Author Archives: Jerry Murphy, PVI

A Season for Giving

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Everyone knows that the season for giving begins in November for Thanksgiving and continues in December with the Christmas holiday. More money is spent on gifts at this time than any other time in the year. Many folks also become very generous by giving to charities, the homeless and people in need of food during the holiday season. Large companies and individuals alone will take time out of their day to volunteer to feed people holiday meals, or give large donations to charitable causes. While these are honorable things to do during Thanksgiving and Christmas, it sometimes appears that we forget about actions like these once the holidays are over.

Whether we accept it or not, there are people around the world, around the country and right in the city we live in who are in desperate need of help every day.  Many people that we may help feed Thanksgiving dinner will not have anything at all to eat the very next day.

There are several non-profit organizations that assist in caring for homeless, sick and hungry people; however, their funding is limited and the resources that they require can be overwhelming. One of these organizations is the Houston Food Bank which provides non-perishable food and meals to people in need around the city of Houston. This organization requires quite a bit of support and thrives on volunteers and donations to exist.

A few years back, I took time out of my day to volunteer at the Houston Food Bank. It was quite an experience! I sorted food and helped prepare care packages for needy families. I felt good about the idea that I was actually working first hand towards helping someone who needed support.

I am very fortunate to work in such a prosperous industry - Oil & Gas. I am very thankful for the opportunity every day. I network with many professional people that, like me, are blessed to have a solid career and foundation to support their families and live a happy life. However, I feel that we can do things that can support those in need. Several large oil companies hold impressive events each year that raise money for charities. I always try to support events like these. I think they are excellent ideas.

Since I work in oil and gas sales, I have had the opportunity to network with many people on golf courses. Golf is a great game and even if you are not a good player, you can enjoy the outdoors and have a great time relaxing and even discussing business on the course.

A few years ago, I decided to step out and see if I could make more of a difference for hungry people in Houston.  I came up with an idea for Pegasus Vertex to host a charity golf tournament that would raise money for the Houston Food Bank. Fortunately everyone at PVI was excited about the idea. The Oil & Gas Charity Golf tournament is a way for companies and individuals in our business to take one day and help make a difference. We also have a food drive at the tournament and collect non-perishable items to donate to the organization. Several companies have supported our cause and helped us sponsor this event.

PVI Golf Tournament

This year’s tournament is held at the beautiful Augusta Pines Golf Club, right outside The Woodlands, Texas. The event will be held on Monday, May 12, 2014, the week after the Offshore Technology Conference. To sponsor or play in the event, you don’t have to be a part of the oil and gas industry. You don’t even have to be a golfer – you can simply sponsor a hole or give a donation. We still have openings for players and sponsorships as well.

It doesn’t have to be Thanksgiving or Christmas to give to someone. You can make a difference at this event and you can also have a lot of fun!

For more information on the Oil & Gas Charity Golf Tournament, please visit www.pvisoftware.com.

Life’s So Simple When You Are Organized

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One of the things that I seem to struggle with sometimes is staying organized. I live a fast paced, up-tempo life and I have several obligations in my business and personal life. Sometimes it seems there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get all the things done that I really want or need to do. That’s why every now and then I realize that I am totally out of organization and I start forgetting important things and misplacing stuff that I need. I hate this feeling. It’s not like I am not a neat person or that I am irresponsible; I am simply just busy. Is that really a crime?

Despite my organizational challenges, I consider myself to be a perfectionist. Some people tell me I have a type A personality. I don’t really understand that though, because a Type A person is known to be highly organized because they want everything perfect. I do want everything perfect, because I am built that way, but I just seem to struggle staying organized.

One of the worst feelings for me was when my boss told me, “Jerry, you really need to focus on getting more organized!”  At that point, I told myself that enough is enough. I cannot stand to feel like I am not doing an outstanding job at all times. That keeps me up at night. So I committed myself to organization; creating a filing system, a follow-up system, and a report system that has in turned improved my organization. It actually is a good feeling. It takes a little bit of time and commitment but it pays off.

The results of my better organization have yielded high productive results. I have committed myself to constantly improve myself through structure and organization. I have learned that this is not only an important element in our personal and business lives, but it is also important for companies as well.

Recently, I visited one of my customer’s cement labs. The lab was very clean, well lit, and appeared to be very organized. I was very impressed from just walking through the door. I remembered that this company was a relatively new cementing company and about a year ago they opened their cement lab. I pitched the idea to them that our CEMLab product would be great for their lab in assisting their organization by keeping an archive of all their slurries, so they could easily access them in the future if needed. They liked the idea of the software database, but they didn’t see the value in it at that time, since their lab was just getting started.

However, they now seemed to see an immediate need for the software. The reason for this was to improve their organization in their lab.

The cabinet to organize the files

The lab had now been functioning for a year and they had so much data to keep up with. I asked them how they kept their slurry records and they showed me a shelf that contained a bunch of binders filled with paper documents (see the picture).

I realized immediately that this type of organization was hurting this customer and preventing them from being able to quickly access previous slurries and causing them to waste valuable time. This is not a good thing.

I am happy that this customer now will be implementing PVI’s CEMLab database to keep accurate records of their current cement slurries and file them electronically to be easily recovered. I definitely understand the value and benefits of improved organization.CEMLab - Cement Lab Data Management CEMLab does this and more. The database will improve organization, make quick calculations, create professional reports and save valuable time. Most importantly though, a customer can save paper and get rid of their shelves filled with binders. Their lives are going to be so much more simple…..just like mine is now!

 

Hakuna Matata With PVI Drilling Software

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A few days ago I watched “The Lion King” with my two little daughters. In my opinion, this animated film is one of the best of all times. It tells a great story of courage, love and family. It also has very nice music and memorable songs.

One of the songs is called “Hakuna Matata”. These words are actually native of Swahili and they can be translated literally as “no worries”. The song is joyfully sung by a huge wart hog named Pumbaa and a tiny little meerkat named Timon. They sing this song to cheer up young Simba, a lion cub, who has wandered away from home and can’t find his family. He is scared and filled with fears, but Timon and Pumbaa turn the negative into a positive telling him that he needs not too worry much because things will be fine.

Hakuna Matata With PVI Drilling Software

The characters sing, “Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase… Hakuna Matata… ain’t no passing craze. It means no worries for the rest of your days. It’s our problem-free philosophy. Hakuna Matata!”

I love this philosophy. Sometimes we find ways to stress ourselves out and worry about things. We take life way too seriously. Life is too short to be stressed out and overly concerned about things.

There are several things in our lives we can do to minimize this stress. Believe it or not sometimes spending a little bit of money can save worries and trouble down the line and end up saving us more money overall.

Confused? Okay… let me explain. Here’s an example: I recently purchased a car. It’s a nice car but the biggest concern I had when I bought this vehicle was the cost of the repairs and maintenance. My car is a German engineered model, and most people know that cars like these are expensive to maintain and repair. However, the dealer offered me a maintenance plan that I was able to purchase when I bought the car and it covered things for 100,000 miles. It covered everything from oil changes, to batteries, to brake jobs on the car. It even covered my tires. The cost of the plan seemed a little high at first. Then I thought about how much brakes, tires and oil changes cost for the car. When I figured that out, I learned that the plan actually cost about the same price as 4 new tires and 1 oil change for my car. So it actually wasn’t a bad investment.

I’ve had my car now for a year. During this time, I’ve had two oil changes, replaced the battery, changed the brakes and got 2 new tires, all of which were covered at 100% on my service plan. Wow! I don’t have to worry about much with my car. Hmmm… Hakuna Matata! No worries!

Pegasus Vertex costumers have an option to where they can experience “Hakuna Matata” as well. PVI offers an Upgrade & Maintenance (U&M) plan that allows the software user to be worry free. With this plan, the customer can utilize PVI’s world class technical support when they have software problems or questions. The customer also is eligible to receive all of the products upgrades and bug fixes throughout the year. So the software user will always be in good hands and have the latest and greatest features available to them. This helps the customer live a happy and productive life while knowing that they are always going to be able to enjoy their software at the highest level with no bugs or problems. Wow… Hakuna Matata!