Digital Renaissance: empowering change in Digital

Emerging technologies are creating new rules for businesses and transforming the entire energy industry at an unprecedented pace. To keep up with these advances, and to deliver a roadmap that will allow IOGP Members to navigate through the numerous opportunities and challenges ahead, IOGP has created the Digital Transformation Committee (DTC).

The Committee will utilize an Agile approach to deliver its work – a first at IOGP. The Agile methodology is well known for its enhanced adaptability, enabling project teams to respond effectively to changes and deliver projects quickly and incrementally. The approach has already yielded results. Barely 100 days into its existence, the Committee is about to release a set of publications that will have a significant impact.

A three-day, face-to-face meeting on digital transformation strategy, including digital capabilities and skills, was held by the IOGP’s Digital Transformation Committee on May 10-12, 2023 in Houston, kindly hosted by Chevron. The meeting was attended by representatives of 13 IOGP member companies and associations. The objectives of the meeting included the following:

• Develop insights and recommendations as to which digital capabilities the industry should make its Key Focus Areas (KFAs) to enable digital transformation over the next two to three years (2023-2025), maximizing the benefits of the evolving technologies
• Review existing proposed digital opportunities and determine alignment with the KFAs identified
• Identify KFAs for digital skills and propose a library of skills to support digital transformation capabilities
• Identify relevant high-impact digital personas on which to focus skills initiatives in the near term
• Stand up four new expert groups within the DTC to take strategic initiatives forward
• Review and approve the Committee strategy, high-level business processes, digital opportunities screening and prioritization workflows, and the 2024 business plan.

Three carefully planned workshops were conducted during the DTC meeting to provide structured environment for members engagement and collaboration. We asked members to: 1) select the top five key focus areas (KFAs) for 2023-2025 and review existing proposed projects for relevance to each; 2) to review the outcomes of a previously held workshop on digital skills; and 3) to discuss the implications for programs and initiatives the IOGP would support to help members guide their organizations through their own transformation efforts.

Discussions were held to review and approve the DTC’s strategy, business processes, and business plan, and to stand up four new expert groups to drive priority issues related to digital transformation. The Opportunities Screening Expert Group (OSEG) was approved with the aim to groom the backlog of digital opportunities submitted to the DTC. The Change Management and Strategic Communications Expert Group (CMEG) will provide guidance on communicating the activities and accomplishments of the DTC and supporting adoption across the industry. The Digital Skills Expert Group (DSEG) will formulate high impact personas to propose focussed engagement on the KFAs for digital skills and competencies. The Digital Platforms Expert Group (DPEG) role will be to advise the DTC on digital platforms infrastructure.

The DTC Expert Groups will work closely with the Standards Committee, specifically the Information Standards Subcommittee (ISSC), Energy Workforce Committee (when formally established by IOGP), the Safety Committee, as well as other IOGP Committees and external parties, to identify and progress high value industry wide digital opportunities in various disciplines. To structure collaboration with the Standards Committee, the DTC reviewed and approved the OSEG-ISSC interaction model.

The DTC agreed the following next steps:

• May 2023: Kick-off OSEG; Complete evaluation of the first digital opportunity for Material Digital Passport Joint Industry Sprint (MDP JIS01)
• June 2023: Publish Digital Capabilities Roadmap V1.0; Publish Digital Transformation Committee Strategy Report V1.0; Kick-off CMEG
• July 2023: Publish Digital Skills Report V1.0; Kick-off DPEG
• September 2023: Publish Digital Skills Roadmap V1.0; Kick-off DSEG
• October 2023: Complete evaluation of next 3-4 digital opportunities; Kick-off two Joint Industry Sprints (JISs)

“These remarkable goals are a testament to IOGP Members dedication, expertise and the collective talent we have assembled,” says Lucyna Kryla-Straszewska, IOGP Digital and Geomatics Principal Manager.

For more details on the Digital Transformation Committee work and incoming deliverables, please contact Lucy at lks@iogp.org.