Many companies in the energy industry are diversifying from a major reliance on oil and gas revenue and embracing the journey to net zero—more specifically, this means a focus on renewable opportunities. This requires them to adopt an agile mindset and ensure that their enterprise software solutions are flexible and can support these new business models and ways of working.
As the industry continues to transform and move forward, having an industry focused enterprise software solution (ERP) that is configured to help your existing business operate more efficiently—and not constrain your evolution—is more crucial than ever.
In our discussions with energy clients, we have seen that the operators and asset owners in the Energy sector are focusing on the following ways to create more effective processes, increase service revenues and—ultimately–reduce downtime:
Reducing cost and securing asset uptime with built-for-purpose supply chain management
Assets must be kept operational to maximize throughput and revenue generation while maintaining best in class standards for safety and environmental management. Delivery of equipment and spare parts is also a critical activity for all asset owning companies, especially in complex offshore environments.
To successfully face these situations, it is essential to use an ERP system with rigorous spares and repairs inventory functionality. Software must also streamline material transfer to reduce shipping costs and planned or unplanned downtime.
Advanced finance management
Joint Ventures (JVs) are essential for the energy industry due to the nature, complexity and size of investments made, and are the most common business arrangement for energy players such as oil and gas or utility companies engaged in exploration, appraisal, development and production operations. Joint ventures provide improved access to funding in capital intensive operations, but can also to mitigate risk and help to develop and share insight, competence, and expertise.
In addition, the CFO and the finance organization need a comprehensive and modern finance management suite, with embedded operational functions such as project management, asset management and supply chain which ensure transparency and traceability.
It is essential to have the right solution that captures expenditures and other relevant transactions from finance, project, supply chain and asset management against the joint venture entity, including cash calls, allocation and billing to partners based on their equity share and potential changes in those equity share.
Increasing collaboration across the value chain
Collaboration in all aspects of the value chain is increasingly crucial for success, so suppliers and contractors can reduce and manage costs efficiently to deliver mutual shared benefits for all parties.
Subcontractors are also fundamental for successful delivery throughout the value chain, and the contracting process is becoming increasingly critical in managing offshore operations.
The challenge is to breakdown silos and improve visibility and traceability as the operators increasingly embed vendors through the value chain. A collaborative system is imperative to deliver the required control and so maintain an open value chain while working with vendors.
You can overcome these challenges, with solutions that include sub-contract management and web-based collaboration portals.
Reducing maintenance and operational costs
In the energy industry, where any downtime directly impacts the bottom line, long-term management and maintenance of assets is critical. Any operator that performs service, upgrades or lifecycle extension on assets needs a business application that meets strict quality requirements and demands.
This can be achieved by having a laser focus on asset and service management excellence.
To help address all these imperatives IFS offers a solution for asset owners and operators within the energy industry. IFS Cloud is a single product with a specific focus on industry challenges, delivered within an open platform which allows innovative application services to be leveraged seamlessly.
With IFS Cloud, it’s easy to manage your service and operations with integrated project management, material management/logistics, maintenance planning, work/service order management, resource allocation, document management, finance, business intelligence, as well as HSEQ.
We also believe in investing in sustainability and the value it can drive to your business. Through our investments in innovation, technology and connected data, your business can improve building, management, and measurability of your sustainability initiatives.
Our responsibility to sustainability is centered around our plan to improve operations for energy companies—enabling them to achieve their sustainability goals and commitments. We are also dedicated to supporting the industry at large, to encourage more accountability for our environment, across the whole energy value chain.
SOURCE: 2021,Aug2. Four Ways Asset Owners in Energy Can Digitalize and Improve Business Efficiency. IFS Blog. https://blog.ifs.com/2021/08/four-ways-asset-owners-in-energy-can-digitalize-and-improve-business-efficiency
