Getting started
What a deployment involves, in the order it usually happens, and what you need to have ready at each step.
A deployment has four steps. They can be done in any order, but this is the sequence that gets something useful in front of people fastest.
1. Decide where it runs
Cloud is the default. You sign in and there is nothing to operate.
Customer-hosted deployment exists for operators whose security posture requires operational data to stay inside their own network. Both run the same platform and the same feature set. See architecture for what each involves.
2. Connect the production accounting system
This is usually first, because it produces something visible immediately and requires nothing in the field.
You provide a least-privilege, read-only connection to approved fields in your system of record. The credential needs SELECT and nothing more — the platform does not write to that system and does not need rights that would let it.
Once connected you have well inventory, daily actuals, trends and reports. See production data.
3. Bring in the field
Two paths, and most operators use both.
Instrumented sites connect over the protocols the equipment already speaks — Modbus, DNP3 or OPC UA directly, or MQTT with Sparkplug B through an edge gateway where the link is metered. See protocols and connecting devices.
Uninstrumented tanks are covered by gauge capture. This needs one thing from you per tank: a strapping table. See gauge sheets.
4. Put it in the crew’s hands
Pumpers open the platform in their phone browser and add it to the home screen. There is no app store listing and nothing for IT to approve. See add to home screen.
This step is worth doing early rather than last. Crew adoption is the usual reason field deployments fail, and it is much easier to find out in week one that a workflow does not fit how a crew actually works.
What you need to have ready
| For | You provide |
|---|---|
| Accounting connection | A read-only credential with SELECT on approved fields |
| Instrumented sites | Device addresses, register or node maps, units and scaling |
| Gauge capture | A strapping table per tank, from that tank’s physical survey |
| Access | Which companies get which assets, and who holds control authority |
What to test first
Point the platform at something broken on purpose — a source that is not there, or a field it is not permitted to read. It should return an error naming what failed, and it should not render a populated chart built from estimates.
That behaviour is deliberate and it is the thing most worth verifying early, because it determines whether the numbers can be acted on later.