7 Steps for a Successful Digital Transformation

Historically, the oil and gas industry has struggled with efficiently managing vast amounts of data, leading to operational inefficiencies, challenges in team collaboration, and risks of environmental incidents. Digitalisation can address these issues by building on the existing expertise within the industry. On assets like FPSOs, where remote coordination is the norm, this can significantly reduce risk and improve control.

Here are some general steps that companies can take to approach a digital transformation:

1. Define your vision: Before embarking on a digital transformation, it’s important to define a clear vision and strategy. This includes defining the desired outcomes and goals of the transformation and identifying the business processes and areas most in need of digitalisation.

2. Assess your current state: Once you have a vision and strategy for the transformation, it’s crucial to assess the current state of the business. This involves identifying areas where digital technologies could have the most significant impact, as well as evaluating your workforce’s existing technology infrastructure and skillsets.

3. Identify and prioritise digital initiatives: Based on the results of the assessment, you can identify and prioritise digital initiatives. This involves selecting the digital technologies and solutions that are most appropriate for your business needs, and prioritising the initiatives based on their potential impact and complexity.

In energy, digitalisation has the potential to help organisations become more efficient, flexible and agile by automating processes, improving data management and analysis, and creating new revenue streams.

4. Develop a roadmap: Once you have identified and prioritised digital initiatives, it’s essential to develop a roadmap for the transformation. This involves defining the timeline, resources, and budget needed to implement the initiatives, as well as identifying the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders.

5. Choose a trusted digitalisation partner and build the necessary infrastructure: To support the digital transformation, you may need to build the necessary technology infrastructure and systems. This includes investing in new hardware, software, and tools, as well as developing the required skills and expertise within your workforce. Choosing the right partner is essential for a successful transition.

6. Implement and monitor: Once the infrastructure is in place, it’s time to implement the digital initiatives and monitor their progress. This involves working closely with your workforce to ensure that they have the necessary skills and training to use the new technologies, as well as monitoring the impact of the initiatives on business performance.

7. Continuously evolve: Digital transformation is an ongoing process, and it’s essential to continuously evaluate and develop the initiatives over time. This involves regularly assessing the impact of the initiatives, identifying new opportunities for digitalisation, and adapting the strategy and roadmap as needed.

The next ten years are likely to see significant changes in how the industry operates. The adoption of digital twins in the industry is expected to bring about significant changes. This drives real business value—higher revenue, lower costs, and better performance. On FPSOs, even small gains in efficiency or uptime make a big difference.

Want to see how Aize can help drive your digital transformation?