By Cathy Mercer


Land management software (LMS) is essential for organizations and businesses engaged in extensive acquisition of lands and for managing development and use of said lands. It largely automates the complex legal, financial, operational and regulatory processes involved with such activities. Listed below are the desired features commonly found in a professional LMS used by oil and gas companies, brokerages, and government or records agencies that have massive spatial management needs.

Broadly speaking, the system can be divided into two parts, with one focused on the acquisition process and the other one for administration afterwards. Each of these parts has multiple and critical components that help automate specific areas or divisions within the organization. For instance, the lease module handles both acquisition and management of leases.

The pre-lease work involves a whole lot of forms and documents such as contracts, offer letters and amendments that are necessary for the transaction. The system has to be compatible with all the different lease arrangements including a standard one and others such as remainder leases, third-party arrangements and receiverships. In the next phase, the system has to provide timely reminders and paperwork including LPRs, checks and drafts for payment.

The LMS needs to able to accept scanned documents in all commonly used formats and store it as digital data. It must be able to make mass changes to all stored leases to update specific provisions or nomenclature, if such updates are required on a company-wide level. Lease status tracking and workflow configuration are other desirable features.

Integration of disparate modules makes the LMS a lot more efficient. It will mean that data entered at any point is instantly promulgated to all relevant databases that need to be updated. It removes the need to print out everything, store it in files and push it around manually until to all the divisions. Automating this process makes the data more accurate, reduces the costs of redundant entry of the same data in different places, and earns green credentials for the organization due to reduced use of paper.

Apart from leases, specific modules that are essential include GIS mapping and tract management. The system also needs to have two separate system administration areas. One is for user security customization to create user groups that have clearly defined access levels and permissions. The other one is for report generation, which needs to have both standard and customizable reporting capabilities.

The standard reports must include leaseholds, expirations, rental payments and so on. Report generation must be automated and set for pre-scheduled delivery to specific user groups or individual users. An authorized user must also be able to create and view reports that include data on tracts, ownership and exploration details.

Land management software has recently become a whole lot more productive because of technological advances and innovations. The LMS can now be accessed by company users as a web-based service or application on any device including a smart phone, laptop or tablet. With 24/7 access to the system regardless of location, LMS users are able to make on the spot informed decisions out in the field.




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