With 30 years' experience in the oilpatch, Burl Aycock has learned how to push all the right buttons.

And, today, the president of Calgary's HotButton Solutions Inc. is pushing one of the most startling innovations to hit the energy business since the diamond drill bit.

Mr. Aycock and his associates call their revolutionary asset- management product the HotButton system.

A HotButton is an unassuming little package, but it can save energy-producers a bundle. It's a stainless steel-encased microchip with the dimensions of a gumdrop, the lightness and durability of a Canadian dime and the intelligence of an Einstein.

"This is a fantastic product. If you attach these individually numbered devices to your tools and equipment, you'll never have to follow a time-consuming paper trail again," Mr. Aycock enthused.

Burl Aycock, president of HotButton Solutions, with handheld computer.

Nor are the technology's many applications limited to those working within the oil and gas business. Senior decision-makers from the transportation, airline, mining and forestry sectors are also perking up their ears and giving HotButton Solutions Inc. their undivided attention.

And why not?

The fully digital HotButton system is capable of digitally reporting the detailed specifications, service history and precise placement of any given asset, from pump jacks to bottom-hole pumps, no matter how remote their location.

"In one sense, these identification tags are similar to the bar codes on the items in a grocery store. Except our technology is presented in a different format," Mr. Aycock explained.

Simply put, HotButton Solutions Inc. offers its corporate clients a remarkably efficient means of capturing and transmitting key information from the field.

Whether the information relates to issues of calibration, service or maintenance, it can be made instantly available, in real time, via an Internet connection to a central server.

To illustrate, Mr. Aycock cited a servicing problem recently addressed by a major Canadian oil and gas concern that owns petroleum-producing fields in Alberta.

"This company's administrators wished to improve the process of tracking the bottom-hole pumps they have placed within a field of 3,500 wells," he began.

Corporate number-crunchers had estimated that repairs to these pumps cost the operator an average of $1,200 each and that repairs were necessary about 2,000 times annually.

But an examination of their records told the brass that outmoded tracking procedures were contributing to a shocking waste of time and money.

"These people believe it's been costing them as much as $10,000 to prioritize and track the entire process of servicing each pump. Traditionally, 13 employees and 31 steps had been involved in each and every repair," continued Mr. Aycock.

HotButton Solutions Inc. has simplified matters, using unique HotButton technology to trim the procedure to 18 steps, of which eight are handled digitally.

As Mr. Aycock pointed out, that translates to significant savings of both time and money.

"We expect to shorten the procedure from the moment of identifying a pump problem to acting upon that problem from up to 48 hours to within 24 hours," he said proudly. "But there's still room to cut even that length of time in half."

By dramatically streamlining procedures, operators also limit the time their wells must be shut down. And with wells producing an average of 250 barrels of crude daily, the potential for a greatly enhanced bottom line should be obvious.

Here's how it works.

In the field, the operator updates key information about a piece of equipment by simply touching its HotButton with a handheld computer.

The information then appears on the screen of a HotButton System handheld device, used by the field operator and is synchronized via the Internet to a central server.

For example, if operators service or relocate a pump jack, details of the work will be instantly uploaded to the server at Head Office. And the updated data will be permanently added to the corporate database.

By the way, if you're seeking a product endorsement, why not give NASA a call?

A button system, similar to the one marketed by HotButtons Solutions Inc., has been used by NASA technicians to record and time-date the inspection of 45,000 check-points on the Space Shuttle.

To learn how to start cashing in with push-button savings of your own, please call Mr. Aycock and his team at 403.514.6083.

The company website (www.hotbuttonsolutions.com) is also packed with useful information.