Case Studies
Creative Internet Unifies Members of
Offshore Operators Committee
About the Organization
The Offshore Operators Committee (OOC) is a non-profit consortium of companies in the offshore oil exploration and production industry. Members collaborate together to review government regulatory issues and to advocate for the industry’s interests.
The Situation
The OOC’s membership is divided into roughly a dozen subcommittees. The members of these subcommittees are spread out over a wide geographic area and need to be in regular communication with each other and with the central office about meetings, reports, and news.
The Problem
The OOC’s central office was devoting considerable time and expense to contacting members by phone and e-mail and to printing and distributing information by US Mail. The Internet seemed like it should be able to streamline the OOC’s communications, but the organization’s site from the mid 1990s only had limited capabilities.
The Creative Internet’s Solution
The Creative Internet programmed a password-protected section of the database-driven web site to handle the OOC’s communications processes. Some key features of The Creative Internet’s work are:
- E-mail list capabilities for each subcommittee and for the OOC as a whole
- Archives of reports and meeting minutes
- Event calendars with online registration
- Message boards to allow for easy contact between members
- Automatically generated alerts of reminders
- A section for news and information on the OOC’s recent dealings with government agencies
- Home pages that outline subcommittees’ missions, structures, and key contacts
- A database for members to update their own contact information
- Higher levels of access to the site for subcommittee heads
The Results
- The organization has eliminated all expenses associated with US mailings. Savings include:
- $4,500 spent annually on printing and postage for monthly notices
- $6,000 spent annually on printing and postage for quarterly newsletters
- Staff at the OOC no longer has to spend time coordinating mailings or keeping members notified of events.
- The OOC no longer has to spend time fulfilling requests for archived reports and minutes. Members can access whatever they need online.
- The OOC gets information out to members more quickly and responds better to their needs.
- The membership is much better informed on the issues affecting the industry.
Testimonial
“I’m continually amazed at the flexibility of the original framework Creative Internet first created for our site in 2000. Over the years, it has been augmented, stretched, and dressed up. And Creative Internet is always responsive to our needs. Whenever we need a new capability, I just make a phone call, and a few days later it’s done.”
Allen Verret, Executive Director
The Offshore Operators Committee
