What’s in a Name? A Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell Just as Sweet

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Allen-Gilmer, drillinginfo

By Allen Gilmer, Co-founder of Enverus (formerly Drillinginfo)

For those in the oil patch who know me, I’m not one to normally quote the Bard … William Shakespeare. But in perhaps his most famous play, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare conjures up a question still relevant to many businesses today.

Just about every wildcatter I know has a unique view on what they want to call their company.  Some are family-related, others invoke a favorite destination where they’d like to perpetually be, perhaps a mountain vista or even the golf course. My personal favorite was a fellow operating in South Texas under the name M&G Oil. I asked him if M and G were abbreviations for his kids, and he replied, “no, it stands for ‘Me and God.’”

After 20 years, almost to the day, we’ve decided it was time for a change. But why might a company like ours, a trailblazer in data analytics, who’s built up world-famous brand equity, want to make a change?

Easy. Everything we know in energy has changed, and quite frankly, we have too.

In the last decade alone, two things have shifted under everyone’s own feet one, the way in which we gather, process, and extract intelligence out of data is jaw-dropping, and second, the shale revolution was born, which I would argue helped set off a competitive race amongst all energy resources. The world is transitioning from an energy supply-based business to a demand-based business. America’s best engineers and entrepreneurs are focused squarely on one task — how to produce the best, most profitable energy, at the lowest cost to the consumer. Oil, gas, coal, nuclear, hydro, wind, or solar may the best one(s) win.

Like many start-ups, the impetus for Drillinginfo’s active networks system was guided by the desire to answer the oil industry’s most challenging questions by amalgamating more data in a single place. At our launch in 1999, unbeknownst to us, the company was on the cusp of a massive digital and energy shift that would spark billions of dollars in investment and unprecedented production in the U.S., and across the globe. Disruption, if you will.

Changing a name isn’t a flippant decision. It should generate a discussion. After some rigorous research, we selected the name Enverus to better reflect our identity as a leading data, digital capture and process management, and information/knowledge partner across the energy sector. The name is comprised of three elements that when combined, reflect the company’s past, present, future, and overall philosophy EN: energy, the industry we support; VER: clarity and truth; and US: the concept of “all of us together”.

Action requires energy, and likewise, developing energy requires action. From helping customers meet all of the energy needs of today, to building solutions for the problems of tomorrow, Enverus is and always has been focused on building power for the future. In order to build an operating system for the entire energy industry, or any component of that industry, we believe we must be cognizant of all the other integral parts, especially the parts that now compete.

This company may have been started by ‘oilpatch kids,’ and over time we’ve built a recognizable and iconic organization throughout the upstream oil and gas businesses and way beyond.

The major difference today, compared to twenty years ago, is the sheer volume of people and products driving this company. In the last three years, the company has grown leaps and bounds, acquiring numerous companies which now comprise Enverus. As I continually meet with customers, some of whom have been with us since the beginning, most don’t realize the full suite of products and people we can offer to them.

Energy today is no longer just about oil and gas, or just about renewables. It’s a complex mix across an entire spectrum (with some components yet to be defined), and across the globe.  Enverus is ready to continue leading with its diverse, specialized, and unified passion for energy, from providing irreplaceable efficiency tools, to enabling better, faster decisions. Our community spans stakeholders, in every part of the global energy industry, all working towards a common goal.

But let’s get back to answering Mr. Shakespeare’s question, “What’s in a name?” At Enverus, it’s one thousand phenomenal, dedicated professionals who are developing the most important, integrated problem-solving platform in the world’s largest, most significant, and impactful industry ever energy.

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