In offshore energy, data is the foundation of every decision, every plan and every operation. Yet it is surprisingly common for teams across the value chain to struggle with accessing the information they need at the moment they need it. Silos form quietly, often without anyone intending them to. They grow out of busy schedules, long project timelines, shifting responsibilities and the simple day-to-day habit of storing information wherever it is most convenient. 

How silos form in operations

Across real offshore operations, teams often rely on reference material that has travelled through several hands. An engineer may spend hours looking for the latest routing update, only to discover it was never uploaded to the shared drive. A maintenance crew might have a correct procedure in front of them, but a missing attachment or outdated schematic forces them to pause work. These problems rarely stem from negligence. They arise from busy workflows, inconsistent storage habits and the pressure to keep moving.

The cost of this fragmentation is significant. It becomes harder to validate information. Decisions take longer. Simple questions turn into detective work. And when data gaps appear offshore, the consequences grow quickly. A missing record or outdated file can delay maintenance, extend vessel time or force teams to repeat work that had already been completed. 

Making data usable

Teams often assume that breaking down silos requires a purely technical fix, such as integrating databases or aligning file structures. While these steps matter, they don’t address the underlying issue: data must be easy for people to use. Engineers need information to be intuitive to find, clear to understand and reliable enough to trust. If the user experience is poor, the technical integration behind it becomes irrelevant. People will default to old habits and the silos will re-form.

This is why shared digital environments have become so important. When information is tied to a visual representation of the field, teams are no longer navigating endless folders or conflicting document versions. They are exploring a familiar space where context guides understanding. Clicking on specific subsea equipment shows its history, documents, metadata and related insights. Information becomes part of a narrative rather than a disconnected set of files. 

Building trust in a shared source of truth

But even the best platform cannot succeed unless people adopt it in a meaningful way. Integration is not just about connecting data systems. It is about aligning behaviors. Teams need to trust that the shared environment represents the true source of information. They need confidence that when they open the platform, they are seeing the most current version. And they need to know the effort they put into updating it will benefit not just themselves but the wider organization.

In my experience, the most successful operators cultivate this behavior through clear expectations and a culture that values transparency. They encourage teams to use the platform as the first place to check information and the first place to update it. They make collaboration part of the workflow rather than an optional step. As habits shift and the platform becomes the natural home for operational knowledge, the silos begin to dissolve.

Our FieldTwin platform was built to support exactly this shift. The strength of our integrated visual workspace is not only its ability to centralize data, but its ability to make that data understandable. By showing information in the context of the field and enabling teams to collaborate around a shared visual model, it reduces friction and builds trust. Teams no longer need to question whether they are working with the right version. The right version is simply there.