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Actenum DSO is a configurable, interactive software application for scheduling and optimizing operations in complex industrial environments. It incorporates a drag-and-drop Gantt chart user interface, together with sophisticated data management capabilities, and makes it easy for you to develop and manage integrated operations schedules that are aligned with your business objectives.

You can use Actenum DSO to schedule operations such as onshore or offshore drilling, platform decommissioning projects, supply and logistics activities, maintenance, shutdown/turnarounds, and vessel berthing. It’s ideally suited to situations where there is a complicated mix of resources—such as rigs, crews, or various items of equipment—that must be assigned to activities—including, drilling, facility maintenance and repair, decommissioning, and material delivery—according to various types of constraints.

Actenum DSO incorporates a comprehensive schedule model, and together with the fastest AI-powered optimization engine in the industry, it enables you to:

1. Automatically assign resources to activities in an optimal sequence, rapidly and reliably
2. Interactively adjust your schedule to reflect changes and disruptions, using the drag-and-drop Gantt chart interface
3. Optimize your schedule to align with important objectives, such as cost, production output, and equipment utilization
4. Effectively collaborate with your colleagues, using a consolidated operations model focused on business objectives
5. Rapidly create and evaluate scenarios to identify an optimal alternative schedule for use in any situation

Actenum DSO users range from the largest oil and gas companies in the world to smaller independent operators. Some use Actenum DSO for scheduling drilling operations, while others use it for complex maintenance or logistics situations.

Actenum DSO eliminates the need for error-prone manual data entry and un-auditable collections of spreadsheets and project files. Instead, your equipment, activity, and constraint schedule information  is centralized in Actenum DSO’s database, which handles any type of activity, and which makes information available to team members through the Actenum’s companion web-based application, Actenum DSO/CX.

By coupling Actenum’s advanced AI-powered optimization software to Actenum DSO’s internal operations model and sophisticated GUI, scheduling is rapid and automatic (for example, to assign appropriate resources to specific activities while satisfying all operational and technical constraints), while errors and inconsistencies are eliminated. This provides:

1. Easier management of operations complexity (hundreds or thousands of activities, resource pool growing or diminishing in size, multiple types of activities to schedule)
2. Increased confidence in your ability to achieve business objectives, such as production output and cost targets
3. Improved ability to rapidly respond to budget constraints, equipment breakdowns, or crew availability limitations
4. Reduction in risk of non-compliance with regulatory or other obligations
5. Increased performance and efficiency through insight into critical milestone dates
6. Reduction in costs associated with resource movement or idle time
7. Immediate clarity on the impact and risks resulting from schedule changes
8. Improved team alignment and collaboration around the operational environment

Actenum DSO is usually deployed as a standalone application on a workstation, connected to a schedule database installed on an appropriate server (the Actenum DSO database may be installed locally or on a remote server, using Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle).

Actenum has also developed a cloud-based deployment capability.

You can also deploy Actenum DSO/Upstream using Citrix.

Actenum DSO incorporates an operations model that will accommodate a wide range of data, and it uses this data in the scheduling process. The minimum information needed to use Actenum DSO effectively is:

1. Approximate durations of activities
2. Information about resources and how they are used operationally,  such as working calendars, environmental or regulatory restrictions, and dependencies
3. A way to determine what resources are compatible with an activity (for example, what type of equipment may be used for a particular activity, or in a specific area)
4. A way to approximate the travel time between activities (only if this is of interest)
5. A way to measure the quality or value of the resulting schedule; this might include measures of cost, resource use, production targets, priorities, deadline violations, and so on.

Actenum has developed a Actenum DSO implementation process that is rapid, reliable, and scalable to support implementation in any type of organization.

Prior to software installation, Actenum conducts a Configuration/Integration workshop with you. We load your existing schedule data into Actenum DSO and then show you the results. This helps you to understand how Actenum DSO works, and how you will be able to use it. It also helps us to determine whether you have specific configuration requirements. We also explore integration with external applications for data import and export purposes.

Following the workshop, Actenum installs and configures Actenum DSO for initial use, and deploys the software to users. During the initial use period, Actenum works with you to ensure that your data is imported successfully, and to conduct user and administrator training

You can load data into Actenum DSO manually, or automatically using a data import capability built into the software. Most electronic forms of data are loaded automatically: Actenum DSO can load MS-Excel and MS-Project files directly, for example.

For data stored in relational databases used by other applications, Actenum provides a connection mechanism for import/export.

We have designed Actenum DSO as a flexible application with an open architecture for ease of adaptation and integration into multiple types of organizations and business processes. It may be used as a stand-alone application for management of schedules (replacing other tools such as MS-Excel or MS-Project), or it may be integrated into an existing business process through the available data interchange facilities. You can rapidly and effectively configure the software to meet your operational needs, and take advantage of available data.

The Actenum DSO solution includes a web-based  application, Actenum DSO/CX (Collaboration eXchange). This application provides all authorized team members with access to schedules and related information, via a workstation, tablet, or smartphone. Actenum DSO/CX enables users to view schedule Gantt charts, track activities on a map, create reports, and focus on the aspects of a schedule in which they are most interested.

For each schedule, Actenum DSO will also generate a Gantt chart representation as a customizable PDF file. You can email this, or publish it on a corporate intranet.

You can also export Actenum DSO data to MS-Excel, and integrate it with external databases, using a connector provided by Actenum.

Actenum DSO enables you to create and save custom reports for specific needs, and also generate reports on an ad hoc basis. Actenum DSO also provides an OData feed to commonly-used reporting tools, such as Spotfire, PowerBI, MS-Excel and Tableau.

You can also export data to other applications, such as MS-Excel, for reporting purposes.

Getting started with Actenum DSO is intuitive for most users who are familiar with other scheduling applications. Actenum provides a two-day user training program at the time of initial software deployment. At the same time, a short training class for application administrators is usually scheduled.

Actenum usually releases a major Actenum DSO release each year, providing new features as well as support for operating system and database platform updates. Interim releases or patches may be distributed to address other issues as they arise, on an ongoing basis.