About Topdrill

Have you ever wondered what the future of being a full-service drill contractor will look like? You don’t need to look too far to get an answer. Because it’s a question that Topdrill has taken by the horns, completely reimagining what it means to be a leading drilling contractor in the modern age.

So how did a drilling business starting off in Kalgoorlie with one rig grow to become the leading digital drilling service provider in Australia, if not the world, in less than two decades?

It’s a story of entrepreneurial spirit, a top team and a love for all things tech driven by founder and Managing Director, Tim Topham. See how Topdrill are combining data, drilling and digital transformation to create a winning formula for data-oriented clients who love diving deep into their performance.

Harnessing the power of data-driven drilling

Every drill rig has the potential to capture hundreds of thousands of data points every single shift. But being a data-driven drilling business isn’t just about capturing data; it’s about turning that into information, and then getting it to the right people at the right time so they can make great decisions.

In today’s data-saturated world, the risk of exploration teams drowning in an ocean of numbers is real. Tim recognised this emerging challenge for Topdrill’s clients and knew that the business needed to take a purposeful approach to drilling data, focusing on the metrics that matter most to clients. But the key was to be able to do this at scale, so every single Topdrill client received the same level of transparency and access to the critical information they need when they need it. First, they needed to have the right tools in place to make this possible.

"CorePlan is just what the industry needed. Topdrill has been keeping an eye on emerging tech and we've been hunting for the digital operations platform to suit our needs. CorePlan's platform will allow us to scale further and faster than ever before."

Tim Topham, Founder and Managing Director

Building a world-class software stack from regional WA

A software stack is a suite of digital tools that a business uses to drive their team forward. To align with their philosophy of continuous improvement, the Topdrill team embarked on a comprehensive digital transformation project called Toplytics. By building a software stack that could digitise as many aspects of the business as possible, making it easy to collect and track data, the Topdrill team would then have access to the information they needed to make decisions that optimised their processes.

Topdrill’s team of data experts built a world-class software stack using advanced analytics platforms to collect, store, process and visualise data. But they still needed core systems across the business to generate the data in the first instance.

The big question build or buy?

Many large drilling companies have fallen into the trap of believing that, in order to have the best, they need to spend a lot of money on building their own ultra-custom solutions that cover every single business function in one product.

But Topdrill defied this misconception by opting for CorePlan, which is an off-the-shelf software as a service product. The decision to purchase readily available software over a custom solution was driven by several key factors:

1. Reduced turnaround time

Topdrill recognised the advantage of having a product available right now, rather than investing years of time and effort into developing a new one. By avoiding the time-consuming development phase and choosing to go with CorePlan, they were able to gain immediate access to the tools they needed to begin their digital transformation.

2. Flexibility and real-time data delivery

“We decided that manual exports of reports or data was no longer going to be acceptable for us. Our clients and our team can’t make good decisions if they have to rely on reports that are obsolete by the time they are available to look at,” says Michael Begg, Topdrill’s Senior Commercial Manager. “It was critical that we could receive and distribute data quickly, both to our clients and to our internal Topdrill cloud data platform.”
Part of Topdrill’s search criteria was a requirement for flexibility in how they were able to access and handle their own data. Using CorePlan’s open API, the team would be able to create a direct integration with Topdrill’s internal data platform, saving hours of manual data wrangling, and enabling faster turnaround of data to decision-makers.

3. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Whilst the way every driller chooses to run their rig may differ, Topdrill were of the belief that there wasn’t a significant business case to justify reinventing the wheel when it comes to capturing specific types of data like the data that goes on drill plods.

In fact - altering it too much could have the opposite effect by creating more work at the client’s end, particularly if they’re working with multiple contractors on a project.

Because Topdrill drillers use the CorePlan mobile app to capture their drilling data, every client receives a consistent, high-quality experience, regardless of who is operating the rig that day, or how many Topdrill rigs they have on their project.

4. Ongoing support and maintenance

One of the benefits of choosing software as a service is being able to essentially ‘outsource’ continuous maintenance and updates. By trusting CorePlan to handle these responsibilities, the Topdrill management team can be freed up to focus on what they do best: drilling. And thus, CorePlan became the centrepiece of their digital operations.

"CorePlan is a key building block that we rely on to win good business and provide exceptional client service."

Tim Topham, Founder and Managing Director

Leading conversations (in the office and field)

Because Topdrill can now capture drilling data at scale, turn it into information and share it with their clients quickly, clients have access to a whole new level of understanding that hasn’t previously been possible, rivalling that of even the most sophisticated custom systems used on the client’s side.

And, when it comes to weekly client meetings, Topdrill connects all its data together and prepares a summary of every rig’s performance. The report contains everything an exploration manager needs to know to manage the drill program and budget. Topdrill is focused on transparent monitoring of drilling programs  to help their clients make great decisions. Decisions that they may not have otherwise been able to make if they were working with a non-digital drilling contractor.

Cornering the top of the market

With Topdrill’s modern drilling software stack and unwavering commitment to client satisfaction, it’s safe to say that they are at the top of their game, and at the forefront of the ever-evolving drilling industry. As Tim exclaims, “CorePlan is just what the industry needed. Today’s exploration teams are data hungry. Every driller should be using it!”

"We have 26 rigs using CorePlan on every shift. Because our drilling data needs are taken care of, our managers have the bandwidth to focus on other aspects of the business that improve our client’s experience."

Michael Begg, Senior Commercial Manager