Oil and gas companies really only care about three things, according to Robert (Bob) Tretiak, chief executive officer of Calgary-based Applied Terravision Systems (ATS).

The first is finding the oil or gas, the second is getting it out of the ground, and the third — and probably most important item — is getting paid.

Everything else, from general administration to accounting or shipping the oil and gas to markets, is just a necessary part of doing business.

Whether that philosophy holds true is important, because Tretiak is betting his firm can capitalize on the movement towards outsourcing non-core activities in the oil and gas industry, plus other sectors.

Applied Terravision is pioneering a new business concept called Business Function Outsourcing. In essence, ATS will host and manage its popular accounting application for oil and gas companies, and supply the actual accountants to input and process the data.

It has also partnered with energy giant Enron, to offer companies financing to drill wells and market and ship the oil and gas produced.

Tretiak says it is possible for a company to concentrate on finding and producing oil and gas, and leave other aspects of the business to ATS and Enron.

“At one time, accounting was a sacred part of a company’s business. Now they realize as long as they get the dough, it’s not so sacred,” says Tretiak.

It’s still early days for the business function outsourcing model, but it appears to be gaining a lot of traction. ATS, which has annual revenue of about $30 million, has moved nearly half of its clients over to a hosted version of its software, where customers access the accounting application via a Web browser over the Internet.

In the past, it earned about $126,000 per customer in software licensing fees. By offering it on a hosted basis over the Internet, it can increase revenue two to three times.

By also throwing in accounting services, Tretiak estimates ATS can increase revenue by as much as seven to 10 times. In many cases ATS takes on the accounting staff of the client to which it provides services.

“It’s an attractive proposition for companies because we can provide the services (hosted software and accountants) for less than they’re paying to do it on their own,” says Tretiak.

“The thing they really like though is, we’re shrinking the timeline to the money.”