Digital courthouses and land management systems have revolutionized the start and finish of the title process, but in between, disorganized, error-prone spreadsheets still reign in the remaining 80% of the process.Are you losing opportunities due to manual and unnecessary spreadsheets?
It may be something you’ve never thought about, or it could be an idea you’ve had in the back of your head for awhile, either way, Title Management Software has arrived to solve the final and most important piece of your oil & gas title puzzle.
If you remember the days of manually searching for every document or division orders that seemed impossible to manage, you know that spreadsheets have severe limitations. Digital courthouses, like Courthouse Direct, changed the way we think about searching for and storing documents. Various Land Management Softwares have simplified the understanding and management of interest payouts and lease records. They have been an enormous step forward, but they have left a massive problem in the middle unchanged.
Interpretations of courthouse docs and the mineral ownership reports and run sheets give us the answers to populate land management systems but are created with non-custom (general) software that was released decades ago.
A Staggered Timeline
Working in spreadsheets creates a staggered timeline for Larry Landman. He has to interpret a document, map the document’s relationship to other documents, then calculate an updated interest. This rough draft is then entered into a spreadsheet to formalize the calculations, by typing mind-numbingly long formulas into a workbook that has multiple tabs covering severances that need to be separately edited based on what is covered by that documents legal description.
“Whew! That was tiring. At least we are done now…guess it’s worth it for $500 + expenses per day…maybe.”
“Oh wait, now I have to format an ownership report and run sheet? Don’t they have a template I can just drop this in?”
“…No? Well, that’ll take another week…guess it’s worth it for $500 + expenses per day…maybe.”
Meanwhile, Joe In-house has picked up a pack-a-day cigarette habit hoping Block-Buster Inc. doesn’t get his lease first. Joe currently spends his days refreshing his email box or playing phone tag with voicemail praying for broker updates.
Don Director of Land just sits with his head in his hands contemplating retirement or a career change.
“I’m getting too old for this,” he says in his raspy whisper that Janet from accounting loves because “he sounds like Tom Hardy from The Punisher!!!” (emphasis hers).
“There HAS to be a better way!” He pounds his fist.
He knows once these reports are emailed to him the attorney will toss-out the previous work and start from scratch to write their opinion.
Allison Attorney wishes she was doing more document interpretation rather than simple, but long-form math. After all, she got into law to practice law, not fill out excel spreadsheets.
“Guess it’s worth it, though,” Allison smiles.
“I’m making $350 an hour on this…Junior’s yacht isn’t going to steer itself.”
So Why Title Management Software?
Don’t ask us, let’s check in with the crew:
Larry Landman: “With the electronic notecard I just enter what the document in front of me says and it builds my reports for me. In fact, I don’t even have to think about reports or calculations. It’s also pretty cool to watch documents move into the flowchart instantly. The best part? Well between you and me, I’ve been able to squeeze in a couple more rounds of golf!”
Joe In-House: “Yeah thank you for asking. What’s really been helping is having access when I need it. No more refreshing my email looking for updates and I can view it at home or from the golf course. I think I saw Larry Landman on the course, he saw me and then jumped into the sand trap on hole seven. His activity report shows his docs per day are way up from a few months ago, but I’m pretty sure it was him.
Dan Director: “This is Stephanie, Mr. Director isn’t available, he’s golfing with clients right now. He told me to tell you ‘sorry he couldn’t make the meeting’ and ‘it works great.'”
Allison Attorney: “This is great, I just go into review mode check the work with the PDF pulled up. No more re-doing work and I mark requirements directly into the document, now Larry Landman can cure as I find them. I don’t golf…I use the extra time to do more work.”
Conclusion
Implementing new processes can be a hassle in some cases which leads to many organizations sticking with the status quo. But companies who have taken the jump to Title Management Software do so with an eye on efficiency and gaining a competitive edge. With weeks being cut off of project timelines, higher quality leases, reduction of project costs and more time left for the golf course, we’re hoping you’ll think its worth it too.
Contact us to learn more about how E&P companies and Mineral Buyers are using SAAS products like Tracts to fuel their own digital revolutions.