Pros
Good collaboration between research and operations staff. Proactive, smart employees (what is left of them) Good client management and customer focus Better than average salary, health care and
Cons
Everything has developed from one location - Houston and that hasn't given the company enough flexibility to expand appropriately. Their technology has been 'good enough' for too long and their peers have passed them by. The tools are there to produce a half decent velocity model and Kichhoff migrate it but beyond that you're kidding yourself. The decision to move from equipment and software to services and technology didn't happen quick enough to match the advances in the other contractors. The company is now left with no equipment or software business to speak of and no real grasp on the seismic services business in a downward spiralling market. The clients that are out there spending are looking for quick turnarounds with cutting edge technologies and ION can't deliver. The rates have gone south and therefore >15000sqkm projects are common. When I was at ION they thought a 1200sqkm project was big! They have no capacity to process such large surveys The lack of boats really hurts. BGP are in the same low end space and can gobble up what ION aren't willing to cut prices on.