When geoscientists need to make a decision, time is often at a premium. An oil company may be facing a tight deadline
on a competitive bid to develop an area. Or it may be considering alternatives to reverse a sudden decline in production at an existing field. In such situations, it's critical to quickly assemble all information for the problem at hand. It's also important to minimize time spent on information-gathering by highly skilled scientists whose talents are needed in many areas.

Total E&P Nederland B.V. faces particular challenges in this area because of the scope of its operations. The company has been engaged since 1964 in the exploration and production of natural gas in the Netherlands and in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. It is the No. 2 producer of gas in the Netherlands, and part of the global Total group based in Paris.

Total's scientists rely on geologic studies, which help locate new oil and gas reservoirs and determine ways to improve production at existing fields. Some 40,000 geospatial files maintained in the company's archives were stored in various locations such as technical archives, the drawing office, and the offices of technical assistants to the geosciences division. Finding the right location was often only the beginning of the search. Finding specific files related to a particular geographic area often required the review of a considerable selection of documents, one by one. Also, geoscientists did not always have a way of knowing whether they had found every available document related to the problem at hand. The risk always existed that they were unaware of a missing piece of information.