Anthony Aming (eSource Solutions) enumerated several current trends in digital transformation including notably ‘XaaS’ (everything as a service) and ‘blockchain beyond crypto’, i.e. with ‘more meaningful use cases’. The main IT/Cloud providers are ‘preparing to offer block chain as a service, with real use cases, compatible with mobile technologies’. Looking beyond the current Industry 4.0 meme, Amin postulated a (rather scary) ‘Society 5.0’ world with a ‘big data analyzed by artificial intelligence, and the results fed back to humans’ and where ‘people, things and systems are all connected in cyberspace with results that exceed the capabilities of humans’. Bringing things down to earth, Aming cited a 2017 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO survey that found only 41% of companies have an enterprise-wide digital strategy, and only 18% rate their use of digital technology as ‘very effective’. Working through the order-to-cash and billing cycle time processes, Aming demonstrated how eSource Solutions’ ‘GetBilled*’ solution simplifies the SAP order to cash process.
* We would have preferred ‘GetPaid’!
Chris Welsh (OFS Portal) presented on PIDX’s role in integrating operators’ purchase to pay and suppliers’ order to cash systems. He showed in particular how the three corner model (buyer, supplier and third party service provider) can alleviate some of the intellectual property issues associated with a direct buyer-to-supplier connection. With the advent of multiple third-party intermediaries (Swift, Peppol, Oasis Open and others) a four-corner model allows data/IP owners to connect to their own service provider, reaching other trading partners irrespective of access point. The independent service providers use a standard network protocol such as the Oasis Applicability Statement 4 (AS4), an open standard for the secure and payload-agnostic exchange of business-to-business documents using web services. PIDX is currently looking into adding AS4 as a secure mechanism for PIDX transports and exploring the viability of a 4-corner delivery network for PIDX transactions.
Hand Behrens presented Topl’s ‘modular, permissionless proof-of-stake blockchain’ with potential uses in energy including supply chain automation, trading and risk management, ESG reporting and data management. Topl is planning to decentralize the Topl protocol in 2023. Behrens’ case for the use of blockchain in these contexts was, as they say in the Scottish courts, ‘not proven’.
Aparna Kakani (Baker-Hughes) presented the results of a survey of industrial use of PIDX standards. The survey was carried out under the auspices of the PIDX standards adoption council, set up in 2021 to track take-up. Most-used standards cover field tickets, invoicing and order creation, with most companies producing their own PIDX documents using the online standards. On blockchain, most were either unaware of or did not want to know about use cases. The survey found that some standards and schemas have zero adoption. There were also calls for more use cases, modernization of the standards with JSON, and an ongoing effort to track adoption. The complete results of the survey are summarized in Kakani’s presentation.
Steve Wright and Manas Satapathy (PwC) presented the results of the PwC L48 Upstream G&A Diagnostic survey. G&A cost and exploration and development capital have been cut roughly in half on a BOE basis and headcount is about a third of its 2015 level. As oil and gas is currently facing more headwinds, future economies will come from further digital transformations, as industry moves ‘from pureplay cost-cutting to efficiency-driven growth’. ‘Sustainable digital value creation requires a holistic approach based on integrated IT platforms and supported by change management’. The authors opine that many previous initiatives have limited their focus to data. More emphasis is needed on analysis, decision support and visualization. Reference was also made to The Critical Few a publication from PwC’s Katzenbach Center that is described as ‘a practical guide for leaders at all levels on leveraging culture to accelerate and sustain transformation’.
Alisa Konchenko (DocStudio) and Kris Pronske (DTN) showed how processes can be streamlined by automating PIDX product and company code creation. The current way of adding a product code is a manual process involving sharing a spreadsheet. The proposed solution involves an API accessing a code list housed by a trusted clearing house that checks for codes already in use and other glitches. PIDX is partnering with DocStudio to provide an online solution to request new codes. DocStudio’s robotic process automation promises an ‘efficient and scalable approach’.
Matt Danna and Matt White presented ServiceMax’ FieldFX, said to be the ‘de facto field service management software for the oilfield.
More from this and other PIDX events here.
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