Since PDM covered Common Data Access Limited (CDA) last February, CDA’s board has awarded a three year contract to Paras Limited for the provision of management services. CDA has a multiplicity of sub-committees, a prime contractor handling a substantial workload and of course, the constituent member companies. All this has meant that the day to day management of CDA has become a bit too much for the "part time" approach used hitherto. Instead of management being performed by member company personnel, CDA will now have dedicated full-time management, in the form of Alan Smith and Vicky Garrard, both of whom were involved with CDA during its early development. Their roles will include helping to formulate CDA’s strategic direction.
New services
A significant driver for this change has been the scaling up of CDA’s activity, from the "single service" of the well log repository, to the multiple services which will be provided in the future. Paras will provide a focal point for all communications within CDA and externally. The management services will include: assisting the CDA Board and subcommittees, quality assurance services of the current and future systems and providing the technical administration of the company. Paras are currently located on the Isle of Wight but will be relocated to London shortly. Commenting on the contract award David Overton of Amoco, the current chairman of CDA, said "As the Digital Logs operation matures and we embark on the next phases of Well Hardcopy and Seismic the overall CDA project management and administration need to move from a part-time to a full-time basis. This is a key element to CDA's future success.
Good mix
Paras bring the mix of technical, business and management experience that CDA is looking for." Hamish Wilson, Director of Paras added "Paras has been involved with CDA from 1994 when it was initiated as the Common Industry Data Access Initiative (CIDAI) by Amerada Hess and a number of other like minded companies. We have been working with the CDA Board and a number of subcommittees since then. The award of this contract cements our relationship with CDA." Paras has offices in the Netherlands, UK and South Africa and has plans to open offices in the USA, France, Norway and SE Asia during the course of this year. The Group has three major areas of core competence: 'Strategy & Management Development', 'Information & Knowledge Management' and 'Environment' (Eco-competitiveness and Oceanography). On their website, (http://www.paras.co.uk) Paras describe the "Paras approach" as "Embodying a coaching philosophy which defines our success in terms of the sustainable enhanced capability of our clients and the relevant stakeholders". They further describe themselves as "a rapidly growing international consulting company engaged in assisting clients in sustainable wealth creation". Management speak worthy of New Labour indeed! lets hope it translates into a renewed, effective and innovative paradigm for CDA.
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