SWN M-Files Case Study

Overview

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Southwestern Energy Company (“Southwestern Energy”) is one of the largest producers of natural gas and natural gas liquids in the United States. As a growing, publicly traded energy company, their operations span across Appalachia and Louisiana. EAG was hired to address the significant challenges this company experienced in managing its vast array of digitized documents which were stored across disparate solutions within the organization.

The way documents were stored and managed reflected Southwestern Energy’s rapid growth both organically and through acquisitions.  Documents for different assets and departments lived in numerous systems, network drives, legacy systems, SharePoint sites, and hard drives.  This situation affected well files, supplier contracts, AFE’s, land agreements, and accounting documents.  Transactional data was stored in systems with structured databases, but key information also lived in unstructured documents (Word, Excel, PDFs) with inconsistent indexing and version control.  When combined with workflow failures, all departments and levels within the organization were negatively impacted.

Pain Areas & Challenges

Managing documents effectively is difficult, and at a certain point, the volume of documents can become a deterrent for change.  However, the time required to find documents, share documents, determine which version of a document to use, and ensure that the next person uses the correct document version is time consuming.  Utilizing the wrong document can also be legally impactful.  A poor document management governance process, an ineffective system and unstable workflows can negatively impact cross-functional processes, A&D opportunities, legal research and other time sensitive situations.

In the case of our client, monthly processing issues and trust in the documents themselves resulted from how the documents were stored and managed.  Issues were caused by:

• Lack of data requirements or document type definitions: Documents captured for the same purpose did not always contain all the data elements needed to make them useable, and finding data elements within documents was primarily a manual process.
• Inconsistent document access: The various document repositories made security provisioning difficult.  Often employees had to rely on tribal knowledge of document locations, which led to more inefficiencies as employees onboarded and offboarded.
• Inconsistent version control: Document changes were not consistently tracked, creating confusion over which document to use.
• Unreliable workflows: Configured workflows often failed, requiring full-time monitoring by IT and exception handling by the business.
• Inability to find information: The disparate storage of documents meant that there was no ability to search across all documents.

EAG’s Approach & Solution

EAG conducted a full system selection process including requirement definition, candidate identification, system evaluation, and ultimately a selection recommendation.  Southwestern Energy ultimately selected M-Files.  Once the project received executive approval, EAG led the implementation. The transformational journey began with discovery sessions and detailed demonstrations, where the EAG team meticulously analyzed the client’s requirements, its existing systems and document quality.  Over 900 client-specific requirements needed to be addressed to successfully meet expectations, transition the documents, generate accurate and useful indexes within the new system, and implement robust automated workflows.

Over 2 million documents were converted in 6 weeks. The rapid migration set the tone for the project, showcasing the efficiency and capability of the M-Files system. EAG introduced standardized naming conventions, drastically reducing the effort required to load and manage documents. M-Files’ metadata system ensured that users always knew what information needed to be assigned to each document.

Integration with Active Directory was another crucial step. This allowed for automatic and immediate access to the right documents for client team members, streamlining the IT process, and enhancing security. Within a year, five business units had successfully transitioned to M-Files, consolidating multiple repositories into a single, efficient system.

Benefits of M-Files Document Management

The implementation of M-Files has brought about other positive changes in Southwestern Energy’s operations. Document history and ERP information are now seamlessly integrated, enabling efficient processes and reporting across all business units. The need for multiple third-party and custom applications has been eliminated since team members can build objects directly within M-Files. Users feel empowered by having the ability to configure data and workflows independently.  IT effort required to support business document requirements has been materially reduced through the replacement of multiple third-party applications and custom applications with a SaaS solution.

An example of an improvement that has benefited both the company and its stakeholders involved owner inquiries.  With the new system in place, the land team can quickly identify and search documents to address owner questions, reducing response times and increasing owner satisfaction.  Previously, a single inquiry could turn into a week-long research project taking team members away from other valuable activities.

According to Boston K. Smith, SWN’s Land Digital Advisor and Project Lead, “M-Files has been a game-changer for the Land Department, enabling seamless document management and elevating our efficiency. Specifically, duplicate detection, virtual folders, and custom views are all distinct features that separate M-Files from its competitors like SharePoint.”

Scalability has become a non-issue; the system is configured to easily integrate with new applications, thanks to a well-structured master data governance model. Reporting and auditing processes are simplified, with all stakeholders accessing up-to-date documents. Approval and communication workflows are streamlined, eliminating the need to search multiple locations for information.

A comprehensive analysis was conducted to quantify the net value of implementing M-Files and $6MM in net productivity gains over three years is anticipated.

Company-wide adoption of M-Files, across 1,300 users, and the implementation of standardized document management practices is now complete. EAG introduced best practices, allowing users to access documents through filters and different views aligned with how each team uses the documents.  The dynamic nature of M-Files means it can adapt to the evolving needs of the client, providing a future-proof solution.

Conclusion

EAG’s implementation of M-Files has been a positive, transformative journey for Southwestern Energy. The M-Files implementation addressed critical pain points and supports efficient, secure, and scalable operations. The client now enjoys a unified, user-friendly document management system that supports growth and operational excellence in the energy sector, setting Southwestern Energy on a path for continued success.