Success Story: Mountain West Services

Originally published in OilWeek Magazine

Oilfield services companies talk a lot about “improving productivity of their staff” or “reducing costs” and “doing more with less” but more forward-thinking companies, like Mountain West Services, are actually finding ways to make it happen — and make their staff and clients happier in the process.

Mountain West Services is an Alberta company that specializes in performing unbiased inspections of pressure vessels and other equipment in the oil industry. With offices in Whitecourt, Sylvan Lake and Grande Prairie, the company realized that providing better service to clients meant doing some old things in a new way.

That’s when they discovered FieldCap and the potential to eliminate paper-based field ticketing from their day-to-day operations. Mountain West Services knew what they wanted:

• Reduce overhead costs and time
• Get paid faster
• Improve reporting
• Make better decisions

FieldCap is unique in the oilfield services market, according to President Brad Peterson, because they are equally focused on what they do (delivering paperless field ticketing solutions via the web) and how they do it (through exceptional client interaction and service).

“We’re proud to buck the trends and fads and cut through the noise that’s usually associated with implementing new technology in the field. We keep it simple. We listen to our clients, we over-communicate, and we deliver on our promise. It’s more than just a marketing statement, it’s our DNA. It’s who we are. Making clients happy is what makes us different.”

Mountain West Services embarked on a project to replace a combination of spreadsheets, paper, and email it had been using to record field work activities, generate invoices, and prepare reports for clients and management. During that time the FieldCap team quickly configured FieldCap software to match the company’s data capture needs (what they call “Your Ticket, Your Way”), got it into their hands for real-world feedback, and then delivered the working solution to field.

How did it go? Erin Damiani, who led the project for Mountain West, had this to say:

“FieldCap has greatly helped to streamline our accounting processes, both for the people who are entering their job information, as well as for the accounting personnel who are processing the information. It has taken away a lot of the redundant work that we were doing before, which saves everyone at MWS a great deal of effort and time.”

The feedback from Damiani was backed up by a recent survey of MWS end users who gave FieldCap an 8.8/10 for ease of use and 9.1/10 for likelihood to Recommend FieldCap to others. She also noted that there were benefits for their own customers as well:

“The feedback on FieldCap from the client’s perspective has been positive, too. They appreciate how simple the process has become to approve work that is completed.”

In an market filled with news of cuts and cancellations, it’s refreshing to hear about companies like Mountain West Services and FieldCap who worked together to improve the overall experience for both staff and their clients, proving that you can build a business one happy customer at a time.