The oil and gas industry has moved from a digital transformation opportunity to a digital transformation need. In this article, we are pointing out three of the most challenging actions for the oil and gas industry.

In many of our recent articles, we have pointed out the changes that the digital landscape brings to the roadmap of any industry, not only oil and gas. 

Industries have embraced technology because of the current need to reshape their operations and profit from the many benefits technology comes with, improved productivity, higher efficiency, and increased cost savings. 

When we refer to the oil and gas industry in rapport with the digital transformation, we have to consider the digital maturity the industry lacked until recently. 

Three things that hold the oil and gas industry back

1. The lack of a strategic road map. 

Building a strategic road map would help companies determine what is lacking in each operation and what steps to take to achieve the business objectives the business has set up. 

The digitizing process comes as a long-term goal of transforming. It empowers companies to take a step forward and even adopt new operating models. 

2. Rapid changes in the digital world

Technology is advancing rapidly. Every day we look at another innovation, another update, a new feature. It is a constant movement that enables growth and transformation. 

But in some cases, it can also mean stress, slow adaptability to new and lack of comprehension without proper consultancy.

The O&G digital narrative is often unclear. It can seem too complicated, and it might feel like a burden to not understand the technical language. 

What the industry needs is structure. A comprehensive top-down approach built together with the executives, addressing the needs, challenges, and possible fears or inhibitions of the field operators. 

Our consultants are putting much effort into identifying how the digital landscape of a company currently operates, what the company needs to become more future-proof, and of course, how the business can become more digital.

It is an important journey to have together if we aim for fast implementation and results. 

3. Lack of an agile work culture

The oil and gas industry is project-focused. The most prominent values the industry holds tightly are execution excellence and predictability, but there is no such thing as 'the right to make mistakes', or bringing departments together for that matter. Because of this fixed mindset, business leaders might miss the chance to innovate using transformative data-driven solutions. 

By creating a culture of fluidity and empowerment, Smartflow is working with many business leaders to find new opportunities to remain competitive and relevant. 

Decentralization is a powerful enemy between operators and maintenance, as pointed out in one of our articles. The lack of cooperation and coordination can make the transition to digital more challenging. 

Imagine how many productivity gaps businesses could avoid by focusing on: time efficiency, quality performance, and speed performance of operations and maintenance working together. 

Conclusions

The Oil & gas industry is working relentlessly to add value to their business landscape, and that's something we can't deny. The business leaders we have had the pleasure to work with are already putting much effort into measuring their gathered data and transform it into business performance. 

They are striving to create a clear communication path among all the departments, so they improve performance. 

Together we are working on building a secure and efficient oversight of the digital roadmap. Along with the senior management, we prioritize urgencies, deploy resources, and deliver a flawless, smooth digital transformation within the entire organization. 

One of the challenges we learned about from our current customers is the struggle to present the need for a digital solution. As a result of this, after lengthy sit-downs with our customers, we created a guide to help you with the implementation of a digital mobile solution.

It is specially created to ease the journey to transformation. You can download it here.