About the Client:
The Client is a leading engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firm who previously supported the upstream Canadian oil sands producers.
The Challenge:
The Client engaged PreScouter to help them understand the competitive landscape in Western Canada in order to effectively reposition in the market. The following were the Client’s main areas of interest:
- Identify tenders serving upstream oil and gas processing companies operating in mineable oil sands, in situ oil sands, and natural gas processing areas.
- Identify tenders serving downstream oil and gas processing companies operating in refining, petrochemicals (olefins & aromatics), natural gas liquids (NGL), gas to liquids (GTL), liquified natural gas (LNG), and methanol areas.
- Identify and evaluate pipeline opportunities within Western Canada.
This is a niche market, so one major challenge of this project was to collect information not publicly available and to organize scattered information for benchmarking and making strategic decisions.
Methodology:
PreScouter leveraged its global network of experts to put together a specialized team of PhD researchers and subject matter experts (SMEs) with experience in the EPC market who could provide insights and recommendations to the Client regarding potential growth or acquisition areas. A total of 120 hours of research and analysis was put into this project.
The overall workstream included:
- Researching each market (upstream and downstream), and scanning the contracts/tenders to identify key competitors in the Western Canada region.
- Researching each key competitor in depth and obtaining requisite information such as:
- Experience (current and previous projects)
- Current customers
- Headcount per market information including employee breakdown
Results:
The goal of this engagement was to provide the Client with a clear competitive landscape to help with their repositioning in Western Canada. PreScouter identified 11 key competitors that were researched in depth and presented to the Client directly. Additionally, for each key competitor, specific insights and data points the PreScouter team found unique or novel were presented.
For each competitor, PreScouter presented the Client with:
- Structural information including size, operation region, and subsidiaries
- Financial information including total financial situation and breakdown in each business segmentation
- Market presence and business intelligence including market share, high-value engineering, and litigation risks
- Employee data including key leadership and employee distribution
- Key projects including current and past large projects
In addition to this competitive landscape, PreScouter provided potential opportunities for the Client. By identifying areas for technology innovation and analyzing regional government policies and regulations, Prescouter identified a number of market opportunities to help differentiate the Client from key competitors.
Impact of PreScouter’s work:
This engagement directly impacted the Client’s strategic plans over the coming years. The Client commented that the work conducted by PreScouter has saved them 6 to 9 months of work and hundreds of man hours that would have been spent compiling all of the data and insights necessary to centralize both institutional knowledge and new/novel insights. Additionally, PreScouter’s stage-gated approach allowed the Client to obtain a wide and in-depth view of the market’s unmet needs and better understand the competitive landscape.
A downloadable version of this case study is available here.
