As both large and small companies embrace the inevitability of a digital workforce and its impact on the value chain, industry leaders are focusing not only on the destination, but also on various aspects of the journey itself, such as the collaboration needed to best develop and implement new technologies.
Discussing the impact of digital technology on the energy transition, Jay Crotts, executive vice president and chief information officer for Shell, reflected on the importance of metrics.
"I've found that if you can measure it, you can actually change it," Crotts said. "You can theorize a lot, but when you can actually see the transparency of information, you can take action on it, whether it satisfies our customers' needs or fulfills orders."
The transparency of information is key, Crotts said, speaking on a panel at CERAWeek by S&P Global, held recently in Houston.
"As we think about our partners and progress strategy at Shell, we are really thinking from [our customers'] point of view and helping it be very transparent," he said.
Crotts said he believes optimizing the application of digital technology requires industry-wide collaboration.
"We have new information and a new plant that recently came on line," he said. "It can do things that are amazing with digital twins. It's all new and great, but think about plants that have existed for 20 or 30 years. What technology do they have and how can they be converted? And, when you have that technology captured, how can it be shared?"
Crotts pointed to carbon capture technology (CCT) as an example of the importance of information sharing to achieve net-zero.
"If we can have a common definition about what we're using and consuming, we can make more decisions about how to optimize it rather than spending time trying to gather or interpret it," he said.
Historically, the nature of doing business prevented many companies from sharing information that would benefit the industry as a whole. Crotts said times are changing.
"Certainly, that has been the case. I think innovation required it," he said. "But if you think about what's going to give us the scale and replication, we're all in this together. This community is [now] more open to collaboration. When you think about our community's use of common safety standards and CCT, we can move at light speed now with digital technologies. I see a willingness in that enablement."
Creating opportunity
Aadrin Azly, chief digital officer for PETRONAS, acknowledged that the journey to digitization is largely still an "unknown unknown."
Jay Crotts, executive vice president and chief information officer, Shell.
"This journey creates an opportunity for us to partner with different types of organizations, such as startups," Azly said. "Internally, we've invested a lot of our focus on not just building innovation, but also [building it] from an innovation-culture point of view."
"We've created an investment group in Silicon Valley," he said. "Through that arm, we've been working with a lot more startups." Azly confirmed that there are many startups coming into this transitional space.
Aadrin Azly, chief digital officer, PETRONAS.
"Because we have this 'playground' and the ability to scale, we would like to work together, and give them that 'playground' where they can also play," he said. "Hopefully from there, we will all be able to benefit together from the solutions."
The "heart of digital," Azly said, is not just about technology, but is also about solving big problems.
"In order to scale, digitization must be democratized and decentralized. Our role is to enable them to do that," Azly concluded.
