How Oilfield Services Can Benefit From Cloud Migration

Company Profile

• Industry: Oil & Gas
• City & State: Odessa, Texas, & Hobbs, New Mexico
• # of Locations: 2
• # of Employees: 23
• Mandry Services Used: Mandry MANAGE, Mandry CLOUD, and Mandry SECURE
• Website: www.bulldogspecialties.com

Case Study Highlights

• Migrated on-premise server to the cloud without business disruption
• Benefited from business continuity and disaster recovery solutions with cloud migration
• Achieved pricing targets with fixed cost billing
• Eliminated time and resources needed to keep applications up-to-date
• Implemented proper licensing
• Improved all aspects of business operations

Bulldog Specialties, LTD. is a wholesale oilfield supply distributor operating primarily out of Odessa, Texas, with a stocking branch in Hobbs, New Mexico. The organization stocks everything from fittings, hoses, and accessories to power transmission supplies and valves from more than a dozen quality manufacturers.

“As a wholesale distributor, we serve as the link between the manufacturing facility and supply stores,” said Office Manager Shannon Jameson. “We strive to provide excellent service and quality products to our customers located in the Permian Basin and throughout the U.S.”

Shannon has been with Bulldog for 15 years, working her way up from accounts receivable to accounts payable and inventory to office manager, where she now does a little bit of everything, include troubleshooting office hardware. She remembers when Bulldog began working with Mandry Technology back in 2011.

“I am not sure if it was a crazy coincidence or fate, but we were actively discussing our IT situation and lack of options when we were contacted out of the blue by Jack [Bohannon, COO] with Mandry,” she said. “It was perfect timing on his part and a godsend for Bulldog, because we were really needing to make some changes.”

Challenge

Although Bulldog has the two locations in Odessa and Hobbs, both oilfield services sites once relied on the Odessa location for line-of-business software. Unfortunately, the Odessa location had power and internet issues that would negatively impact the Hobbs warehouse and result in lost sales and productivity. The company needed to upgrade their aging infrastructure and add enterprise-grade resiliency without paying datacenter prices.

“We were looking to upgrade our IT infrastructure but did not have an ‘IT person’ capable of planning and orchestrating a project of that magnitude,” Shannon explained. “We were using old software on a pieced-together network of PCs, and a complete overhaul was going to be necessary at some point. We were looking to create an infrastructure that would support our users to become more efficient in all processes.”

Solution

We got to know the team at Bulldog, and we were excited to work with them to define business needs and create a technology roadmap to help achieve them.

“We met with the Mandry team shortly after the initial cold-call,” said Shannon. “We were impressed with their approach to our situation and did not feel the need to look further.”

"We decided to work with Mandry because they were committed to building a successful relationship that benefited both companies and facilitated successful growth."

She went on to add, “Even though we were contacted by Mandry at a point when we were in dire need of IT support…we decided to work with Mandry because they were committed to building a successful relationship that benefited both companies and facilitated successful growth. We also liked their approach to managed services and their willingness to discuss changes that affect both the level of support they provide and how we are billed.”

Over our eleven-year relationship, we’ve seen Bulldog celebrate many technology-related wins.

“With Mandry's support, many changes have been implemented at Bulldog Specialties,” Shannon said. “Our first project involved replacing our server and establishing workstations for all users as well as making sure all licenses were up to date. Once we replaced the hardware, it was necessary to update the software we had been using for too long. This change was needed to facilitate the increase in business as well as the number of people utilizing the software. The success of this transition was critical…and Mandry could not have been more helpful.”

Most recently, Bulldog implemented phishing simulation campaigns to help raise employee awareness of cyber threats, which is crucial for protecting their business. Perhaps the most notable success, however, was when Bulldog’s infrastructure was migrated to the cloud via Microsoft Azure. They gained a highly available infrastructure with disaster recovery that was easily accessible from anywhere, and we even used fixed-fee billing to eliminate pricing fluctuations. This allowed Bulldog to replace outdated and aging infrastructure with minimal capital investment.

“We have most recently started utilizing virtual servers for data storage in the cloud for our business software,” said Shannon, “which has made it more accessible for our users.”

Results

With the cloud migration, Bulldog avoided a large capital expense while still meeting their needs for server continuity and reliability. They were able to leverage their existing line-of-business applications, just simplify access to the software. And, the migration to the cloud was seamless, meaning there was little-to-no business disruption, and zero staff training was required. This has decreased the cost of vendor software upgrades and eliminated the 30 minutes-per-computer that were previously needed to perform the manual updates.

"I can 100 percent attest that every single aspect of our business operations have been improved because of the support provided by Mandry Technology."

“I can 100 percent attest that every single aspect of our business operations have been improved because of the support provided by Mandry Technology,” Shannon said. “We are no longer operating under expired (or non-existent) licensing thanks to Mandry. We now have every employee able to access a PC to perform any number of tasks that directly affects business at Bulldog Specialties, whether it be emailing customers or entering a sales order. This can be done at any workstation at either of our business locations – something that would not have been possible pre-Mandry. Our data is securely backed up in the event of a major catastrophe (also not possible pre-Mandry). In an industry where time is crucial, these improvements might seem insignificant, but they play a big part of our increased success.”

We love working with partners like Bulldog Specialties who understand the impact a stable IT environment can have on their successful business operations. They are a testament to both what we do and why we do it, and we are proud to have played a role in their continued success.