Land Management Software - The Future is Bright

Feb 6
14:51

2011

Cole Shelton

Cole Shelton

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

Software companies are continuously innovating new and better ways of building software. Land Management Software is no different. Over the past decade, there has been a massive shift from old "grey" desktop applications to sleek, user-friendly web applications.

mediaimage
The first land management software packages became available in the late 1970's.  These systems were built on IBM mainframes or the AS400 platform.  Throughout the years,Land Management Software - The Future is Bright Articles these systems died off and gave way to PC based software that utilized systems like Clipper and dBase.  These PC based systems were wonderful because they did not require a large investment in hardware and allowed smaller companies to utilize land management software.As PC land management software continued to evolve, the quality and competition  of products increased.  Systems built in Microsoft Visual Basic became prevalent and stole much of the market share from older systems.  Because of the large penetration of Visual Basic into custom software development, many users were used to the standard VB look-and-feel that was used in custom Visual Basic projects.As the Internet revolution began, land management software began to evolve with it.  The Oil and Gas Industry are slow adopters of new technology, but by the early 2000's, web-based packages were on the market.  These early systems were built by Oil and Gas professionals who saw the need for the software, but they were not software development professionals.  Because of that, many of these early web-based software packages were not as polished as a professional software company would create.As web technology became adopted in the Oil and Gas industry, more web-based competitors emerged. These new systems were built by professional software companies who placed emphasis on ease of use, workflow, and user experience.  They also placed a focus on the communication aspect of land management and how the Internet could be utilized to deliver real-time updates from the field offices back to headquarters.At this juncture in time (circa 2011) we see land management software becoming more intelligent and providing more complex features and focusing more on decision making tools for executives.  Online mapping, once a luxury, is now a requirement in a web-based system.  Many systems are also incorporating complex parsing routines to take legal descriptions, both quarter calls and metes and bounds, and generate polygons directly from those.  Also, the GIS systems are attempting to handle the mapping of 3D separation of tracts and leases caused by vertical Pugh Clauses, a very challenging endeavor.The Oil and Gas Industry seems to be moving away from smaller field brokers towards larger "mega-broker" firms.  Because of this, land management software is having to evolve.  Adding in complex customizable workflow functionality allows these firms to configure the software to fit their processes.  With as many as five or six different employee roles (e.g. landman, title agent, leasing agent, land tech, lease analyst, project manager) touching every tract or lease, it's important to know when a handoff is occurring and what task needs to be completed next.The future for land management software is bright.  The industry has recovered from the Great Recession and large leasing projects are back under way and these projects will continue to need sophisticated software to keep them under control. The number of available software packages has grown in number and the increased competition has caused rapid improvement in many systems, which is great news for anyone looking for land management software.

Also From This Author

Landman Software – Leases, Maps and Data

Landman Software – Leases, Maps and Data

In the oil and gas industry, land managers often find that their job is a lot tougher than they often get credit for. Not only are they responsible for the progress of the work on the land, but they also have to worry about the legal matters, the lease issues, and the various bits of data, such as inventory and state of the instruments. This means that it is certainly about time that there was software created that would help them to perform these duties more efficiently and more cost effectively. If you are looking for this solution, then you will be happy to know that there have been developments in landman software.
Land Management Software – Keep Track of Your Land

Land Management Software – Keep Track of Your Land

If you are in the oil and gas industry, then you understand that land management can be a problematic position to hold. First of all, as a land manager, you are responsible for a lot of information. The more units of land you have under your watch, the more trouble you can potentially run into.
Land Management Software – For the Land Manager in Need

Land Management Software – For the Land Manager in Need

When it comes to making strides in the oil and gas industry, you need to make sure that you are keeping up with latest technological innovations. When it comes to issues such as the quality of surveying and drilling equipment, there are very few professionals who would argue this point. As far as land management goes, however, there may be some resistance. Many professionals in the field still believe that the old ways of analyzing and filing data and information is the best.