Having an end-to-end digital solution for planning and executing drilling and well operations is essential, but just as critical is ensuring that this solution is truly integrated with your organization’s corporate data environment. Without this integration, companies risk unnecessary data duplication, outdated datasets, and decision-making based on incomplete information.
A collaborative platform is only as strong as its ability to connect seamlessly with the systems and data that power your organization.
Integrations can be viewed at two levels:
Large software providers often offer “integrated” applications within their own ecosystem, whether in office productivity or specialized drilling and well engineering tools. This is convenient if you’re committed to a single vendor’s environment and workflows, but limiting if your organization prefers to select best-in-class applications from multiple providers.
The next level focuses on how those tools connect to corporate data environments, enabling integrated workflows across multiple vendors and disciplines. Historically, these integrations were complex and costly to create or maintain. But the value of always working with the latest, verified data far outweighs the IT cost of maintaining open, connected systems.
Check out this success story: IDEX Case Study - Aker BP Underbalanced Cleanout
In the past, achieving basic integration was relatively simple: companies would choose one vendor and standardize across its products.
This approach worked, as long as you accepted the limitations and vendor lock-in that came with it.
The second level of integration was much harder. Custom-built connectors were often one-way, pushing data from a corporate database into an application but not returning updates. Whenever data formats changed, engineers had to rebuild the links and revalidate the flows.
The result? Corporate data environments that were static snapshots, not living systems enriched by operational learnings.
To address these limitations, several industry bodies introduced data exchange standards. Some, like WITSML, have stood the test of time and remain foundational for real-time data interoperability in drilling and intervention.
Others have been less successful, showing that standards only work when supported by open systems that evolve with technology.
In our daily lives, we expect flexibility. We use multiple apps and platforms, adopt new tools freely, and still expect access to our data everywhere. That same expectation now drives innovation in the energy industry.
Forward-looking operators are investing in open digital infrastructures that allow any application to read and write corporate data, ensuring that new information created in one tool is instantly available across the organization.
Modern platforms make this possible through well-documented APIs and secure, permissioned data exchange. The key is openness, not isolation. When every application contributes to and consumes from a shared data foundation, the organization gains agility, transparency, and trust.
Additional reading: IDEX Case Study - Aker BP Overcomes Operational Challenges Using IDEX
The risks of adopting open integration are surprisingly low. APIs allow each system to manage changes internally, maintaining compatibility without breaking existing connections. This flexibility gives operators the freedom to replace or upgrade tools without disrupting workflows.
However, there is a hidden risk — the quality of the data itself. If the corporate datastore isn’t regularly updated, it can no longer serve as the “single source of truth.” Legacy systems that only pull data one way often lead to valuable new information being trapped in isolated applications.
True openness requires two-way data flow, ensuring that the best, latest data — from operations, planning, and performance tracking — is always reflected in the corporate store.
And for software providers, openness also means accountability: if your product isn’t best in class, it’s easy to be replaced. But that’s not a bad thing, as it drives innovation and customer value.
When working initially with Aker BP, we helped design integrations between the IDEX Collaboration Platform and their digital infrastructure across the entire organization. Through the IDEX API, the platform was connected to corporate data lakes, pulling essential well, reservoir, and integrity data to build detailed intervention plans — and pushing back operational data after job completion.
New applications were developed to improve planning efficiency and cross-company collaboration. Post-job reviews were streamlined, as all data — from approved plans to operator logs — was available in one place for all stakeholders.
Then we started working with Shell. Their requirements were different: integration with internal tools and standardized practice libraries for well operations. Thanks to the open IDEX API, this was achieved quickly, even replacing some native IDEX apps with Shell-specific components.
That’s the power of openness. Different tools, different data environments, same seamless integration.
Shell has since expanded IDEX usage across the entire well lifecycle, from Drilling & Completion to Intervention and Plug & Abandonment, standardizing global operations on one open platform.
Now, with Equinor as our latest IDEX customer, we continue to see that every company’s digital journey is unique.
Thank goodness we decided that “open” truly is the way forward.
Across our work with leading energy companies, one lesson stands out: Data liberation enables innovation.
Modern digital environments must make corporate data accessible, usable, and enriched by every new operation.
Two-way data flow is essential — ensuring that every insight, parameter, and learning is captured and shared.
Open, collaborative systems like IDEX prove their value by creating one version of the truth, used by every discipline across the well lifecycle.
That’s what makes openness not just a philosophy, but a strategy for sustainable, efficient operations.
Additional reading:
Case study: IDEX Case Study - Aker BP Underbalanced Cleanout
Case study: Coordination of Emergency Actions To Free Stuck CT Using IDEX Platform on Aker BP