The exponential increase in information volumes in E&P means that most energy companies are faced with rapidly growing volumes of information that is increasingly difficult to find, of uncertain value and often lacking in business context. The use of taxonomies to help manage large amounts of disparate information is not new, however it has only recently been widely identified as a valuable approach for the E&P industry.
Most professionals are spending more time trying to find information than ever before and increasingly distrust the information they are able to retrieve. Management are frustrated by extended cycle times and senior executives are increasingly concerned about risk-related aspects of business information, loss of the organization's knowledge and the need for a rigorous audit trail. Information overload is becoming a problem for everyone. In many instances the corporate information asset has become a liability.
Whilst technology continues to provide efficient information gathering and storage systems it has done little to facilitate information discovery or use or to allow faster, better business decisions to be made. What has been lacking is a logical, standardized way to index and catalog information so that it can be easily identified and retrieved in the right context.