I F S

C U S T O M E R

S T O R Y

TH HILL GETS THE BIG PICTURE WITH IFS FIELD

SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Thanks to IFS Field Service Management, TH Hill, has achieved greater business
transparency and can focus on the value aspects of its offering to its customers in
the oil and gas industry around the globe. The enterprise software from IFS has
also helped the US-based engineering and quality management consultancy to
grow its revenue as a result of the higher degree of process automation it enables
and the fact that resource management capabilities are considerably enhanced.

NEEDED INTEGRATED GLOBAL SOLUTION

With a dispersed workforce being managed across a multitude of projects worldwide, TH Hill found itself faced with a number of challenges in accounting for
its resources time and activity. Prior to implementing IFS Field Service
Management, every step in managing a resource, from dispatch to reporting, to
invoicing and billing of the customers, was a disparate process with no standard
workflows or controls. As a result, the company had to replicate data across
myriad homegrown databases.
In addition, and because TH Hill has experienced strong growth rates over
the last five years, these manual systems were not able to scale appropriately.
We paid people for work they didnt do, billed customers for work that didnt
happen, said TH Hill CFO, Scott Harrison. These were insurmountable
problems without adding a better and consolidated tool.
TH Hill set out to find a better toolone that would automate and unify
many of these processes, as well as integrate with the companys existing
accounting software. The company needed a scheduling board, a way for
employees in the field to easily add time and expense information, and the ability
to manage multiple tasks within the scope of a single project. And with its international customer base, it was also crucial that the solution seamlessly manage
foreign currencies.

ABOUT TH HILL
TH Hill, based in Houston, Texas, provides
engineering and quality management
technical consultation services to the oil
and gas industry. The company is responsible for auditing the preparation, assembly,
and operation of key components for
client drilling installations. Its key value
is in mitigating client risk by ensuring
essential leased components are manufactured and/or prepared correctly, arrive
on-location on time, and are immediately
operational. The companys methodology
is based on its own industry-recognized
Drill String 1 (DS-1) standard, which
defines how to manufacture drill pipe, and
how to use and qualify tools. The DS-1
standard is accepted and sponsored by
all major oil companies worldwide, and is
in its fourth edition. Headquartered in
Houston, TH Hill has employees working
from home offices and in the field in
30 countries worldwide. The company
has 300 employees and annual revenue
of $55 million. Its staff is predominantly
made up of technicians (190 employees),
and supplemented with engineers and
support staff (includes 5 IT personnel).

THE VALUE PROPOSITION

TH Hill found that IFS Field Service Management met its needs across the technology, functionality, and customization. The companys IT staff appreciated the
flexibility of the IFS database. By making sure things were ready for the new
system on the front end, the company got the solution fully implemented in three
months, going live on May 1, 2011. This was important because in big drilling

Written by Info-Tech Research Group, Indaba Vendor Services Division

Photo TH Hill

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operations, missing a day can mean hundreds of thousands or even millions of

dollars wasted if TH Hill was unable to perform at its peak.
The company uses the IFS Field Service Management solution predominantly
to keep track of resources in the field and to note who is available, and when.
Harrison said that after implementation of the solution, a great level of detail was
added to its resource management capability. This is something that is key for a
company that has hundreds of employees spread around multiple locations in
dozens of countries.

STREAMLINED REPORTING AND BILLING

S T O R Y

BENEFITS
Revenue growth
Greater business transparency
Enhanced resource tracking
capabilities
Improved ability to focus on value
Automated time and expense reporting
More efficient operations
Streamlined travel accounting
More detailed resource management

SOFTWARE
IFS Field Service Management

IFS Field Service Management

has afforded us the ability to have
a controlled environment for all of
our transactions. We dont sweat
the small stuff anymore; we can now
focus on value in the business.
This one environment has given us
that control.
Scott Harrison, CFO, TH Hill

En4828-2 Production: IFS Corporate Marketing, January 2014.

The company was also able to greatly streamline its travel accounting, no small
feat for an organization that bills out almost five million travel miles a year to
support its customers. But through IFS Field Service Management solution integration with Bing, the company is able to automatically calculate mileage and bill
appropriately. Time and expense reports, previously time-consuming manual
procedures, are now automatically recorded and sent to clients.
By bringing all these previously disparate measurements into a single location,
TH Hill has put its project management staff in a position to do their job, said
Harrison. Having an overall view helped the company better understand its
business, including how many jobs were ongoing, which resources were assigned
to which jobs, and the status of those assignments.
IFS Field Service Management has afforded us the ability to have a controlled
environment for all of our transactions, said Harrison. We dont sweat the small
stuff anymore; we can now focus on value in the business. This one environment
has given us that control.
TH Hill also attributes its 38% revenue growth in 2011, and 34% in the first
seven months of 2012, to the IFS solution. In the opinion of TH Hill executive
management, there is no way we could have managed this growth without
implementing IFS Field Service Management, said Harrison.

C U S T O M E R

If you need further information, e-mail to info@ifsworld.com, contact your local IFS office or visit our web site, www.IFSWORLD.com