have all their software physically on their own servers, nor do they need to conduct EX inspections by hand using pen and paper, or by transferring the data into a complex but limited spreadsheet.

Many of our customers are still at Step One and will be for some time. Others, like Equinor and Total are pushing for more. Our business is leading the way in developing third step platforms and when the energy industry is ready to share data, we will already be there, with the platforms, security, and operational excellence they already experience. As we stand on the cusp of greater post-pandemic freedoms, it is my hope that our industry takes a brave step forward and fully champions digital transformation to garner all the 360 degree benefits it brings. It is incumbent on Arnlea to make that transformation seamless as possible, with technology that is leading edge, with easy-to-understand integration combined with customer service excellence. In other words, working with Arnlea will unite the IT architecture. And that’s a challenge we’re embracing.

For more information on Arnlea’s experience and capabilities contact the Business Development team, by calling +44 1224 620000 or emailing info@arnlea.com.

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Company News

IntrinsixEX for SBM

[23 October 2020]
Arnlea Systems Ltd, global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the oil & gas industry, is working with long-standing customer, SBM Offshore on FPSO Liza Destiny, offshore Guyana, to provide its IntrinsixEX inspection and maintenance cloud-based software.

Designed and operated by SBM Offshore, the FPSO is installed at the Liza field, which is approximately 200 km off the coast of Guyana, in the Stabroek block.

Arnlea is providing its very latest version of IntrinsixEX inspection software that has been further enhanced to create a bespoke product specifically to suit the needs of SBM Offshore.

It also features a suite of android tablets with the latest UX/UI design, and Bluetooth pens for RFID tags, to enhance the inspection process, data capture and integration with SAP. This delivers superior management reporting via the Intrinsix Analytics dashboard and ensures SBM Offshore’s asset register remains continually up-to-date and synchronised in real-time. Its inspection team will have a greatly enhanced system to work with, which significantly improves both the inspection workload and the data collection afterwards to deliver premium data management without the need for any additional data processing.

IntrinsixEX uses auto-ID mobile technology to increase compliance and decrease costs in Ex inspections and maintenance activities and is compliant with IEC 60079 standards and ATEX directives. IntrinsixEX materially improves operations across a host of different profit centres, include Finance, Deployment, Data & Reporting, User and HSEQ levels, and will continue to bring together a host of cost and productivity efficiencies to benefit SBM Offshore’s overall inspection operations.

Arnlea’s CTO, Andy Powrie said,

“As a SaaS provider, this is precisely what we’ve designed our software to do. To be operational on a fully digital FPSO is to be participating in a state-of-the-art exploration project involving some of the most forward-thinking Oil & Gas operators worldwide. That it is taking place in offshore Guyana also means that this project is afforded a spotlight it otherwise wouldn’t because of the potential of this new field. We are delighted that one of our much-valued existing clients, SBM Offshore looked to us to support them in this endeavour for mutual benefit and growth.”

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The right tool for inspection and maintenance

Business success belongs to those who embrace change and take advantage of the latest technologies.

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Onshore wins

[1 October 2020]
Arnlea Systems Ltd, global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the oil & gas industry, is now working with a number of global onshore plants that have deployed IntrinsixEX, demonstrating the cloud-based software’s flexibility for onshore and plant inspection and asset management, as well as its traditional offshore base.

Arnlea built its reputation in offshore assets in the oil & gas industry specifically the North Sea – the majority of assets there utilise Intrinsix. Clients deploying Intrinsix are experiencing multi-million-pound savings and payback of the system well within a year, whilst improving operational excellence, compliance, asset integrity, and reducing their OPEX.

IntrinsixEX plays a central role with ATEX industry regulations and IEC 60079 standards compliance, as part of the management of hazardous area equipment. It deploys on handheld technology to provide visibility, accuracy and control of assets, helping to improve efficiency and reliability and, ultimately, extend the asset’s life. Integrating with SAP and IBM Maximo, improving management reporting and overall operational efficiencies, IntrinsixEX also improves inspectors’ efficiency by an average of 150%, boosting productivity, and creating a greater sense of ownership during a campaign. It can also help to manage headcount and improve safety; and being cloud-based provides a number of strategic advantages for its clients, which has had greater resonance with clients since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The software’s Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) strategy can reduce inspection campaigns by up to 50%, freeing teams to focus on other areas of responsibility, giving inspectors a full picture of RBI alarms and thresholds for individual tags, areas and work orders, automatically improving their recognition and efficiency.

Commenting on the appeal of Intrinsix beyond its original markets, Allan Merritt, Arnlea’s CEO said,

“Our offshore track record enabled us to win new contracts with two major onshore plants with different operators, one in Europe, one in the Middle East; onshore is a target market for Arnlea and key for 2021-23. These onshore plants have also opened new markets; one is a refinery, the other is for LNG. Pioneering into new markets and new opportunities, though challenging during the Covid-19 pandemic, has not been impossible and we believe we have a good foothold in three new markets, to continue our growth during the rest of 2020 and into 2021.”

IntrinsixEX uses auto-ID mobile technology to increase compliance and decrease costs in Ex inspections and maintenance activities and is compliant with IEC 60079 standards and ATEX directives. IntrinsixEX materially improves operations across a host of different profit centres, include Finance, Deployment, Data & Reporting, User and HSEQ levels, and will continue to bring together a host of cost and productivity efficiencies to benefit overall inspection operations.

Arnlea is a tried and trusted partner for a number of global oil & gas clients, with more than 25 years’ expertise in supply chain management and operational management activities, providing software solutions to the oil & gas industry.

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Company News

Online training

[17 September 2020]
Arnlea Systems Ltd, global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the oil & gas industry, is rolling out further online training, following successful trials and webinars during the pandemic lockdown across Q2-3.

Arnlea is now providing full online training on its IntrinsixEX software, including initiation and start-up training, for all clients who are signing up to use its software. The decision follows a number of trial and pilot sessions with existing and new clients, as well as providing online walk-through sessions with clients enquiring about Arnlea’s cloud-based inspection and asset management software.

Commenting on the move, Arnlea’s CEO Allan Merritt said,

“As a SaaS provider, Arnlea has found new and innovative ways of sharing our Intrinsix software solution during the challenging lockdown trading period. This has included creating meaningful online training and induction sessions for new and existing clients keen to take full advantage of the opportunities and benefits to inspections and overall operational efficiencies that Intrinsix brings. We’re confident our clients are comfortable with this move; early feedback shows a real willingness to engage in this way and all concerned recognise the carbon and cost savings this move has created.”

IntrinsixEX uses auto-ID mobile technology to increase compliance and decrease costs in Ex inspections and maintenance activities and is compliant with IEC 60079 standards and ATEX directives. IntrinsixEX materially improves operations across a host of different profit centres, include Finance, Deployment, Data & Reporting, User and HSEQ levels, and will continue to bring together a host of cost and productivity efficiencies to benefit inspection operations.

Arnlea is a tried and trusted partner for a number of global oil & gas clients, with more than 25 years’ expertise in supply chain management and operational management activities, providing software solutions to the oil & gas industry.

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Infographics

Introducing UX to the Energy Industry

When your inspectors and supervisors aren’t tech savvy, asset management software must be intuitive and easy to use. Intrinsix addresses the specific needs of our end-users, making it easy for everyone to be productive and work in a modern and effective workplace both in online and offline modes.

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Company News

IoD nomination

[21 May 2020]
Arnlea Systems Ltd, global leader in industrial mobile software for tracking, inspection and maintenance for the energy industry, has seen Allan Merritt nominated as a finalist in the Institute of Directors Scotland Regional Director of the Year Award for Aberdeen & Grampian.

The annual competition recognises senior directors across every industry, the length and breadth of Scotland. Allan is one of four finalists shortlisted and there are currently plans to hold the IoD Scotland Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner on the rescheduled date of Tuesday 8 September 2020 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Glasgow.

Commenting on the nomination, Allan said,

“This is really a huge compliment to the whole team here at Arnlea. The business is made up of outstanding individuals who work extremely hard to ensure that what we deliver for our clients is world-class. Our cloud-based software is empowering because it allows our client businesses to carry on working, as can we, miles apart from the rest of the team, still connected, still able to function and provide valuable insights and operational information whenever they need to.

“Our business is going from strength to strength and we find ourselves in the very fortunate position that the Arnlea team is still able to work, for which we are extremely thankful. The team is all working from home and we’ve been able to continue to serve clients near and far because of the nature of the cloud-based software that we provide. I am delighted to have been nominated and it’s been an extra boost for the team during the current situation.”

Arnlea is a tried and trusted partner for a number of global oil & gas clients, with more than 25 years’ expertise in supply chain and operational management activities, providing SaaS-delivered mobile apps to the oil & gas industry.

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Expectations

SaaS – Software as a Service – is going to be the product innovation of the decade. While not actually new, since the global pandemic, businesses and industries have become acutely aware of the advantages of cloud-based software and the possibilities of changing their approach to the purchase of software and the relationship with their software partners.

I joined Arnlea in September 2020, during the global Covid-19 pandemic. Four months in, it’s exciting to see how we are positioning ourselves to meet future and current customer need. We’re setting objectives to take our side of the business forward and ensure that as clients recognise their own needs for upgrades and cloud-based software, Arnlea is already ahead of them, waiting to deliver.

We’re in a good place, with clear objectives to take us to the next level of SaaS provision as a business. We have three pillars, comprising of different strands that we have been mobilising for a number of years but are now bringing together into a single SaaS strategy to take the business forward, designed to meet and anticipate the asset management software needs of our customers now and in the future.

1 – A cloud-first approach to business – platform for the future

For the first time, we have a number of customers actively seeking cloud-based software for their asset management provision. Most of these customers have worked with Arnlea for some years and previously have had Intrinsix product and upgrades uploaded on their servers onsite or offshore. The global pandemic saw many people return to shore and office-based or onshore people started working from home. The fact is, it’s a lot easier to access cloud-based software rather than try and access your company emails, files and any other work you need to do via a VPN.

Arnlea is now formally setting out its cloud-first approach and actively marketing its cloud-based web applications. We’ve been doing this anyway for a few years but now with the market more willing to listen, we have a far more receptive audience. In addition, now we’re a Microsoft Silver Partner, our formalised cloud-based applications also possess the additional benefit of Microsoft’s security architecture for all our customers who take this next step.

2 – Mobile first

Our second pillar is to ensure that all our Intrinsix software, is fully mobile compliant. In other words that it can work on any mobile device – iPhone, android phone or any tablet – so that in the future inspectors and other customers can use either devices provided by the company, or their own mobile devices they have with them.

3 – Product agility

Our third and final pillar is to use an Agile approach to product development. You could say we want to develop our products to such a level that were there to be a global pandemic(!) we would be able to solve the very real challenges our customers would face, quickly and seamlessly, because we were able to respond to specific market problems or trends quickly and easily. We already work in an Agile fashion and we’re Scrum-ish in our approach to project management and product development. This means we’re able to better manage our product forecasting and evaluate customer needs before they have them so that we’re already prepared to deliver those solutions at the appropriate time.

SaaS level thinking: raising customers’ own aspirations

For some in the Oil & Gas industry, as distinct from the Energy industry as a whole, this level of SaaS thinking is ahead of discussions they’re yet to have. For others, who already had this type of next-level thinking on the table, the global pandemic has been a catalyst, accelerating the progress they were already making. Many offshore workers also now see the benefits of a more streamlined, tech-led approach to the work that they do. Our objective is to facilitate these conversations and support customers and help bring them on. There are many different benefits to taking a SaaS-approach to the purchase of your business software. It frees up investment in many areas, notably in servers and physical connectivity, delivering greater resources to IT departments who are free to focus on the devices, browsers and WiFi connectivity their business needs.

By formalising our SaaS strategy, we’re demonstrating that we’re a serious partner for our customers for the next decade and beyond. We’re continually developing and upgrading our software; we don’t just sit churning out legacy products, because that restricts growth and potential development for everyone. Arnlea is working with a number of partners to introduce their first cloud-based software and that will be a real milestone for their businesses. The global pandemic has prompted many Oil & Gas operators to embrace Office 365 and by taking that step, moving inspection software and its data to cloud-based platforms suddenly becomes a more natural move forward. We’re excited about the possibilities that this holds for Arnlea and the opportunities that lie ahead.

For more information on Arnlea’s experience and capabilities contact the Business Development team, by calling +44 1224 620000 or emailing info@arnlea.com.

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Digital Transformation for LNG Operators

In 2020, Arnlea began to focus more deeply on providing our Intrinsix cloud-based asset management solutions to forward-thinking LNG operators. You can read the article we published here. This is a summary and shares the challenges and opportunities for this growing marketplace and why digital transformation here will change so much for the industry.

LNG operators are as regulated as any other part of the energy industry and this includes formal inspection campaigns, and asset management and maintenance of equipment used in hazardous areas. The list of items to be inspected can number in the thousands and are found both on and offshore, giving rise to a huge burden of work, administration and reporting. How this is done, operator by operator, will give rise to huge, often hidden cost savings or expenditure.

When done well, the impact on both CAP and OP-EX, as well as morale, recruitment and HSEQ performance, can be significant and contribute to the lifetime of a plant, terminal or vessel.

Inspections used to be performed with pen and paper, clipboards – or if a little more advanced, using spreadsheets and printouts. In fact, perhaps surprisingly, there are more than a handful of operators still using one or both of these methods, because it’s not seen as core business, so it’s not given the investment, attention and profile it deserves. These methods make reporting and analysis of an individual inspection campaign or piece of equipment, harder, slower and less valuable as well.

Significantly, with many LNG operators using SAP or Maximo, they already have the capability of radically upgrading their asset management system, producing high calibre reporting, inspection regimes that are smart and saving, in one example £90,000 per asset per annum.

In other words, if LNG operators were to extend or invest in their digital transformation strategy to include asset management, then reporting, inspection campaigns, human resources and HSEQ would suddenly be more cost-effective, easier to manage and offer better value to their business.

The global pandemic has brought the issue digital transformation into sharp focus at every level and in the oil & gas industry, the drive for carbon net-zero has also started to push change. It seems that in LNG, the same may well be happen. There are many other global industries, notably aerospace or automotive, where digital transformation has been fully embraced for years. There, anonymised data sharing is part and parcel of best-in-class operations so that the whole industry works together to raise standards and continually improve efficiencies, technology and the supply chain.

As a SaaS provider, we provide a huge amount of support and information and practical training to help customers make good decisions when considering cloud-based inspection and asset management software.

Our video highlights the criteria you should consider as part of any decision-making criteria: HSEQ and compliance; user functionality and experience; financial advantages; and deployment.

It’s also really important that the UX/UI (user experience and user interface) delivers as contemporary functionality as possible. We’re all used to smart phones, tablets, desktops, gaming… We expect the same level of UX/UI in the software and equipment we use at work. It sounds trivial perhaps, but when our home tech is superior to our work tech, it can feel demoralising or less satisfying to do our jobs. It shouldn’t be underestimated.

For LNG operators looking to make the switch, it’s worth understanding that the buying cycle can take up to 12 months to complete, in terms of research, business case and purchasing processes involved. This gives procurement, IT and inspection teams time to consider the experience and track record of their preferred supplier and start to build a relationship with key team members before making a final decision to buy or go a particular route. This timescale should provider buyers with the comfort factor they need to make sure that their investment is timely, proven and effective.

Any investment is always with some risk. Yet Ex inspection software is already proven across the North Sea and around the world among oil & gas operators. LNG operators can start their buying journey to deploy Ex inspection cloud-based software, with their SaaS provider of choice, in the comfortable position of knowing others have gone before them, which will enable the LNG industry to take even bolder steps forward, leaving older technologies and industries in their wake.

For more information on Arnlea’s experience and capabilities contact the Business Development team, by calling +44 1224 620000 or emailing info@arnlea.com.

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The Cost of an Ex Incident

It might surprise the average person living in the UK that the oil & gas industry still does some of its most vital inspections using old-fashioned pen and paper. If you’re in the industry though, you’ll know this is true. For those businesses, the clock is ticking…

Do you ever see someone walking around with a 1990s mobile phone? It’s slightly strange isn’t it, especially when there’s so much affordable modern tech around, that uses smart technology and is far more flexible, interactive and generally useful. Yet there are still businesses in the energy industry using the equivalent; far too many are still using 620s or Ci70s that are end of life and the equivalent of the 1990s phone. Using old tech means you can’t use the latest version of our software, which is going to have a detrimental effect on your OPEX efficiency. In other words, the sands of time are slowly running out.

Recently, we did a SWOT analysis on using pen and paper for inspections. There are a few strengths, and the biggest strength of all is that there’s minimal outlay and little cost to maintain the status quo. It also means there’s total flexibility over how information is recorded, and it’s certainly tried and tested. It offers these opportunities where the inspection volume or frequency, or both is low.

When you consider its weaknesses though, there are lots of challenges that will cost your operations time, money and potentially compromise your HSEQ as well.

Pen and paper are just not robust enough for offshore or other outdoor environments. Recording manually is also open to manipulation and there’s almost zero data security. You can’t integrate it into your maintenance systems and there’s also a large risk of poor data integrity and transfer, human error and poor compliance with regulations and standards. You also end up double-entering your data, first recording inspections manually and then typing up the data to produce reports, increasing work and reducing productivity. You also need lots of people to do this type of work, increasing the number of people offshore at a time when everyone is being encouraged to reduce headcount to minimise the risk of Covid-19 infections in the workplace.

If you look beyond your own operations, the threats to inspections using pen and paper are myriad – and growing. Most Energy operators are speaking loudly and clearly about their digital transformation strategies – pen and paper doesn’t fit this agenda at all.

Consider your inspection team’s morale and attitudes to their job. They’re using pen and paper or end of life kit when in every other aspect of their lives, from phones to banking, gaming to watching TV, digital applications aren’t even seen as cutting edge anymore, just part of everyday life. How can you get your inspection teams to truly engage when they may well feel that the lack of investment in their role means their job doesn’t even really matter? That feeling can have severe implications on productivity, HSEQ and employees’ health and wellbeing and your overall operational efficiency.

We’ve done studies showing that using our IntrinsixEX software improves productivity by 150% over pen and paper. That’s worth thinking about.

Cloud-based technology is here to stay; we saw during lockdown, and continue to see, that businesses who were already embracing agile technology were those that pivoted successfully and remained relevant to their customers.

At Arnlea, we’re supporting businesses to invest now in IntrinsixEX, either as an upgrade to their existing software or for the very first time.

We’ve introduced Windows, IoS or Android handsets and we’re combining them with our latest UX/UI interface and latest inspection software. IntrinsixEX gives your inspection teams a far more productive campaign, saves time and resources, and improves productivity by 150% when compared with pen and paper. IntrinsixEX supports compliance and HSEQ requirements, and upgrading actually saves time, resource and budget across both OPEX and CAPEX matrices.

Can you really afford to stay as you are?

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Exceeding expectations

Arnlea, as a SaaS provider is already exceeding client expectations in terms of its cloud-based digital inspection software offering. It’s exceeding them because as a business, we have taken the strategic decision to be marketing-led. In other words, rather than wondering what technological developments we can produce next, we’ve asked the more challenging question: what do our customers need? What would fulfil those needs even better than what we could offer now? How do we improve upon their expectations?

Our teams have seen the difference it has made to our clients having design thinking at the heart of what we do. The relationships we have forged across our developer and design teams, with input from the business development team, means that our clients are getting high level functionality, an accessible UX/UI, and are using hardware that our client end users are familiar with. We have to get this element right because then clients will have teams of their own that are productive and engaged with the tasks our software performs.

For my part, I am constantly questioning everything we do – how can we make processes simpler? How can we help users be more accurate? How can we help inspectors complete more inspections? These questions are instrumental in challenging our own assumptions about what our product should do and how it should work. This has facilitated the Intrinsix upgrades that we’re currently implementing – and it will facilitate our future upgrades as well.

Employing design thinking has become second nature, from our technical team all the way through to our senior management team. That makes Arnlea an exciting and dynamic place to work because now, no one is content with the status quo and so we’re able to move things forward, without worrying about someone’s own preferences in the team.

Our clients are always bringing their next challenge to us, which provides for further product development and a lot of job satisfaction.

The baseline standard has now been set. Intrinsix’ appearance and usability, for those who have already upgraded, is now a given and so is the hardware it deploys on. We’ve utilised Windows, Android and iOS for our interfaces because they are familiar to access, as familiar as our users’ own personal devices. This means clients can get on with engaging with IntrinsixEX, for example, which means we’re now able to build additional functionality and usability on top and continue to make it even more proficient and faster working.

It has to be said that from my perspective, I am most interested in the end users’ feedback. How our clients’ management respond is also useful but to provide management with the reporting tools they need, we need to hear even more than we do already from our clients’ supply chain and inspection teams. That is always going to be crucial in the improvements we make to our Intrinsix product. It’s something we’ve been able to start doing because of the global pandemic and it’s something we’re looking forward to doing more of, so that we can continue to exceed client expectations and deliver an even better software product than we do now.

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Blogs

Power for your People

Arnlea’s Intrinsix software, and IntrinsixEX specifically, is a powerful tool for your people. Here we discuss in more detail its benefits and the value it brings to oil & gas, LNG and other energy businesses, and for other sectors where electrical inspections are critical.

IntrinsixEX uses auto-ID mobile technology to increase compliance and decrease costs in your Ex inspections and maintenance activities. Compliant with IEC 60079 standards and ATEX directives, its benefits can be usefully divided into financial, deployment, user and HSEQ themes to fully appreciate the value IntrinsixEX brings to each partner business that uses it.

HSEQ

Health & Safety are key drivers for any business, none more so than in our industry. By deploying IntrinsixEX, and using it as expected, you’re already ensuring that you or your own client is inspecting hazardous equipment, anything subject to ATEX regulations, in the correct manner.

Our software supports your own HSEQ protocols and ensures that you properly adhere to ATEX because that is how it’s been designed. This also ensures you’re conducting Ex inspections as safely as possible. IntrinsixEX integrates easily with SAP and Maximo, and so it will create inspection reports, management information and an audit trail for any single inspector or piece of equipment. This gives you additional Health & Safety reporting, as required.

User

Intrinsix software has been designed with the end user in mind. Working on Windows or Android devices, the latest versions operate via a user-friendly interface, that has been designed with the user experience in mind. This makes training on the software straightforward. It also creates a sense of familiarity with the software quickly and easily, freeing up your inspection team to carry out Ex inspections quickly and easily, in a productive, open frame of mind. Typically, their efficiency improves 150%. Tasks are easy to assign and complete, bringing more interest to the role and higher job satisfaction, factors that are known to contribute to your employees’ commitment to your business and health and wellbeing.

Deployment

IntrinsixEX allows more inspections to be performed more quickly, which means that you can reduce the number of inspectors you need offshore at any one time. This brings additional financial and HSEQ benefits. Reducing the number of overall people offshore improves health & safety and also improves the use of both resources and budget.

Financial

The investment in IntrinsixEX improves operational efficiency at all levels of the Ex inspection process. Each inspection period is reduced by up to 50% as a direct result of Arnlea’s in-built Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) strategy. This means your people can be used for other areas of responsibility, bringing additional cost-savings offshore. Equipment is maintained or repaired much more quickly than otherwise, allowing for fewer faults to develop. With a single central location for all data-inputting and recording, teams of people can access that data rapidly. Reporting is uniform and consistent and ultimately that leads to enhanced operational decision-making that assists with driving more value into the business and the reduction of costs.

If we were to summarise the benefits of IntrinsixEX to any oil and gas operator or their partners, it has to come down to its ability to deliver greater safety and lower costs for the asset where its deployed. As the Ex inspection software of choice in the North Sea, we work closely will all our clients to create bespoke solutions that suit each particular customer’s own requirements. Our software is flexible enough to be tailored to integrate with the systems you need and deliver the critical processes you value.

To find out more, our product page is here, while our buyer’s guide is here and if you would like to book a demonstration or speak to one of our business development team, then please complete our enquiry form here.

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Blogs

Covid-19

Digital transformation is the buzzword across many industries, including Oil & Gas. With COVID-19 currently across the world, this topic has suddenly come into sharp focus. We thought it was worth asking what are the key issues, the language we’re using and what about sharing data and best practice? In this blog, Allan Merritt, Arnlea’s MD, introduces the whole subject to raise some pertinent questions. We will explore the answers to those questions in future blogs over the next few months.

Digital transformation is the buzz word in the industry currently. Yet talk to five senior executives, five different clients and each will really have a different interpretation of what that means and looks like, depending on where they’re based in the world.

The reality is, that in the current digital landscape for Oil & Gas operators and throughout the supply chain, the untold secret is that no one really shares data. This is despite positive and seemingly pro-active talk about Big Data and Digital Transformation which seems to point to the contrary.

SaaS providers like Arnlea have to understand each client’s real position and the language they’re talking because that will indicate at which stage of digital transformation each client is ready for.

For many US operators and supply chain businesses, digital transformation can simply mean establishing digital infrastructure to capture data; for the UK, it can be more about web reporting and specific task protocols; Asian businesses are seeking to develop the data intelligence further; and still for many operators, regardless of location, it can simply mean having a server in the Cloud.

Different industries ascribe different meanings too so it’s vital to define and understand what the Oil & Gas industry is talking about, compared with Aerospace or Construction for example.

Understanding the digital transformation language of operators is essential in order to meet their requirements, take clients to the next level, and help them overcome their own digital prejudices.

In no particular order the key issues are:

Operators need to be willing to allow SaaS providers to host their data
Industry operators should be encouraged to recognise the mutual financial benefits of data sharing with competitors and partners at the highest level in a truly contemporary and visionary fashion
IT Directors need to be further empowered and be far less resistant to change; providers like Arnlea are here to help them lead the way within their organisations to improve both opex and capex performance
The need for more education for those on the ground to see the productivity and motivational benefits to embrace this change, rather than fearing greater job insecurity
A mindset among all operators that needs to be more attuned towards trust of third-party partners to take the industry forward to enjoy greater mutual benefits and reciprocity, than is currently culturally permitted

For providers like Arnlea, the discussion has to centre around allowing customers to let us host their software systems so that we can begin to collate anonymised industry data to share with all participants for mutual benefit.

This bold vision would see all major O&G operators (Shell, Total, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, ExxonMobil et al) hosted on the same application to enable discrete data packages collated from a single source to facilitate greater intelligence about parts and product.

The creation of predictive failure analysis, best-value suppliers, most reliable supply sources as well as identifying surplus available product or product absence; would be possible by combining all inspection and maintenance data and then providing that information back to clients as intelligent, critical information.

The capability to be far more client-responsive cannot be understated and the financial, resource and intelligence benefits are potentially game-changing.

Fresh thinking to see true digital transformation on this level across this industry is urgently needed and will bring about a powerful shift in client operational decision-making; sharing best practice and buying power would be just the tip of the data-sharing iceberg.

These challenges reveal a cautious industry, reluctant to make the first move with a number of hurdles and barriers to be addressed. They may well be addressed sooner because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they are still pertinent at the time of writing (March 2020).

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Infographics

Overcoming challenges

On paper, digital transformation for our industry looks good. It’s a powerful buzz-word that brings people to industry conferences, but the reality is the industry is far too cautious about going wholeheartedly into a digital business model for maintenance and inventory.

See our infographic ...

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Company News

COVID-19 & Business Continuity

[20 March 2020]
Our priority is to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, customers, other business contacts and the wider community, as well as continuing to deliver our products and services. We are closely monitoring developments, including government and health authority guidelines, and responding accordingly.

Where possible, our people are working remotely and we have taken steps to ensure that, should we require to close our offices, our services to you will continue uninterrupted. We are prepared and confident that our approach means the measures we have in place can ensure business continuity at all times. We are also engaging with our key suppliers in order to manage our supply chain disruption risk. This is a fluid and fast changing situation and we continue to closely monitor the situation as it develops and will provide you with updates as required.

If you have any questions, please contact your usual Arnlea contact. We would ask that you please update us on any potential changes in your business and expected impact on any ongoing or up-coming projects with us so that we can assist. Please also ensure that you have provided us with up to date contact details and contingency contact details, as appropriate.

We are confident that by working closely with you we can deal with the challenges ahead on both sides.

ENDS

News & Knowledge

Arnlea in the Americas

Bluewater signs new contracts

ISO27001 certification

Arnlea in the Americas

Bluewater signs new contracts

ISO27001 certification

Disruption

Digital Transformation in the Oil and Gas Industry

Making Digital Transformation a Higher Priority

New business vision and values

ARNLEA’S VISION

ARNLEA’S VALUES

ARNLEA’S VALUE STATEMENTS

px group

Partners

TAQA renews

Equinor win

Welcome Ross Chapman

Scale and Scope

Increased efficiency

Improved reporting

Data analysis for a better view of your business processes

Improved decision making for Senior Managers

Welcome Glenn Sangster

Equinor

Vermilion

Double First US wins

Head Of Product To Speed Customer Digital Transformation

Asset Integrity

IntrinsixEX for SBM

The right tool for inspection and maintenance

Onshore wins

Online training

Introducing UX to the Energy Industry

IoD nomination

Expectations

1 – A cloud-first approach to business – platform for the future

2 – Mobile first

3 – Product agility

SaaS level thinking: raising customers’ own aspirations

Digital Transformation for LNG Operators

The Cost of an Ex Incident

Exceeding expectations

Power for your People

HSEQ

User

Deployment

Financial

Covid-19

Overcoming challenges

COVID-19 & Business Continuity

Enhance employee engagement

Improve your reporting

Our Intrinsix Solutions

See how you can increase efficiency