Landpoint

Land surveying has been an essential part of the oil and gas business since the days the first stake ever hit the ground. The technology applied to this segment of the industry changes swiftly, and not many companies have survived with those changes as long as Landpoint, which traces its roots back to 1921.

Today, Landpoint relies on its own proprietary management system that has streamlined the surveying process from start to finish, according to Chad Souter, business development manager. Souter and the executive team have played a pivotal role in the development of this system in the last five years, helping Landpoint grow from 15 employees to 130 during that timeframe.

“Five years ago, we looked for ways that we could compete with bigger surveying and engineering companies by creating value added services and unmatched scalability,” Souter says. “We completely streamlined the land surveying process from ‘A’ to ‘Z.’ Our services have become the most flexible and sophisticated in the industry.”

Landpoint offers land surveying, environmental and integrated services for projects throughout the United States. The company says it has performed land surveying services for more than 15,000 projects, and has expanded its services as an environmental consulting firm, as well. In just the last five years, the company has added satellite offices in Colorado, Arkansas, Texas and Pennsylvania to complement its headquarters in Louisiana.

Landpoint utilizes advanced GNSS and 3-D scanning applications along with its in-house project management system that operates in real time. This allows the company to complete projects at an unparalleled pace, while keeping its pricing competitive. The company also boasts experience in civil development, laser scanning and GIS services.

The company works in a variety of industries, but oil and gas represents a large portion of Landpoint’s revenues. “Oil and gas is a huge part of our business and our niche,” Souter says. “We’re able to scale and work so quickly to get the client what they need because we understand what they’re looking for.”

For example, the company is adept at pipeline surveying and oil and gas development. Landpoint is professionally registered, licensed and experienced in oil and gas surveying throughout most of the United States, and safety is its top priority.

On each job site, the company brings 100 percent compliance in ISNetworld, PEC/Premier and PICS. The company also enforces NCMS DOT drug and alcohol compliance on all employees.

For oil and gas development support, some of the services Landpoint offers its customers include:

• Preliminary route planning and staking
• Parcel mapping
• Right-of-way easements
• Construction staking
• As-built surveys
• Plan and profile sheets
• Fully integrated GIS solutions
• Secure online maps available on PCs, tablets and phones
• Daily project reporting

>b>Survey Says
Landpoint’s largest source of revenues stems from its land surveying services, which is also the case for most of the company’s competitors. However, Souter says Landpoint delivers a virtual project site that gives clients everything they need to know in one place.

“We take it one step further by not just providing the standard deliverables,” Souter says. “They never have to call around and ask who has the most recent versions of a document.”

Because of the sheer volume of the information available and the convenience of having it all in one place, Landpoint’s land surveying products are particularly useful for new hires of a client company.

“This is critical for someone new coming on board and [who] needs to get up to speed very quickly. Typically they are scrambling for information and documents but our solutions provides immediate access to everything from survey plats to GIS maps,” Souter adds.

Centrally Located
Landpoint offers its clients one central location for all of this surveying data, ensuring security and easy access instead of keeping the data from being stored on locked-down corporate networks elsewhere. This is essential, according to Souter, because many companies do not want to allow access to their servers for any reason whatsoever. Landpoint takes data security very seriously and the service is built to overcome these obstacles.

“It is very hard for companies to expose their internal systems for the purposes of external file and map data consumption,” Souter says. “They want it off their site for easy access, and we provide that service.”

Another development within the last year or so is the use of tablets in the field. This has made instant access to survey data even more necessary as employees in the field can better handle situations on the ground with contact from the office.

“The client can access information on virtually any device, and it’s up to date the second we complete a revision,” Souter says. “They can then use the information to make important decisions on the ground, during meetings, or to mark-up and share with others.”

The Scalability Factor
Another topic at the forefront of Landpoint’s clients’ collective mind is scalability. These clients have multiple land leases, and surveying companies not well-versed in the needs of the oil and gas industry often can’t keep up with the pace of ramp-up for infrastructure development. That is not a problem for Landpoint, however.

“When a client hires a local surveying company, they will eventually encounter a bottleneck with increased project demands” Souter says. “So, we’ve adapted. If a client needs 10 survey crews in two weeks, something a typical firm could not provide, we can easily meet the requirement.”

Moving Ahead
Even with this technology mastered, Landpoint is not sitting still. Souter says the company is penetrating new markets through an acquisition strategy.

Also, the company is keeping an eye on the latest breakthroughs in technology to find new ways to distribute data to its clients. Tablets are the start, but there will be more changes ahead, according to Souter.

“We’re never satisfied with the market standard. We always strive to provide that higher level of service than what you see everywhere else,” Souter says.

The industry certainly has taken notice of Landpoint’s recent surge in business. Along with being named a finalist for an Oil & Gas Award last spring in the engineering-related services category, the company also has been named to the Tech 200 list, which is an honor bestowed on the top-200 fastest growing technology companies in the United States by Lead411.

In 2012, Landpoint also made the Inc. 5000 list and was named a ZweigWhite “hot firm,” a list of the top 100 engineering related companies in America.

Ongoing Expansion
While there is plenty of demand for Landpoint’s services throughout the country, Souter insists that the company will control its growth as it finds new areas to expand. Landpoint intends to accomplish this by showing existing and new clients what they’re missing and what they can get for the same costs.

“We don’t want to just build a bigger company,” Souter says, adding that Landpoint simply wants to provide better service to more customers.

“We want to take the knowledge and experience our professional staff has accumulated and deliver it to clients across the nation who need support,” Souter says.