Simplifying the Life of a Landman

How would you describe the job of a Landman? 

1. 1. Researching and defining the best project areas to lease.

1. 1. Working with brokers and contracting.

1. 1. Reviewing title and tracking all lease obligations.

1. 1. Working with Lease Analysts to execute and manage the leases.

These are some of the tasks a Landman performs, depending on the size and type of company.

There is one thing that holds true for all Landmen– software can simplify things. Here’s the top two ways:

• • Ease of Use

• • Seamless Mapping Integration

Ease of Use

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “work smarter, not harder.” As a marketer, I come across this saying almost weekly. Although gimmicky and cliché, it couldn’t be truer within the oil and gas software industry.

As a Landman, you are continually negotiating, recording information, and trying to solidify the best leasing opportunities for your business. To perform these tasks efficiently, you need a solution with user-friendly tools and data access.  For example, what if I told you that you could look up information like obligations in just a couple of clicks? Track your expiring acreage right upon logging into the software? This is what I mean by user-friendly data access.

As a Landman, recording and tracking accurate information is critical to making the best decisions for the business. White Rock Oil & Gas is an excellent example of how myQuorum Land Management is helping with ease of use:

“At a former oil and gas company, I was thrown into Quorum with no training, but it was so easy to use that I practically taught myself, and all the information was right there at my fingertips.”

Chad Centorbi, Landman, White Rock Oil & Gas

myQuorum Land Management allows you to see information, specific to your role, upon logging into the application, see figure 1 for an example. I like to use online banking as an analogy. Upon logging in, you see your accounts and balances and then click into each to see account-specific information, like transactions. With Quorum, you log in and see bubbled-up lease information, e.g., expiring acreage, payments, and obligations, and drill down into the area that needs your attention.

Figure 1

Once you click on the “2” in the payments widget, you can see each unbalanced payment from August and quickly perform any necessary actions. Think about the A&D process and the manual due diligence that is required. Now think about how much you could simplify it with some of the examples mentioned above.

Seamless Mapping Integration

The tract vs. lease-based discussion is an ongoing one, but is it too much to ask for both? Having a solution that allows you to toggle back and forth between the map and the lease is ideal (see the side-by-side comparison in Figure 2). The integration of GIS with the core land management functionality is critical because it provides you with both a visual and textual “view” of what you own and where.

Figure 2

I asked a customer the other day why they chose our software for land management and their answer centered around integration. They told me that they wanted a more “all-in-one” solution that included lease management and mapping, especially useful during acquisitions and divestitures. During A&D, you need to be sure of what you own and where, and easily track things like title opinion.

For example, let’s say you just went through a bulk acquisition of leases. How do you know the title for each is validated and has no defects? Are you having to manually sift through these individually while working with the landowner or court? Quorum’s GIS mapping integration allows you to use maps and layers to visualize where you have title and the status of ongoing title work all in one place.

Figure 3

These are just a couple of examples of how Quorum’s seamless mapping integration can simplify time-consuming processes.

“With our previous software, we were very siloed in our leasehold division, and we were using an outdated application for reporting. When we saw Quorum’s mapping and reporting capabilities, we knew we had to switch.”

—Erica Hixson, Landman, Tap Rock Resources

Start Simplifying Your Life Today

Not every Landman uses software and not every Landman uses software for the same reasons. However, software improves workflows and expedites land management processes for all land professionals and can drastically simplify the life of a Landman. For more information on how myQuorum Land Management can help, access my NAPE presentation, “Getting the Most Bang for your Buck in A&D” below. If you have questions or want a personalized demo, contact us today!

View presentation!