At the Global Energy Forum in February, Microsoft and Accenture released the results of the Oil and Gas Collaboration Survey 2009.  The goal of the survey was to find out the effectiveness of collaboration technology to increase productivity and increase knowledge transfer for Oil and Gas industry professionals.  The significant findings were:

• Although more than 40 percent of oil and gas professionals view social media technologies as important to enhance collaboration and boost productivity, implementation of these technologies is underway in the companies of only one out of four respondents. 
• Respondents believe these tools can play a vital role in enhancing collaboration within critical oilfield initiatives, including project management, sourcing scarce resources and sharing health and safety advisories.
• These professionals also stated that social media technologies can help stem the flow of exiting knowledge from workers who are approaching retirement age.
• Slightly over one-third of respondents said their company cultures were aligned with the adoption of these new social media tools.  Another 50 percent said their companies were receptive but not proactive to adopt them.
• Respondents saw the following common barriers to the implementation of these technologies -- company management doesn’t see knowledge capture as important, older workers don’t typically use digital knowledge-sharing capabilities, and current information is siloed on individual personal computers and spreadsheets.