Learn about a new way for operators and service companies to benefit from a modern vendor management platform, driving both efficiencies and sales at the same time. To learn more about RigChat go here: http://www.rigchat.com/index.html

We filmed this at the new Gallery Furniture location in Katy TX, to learn more about this really great company that promotes American manufacturing go here: https://www.galleryfurniture.com

 

Mark: Before we jump in the interview, let me tell you the back story of where we actually filmed this. If you’re in the Houston, Texas area you’ve heard of Jim Mattress Mack. If you’re outside of Houston, Texas you probably still have heard of him. This guy is a great guy, fantastic businessman, classic American, you know, rag to riches story.

He started gallery furniture over thirty years ago on the side of the freeway in a tent and today, he’s turned it into a multi-million dollar business. The big thing that he does that we love so much is that he supports and buys from American manufacturers and then he has capitalism with a cause. So, Mack donates extensively to communities’ education and then our favorite to the military.

So, we ran across their new location in Richmond, Texas and the architecture of this place is unbelievable. You would never think it’s a furniture store. When you walk in they have the usual selection of furniture, but then it goes on for what looks like miles, stuff is everywhere, anything you could possibly want.

Now, of course Mattress Mack is famous for his one-day service, right? Buy it today deliver it today, you have a problem, we’ll fix it in a day. And as you walk through the store though, you start to notice that things are different like this waterfall wall. And also, Mack support for other local businesses.

And as you continue to walk through there’s stuff like, oh, look, kids can jump on the bed. You know how cool is that? And of course there’s oversized table and chairs which you can actually buy if you want to. Now, Mack also allows Brookwood which is a charitable organization that have space in the store. And then, there’s this wonderful kitchen which we actually had lunch in called Brick and Mortar and the food there was to die for. And there’s even a cupcake shop with coffee.

So, as you continue to walk through you’ll notice this huge aquarium. Remember, you’re in a furniture store folks. But the big thing is the atrium, it is enormous and it’s climate controlled. There’s tropical birds and monkeys and there’s a big indoor pond with full – full of goldfish and lots of flowering plants in the water. It is just absolutely beautiful.

So, what do we do? We reach out to Gallery Furniture in social media and say, “Hey, can we shoot some video in your spot?” and they said yes.

Hey folks, let’s learn something new about the oil and gas industry.

 

All right. We’re sitting here with Steve Plake with Rig Chat. Hey, Steve.

Steve: Hi. How are you doing, Mark?

Mark: Very good. Steve does this really cool thing, right? So in the oil and gas industry so many processes are done on paper and there’s so many disjointed piece of information out there that it’s hard to make good decisions, but instead of me explaining what Rig Chat does, why don’t you explain what Rig Chat does?

Steve: From a high level Rig Chat is a vendor management platform that allows operators and service providers a low cost channel to promote their products as well as understand true performance down to the product level out in the field. And we also facilitate information from headquarters or town as they call it out to the field into the rigs.

Mark: So, the operators – the advantage for operators in using Rig Chat is the fact that they get to see all of their providers and see all their – the equipment and whatever pumps and parts and pieces. Is that correct?

Steve: That’s correct. And we allow them to absolutely assign the vendor to a particular rig wherever that vendor may be, so the value to the operators is to understand exactly what activity is where and what products are being used better in some areas than others. But then, the service provider now is able to understand true market share in real time.

Mark: So, let’s talk about it a little bit. So, are you saying that the service provider or the service company actually can see what rigs or products are on?

Steve: Exactly. They will go into the dashboard and when they log in, there’s an interactive map that allows them to see all the rigs that are there and there’s a switch that you simply switch from all the rigs to your rigs and it will show you your rigs and association with all the other rigs that are out there, so it’s a real time market information.

Mark: Wow. So, if you’re a service provider, your sales and marketing team can use this to plant future strategy, which rigs already have my stuff on it, which rigs don’t. Is that right?

Steve: Absolutely. And they can also use it as a platform to get their products their full [suite] of products in a standardized catalogue directly in front of the decision makers at the operators.

Mark: So, the other benefit then is the operators who are actually picking these products, the service providers now look at this complete online catalogue of that particular service provider, so they have full access to everything that they [brought].

Steve: Absolutely. And the operators can identify which are their approved vendors and which are the non-approved vendors, so that way they can ensure that every time a selection is made for a product, they know that it comes from an approved vendor list that has been backed by accounting and supply chain.

Mark: Wow. And I know for a fact it’s on Excel spreadsheet this interface, so this is automated. But, I think there’s something even bigger that it touches is reliability. Let’s talk about that.

Steve: Absolutely. So, one of the things that we found within the industry over the years is that reliability information comes directly from the provider of the tools. Now, what we want to do is we want to offer the operators a chance to build that partnership with the service providers, so with our system and the vendors and products assigned to their rigs, the gentleman out in the rigs has the ability to log a failure in real time. So that can feed information back to the engineer and then overtime they can understand product trends based upon that vendor that product that rig that area or even within a specific location.

Mark: So, not that any service provider would ever cook the books, but this keeps that from happening, right?

Steve: Absolutely. It allows them a chance to be able to develop root cause as a partnership so that they can actually work on the issues that need to help them develop for efficiency.

Mark: And then, as an operator that data is unbelievably valuable. So now you’re talking about uptime and you’re talking about operational efficiency, what parts or pieces keep my stuff running better than what other parts or pieces.

Steve: Absolutely. We’re aiming to help the industry build more efficient process that will lead them to lowering their cost other than jump into the bottom line of cutting cost or cutting price, we want them to have the ability to understand their business and where they can actually move the needle to a better efficiency and lower cost.

Mark: Man, that is super powerful. So, this is really almost a win-win, right? So benefit – big benefit for the operators and it’s also a very big benefit for the service companies that serve these operators.

Steve: Absolutely.

Mark: Wow. Steven, thank you so much. This is awesome. If people wanted to find out more about what you do, where should they go?

Steve: They can go to our website at RigChat.com and then they can also e-mail us at info@rigchat.com.

Mark: And folks, we’ll put a links in the show notes, so you won’t be needing to take any notes.

Steven, thank you so much for your time.

Steve: Thank you, Mark. I appreciate it.

Mark: Folks, I hope this helped, we will see you next time.