Land Management Software Desired Features

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.

In general, most of the functions or modules can be classified under either acquisitions or administration. Both categories have many components that are crucial to automating entire divisions of areas of operations. The lease module is a good example to illustrate how this works, since it has functions that help facilitate both the transaction and the subsequent management.

During the pre-lease phase, the LMS must be able to generate a ton of documents and forms that are required for the transactions. This includes offer letters, amendments, contracts and so on. The system should be capable of handling all kinds of leases, including standard agreements, third-party and remainder leases, receiverships, etc. Afterwards, it must be able to manage and generate all the paperwork such as LPRs and payment checks and drafts in a timely manner.

Scanned documents in different formats have to be saved within the system as data. The LMS must be capable of mass updates to all leases, if such changes are required across the board. Lease status tracking and custom workflow configuration capability are desired 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.

In addition to the lease module, other important components of an LMS include tract and ownership management and GIS mapping. It's also necessary to have certain system administration features. One is the ability to create user groups and assign access levels to each group and user. Another necessary administrative feature is standard and custom reports generation.

Every LMS has standard reporting capabilities that provide comprehensive details about leaseholds, rental payments, expiration, etc. These reports must be scheduled for delivery and the system should be able to generate and deliver the right reports to each user as required, and without any human intervention. Users with the necessary authorizations should also be able to generate custom reports to include tract and ownership data, along with exploration information.

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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