Welcome back! So far, we’ve discussed why digitalisation is the future for geological consultancies and highlighted some of the benefits digitalisation will bring to our company.
Now, let’s delve into the practical steps we’ve taken to embark on our own digital transformation. In this post, we’ll share the key milestones and lessons learnt from our experiences over the past few years as we’ve laid the groundwork for a more digitally-driven future.
Step 1: Review “Where We Are Now”, Our Digital Maturity Assessment
A comprehensive digital maturity assessment is crucial to understanding your starting point. This assessment evaluated our current use of digital tools, data management practices, team skills, workflows, and client interactions.
Here’s what we considered:
- Tech Inventory: Which tools and software are currently in use? How effective are they and what processes do they support? How well do these systems integrate with existing workflows?
- Data Management: How is data managed, stored, accessed, and utilised? Are data our models robust and fit for purpose, or do they require further development? Is data management primarily manual or are more automated, digital processes in place?
- Skills and Training: Do team members possess the necessary digital skills? Are there skill gaps that need to be addressed? If so, what training or development is required to support the digital transition?
- Processes: Are current workflows based on outdated methods or have digital practices already been adopted in certain areas of the business? (e.g., finance or sample tracking within our warehouse)
- Client Interaction: How do clients currently engage with the organisation? Is communication primarily face-to-face or through email, or are digital platforms used for real-time updates, data sharing, and collaboration?
By asking these questions, we identified strengths, weaknesses, and areas requiring further attention in our business. The subsequent answers allowed us to take our first steps along our digital transformation journey.
Step 2: Defining Clear Objectives and Goals for Digitalisation
Having established our current position, we turned our attention to defining clear objectives and goals for our digital transformation journey. This involved identifying specific challenges to address, setting priorities, and establishing measurable success criteria.
Here are some of the questions we asked ourselves:
- What Problems Are We Trying to Solve? We sought to reduce the complexities of integrating various data types in our multi-client studies, improve project turnaround times, enhance data accuracy, streamline operations, and strengthen client communication.
- What Are Our Priorities? Our focus was on automating routine tasks, developing innovative delivery mechanisms, and upskilling our team members.
- How Will We Measure Success? We identified key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress, such as reduced project delivery times, lower error rates, and increased client satisfaction.
By setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals, we aimed to maintain focus and alignment throughout the transformation process.
Step 3: Develop a Roadmap and Timeline for Implementation
Having established our objectives and goals, the next step was to create a detailed roadmap outlining our digital transformation journey. This roadmap served as a strategic plan, guiding us from our current state (point A) to our desired future (point B).
A well-structured roadmap and timeline are essential for keeping your digital transformation on track and ensuring steady progress towards your goals. This roadmap also serves as a crucial part of any communication strategy, as it demonstrates to stakeholders (both internal and external) the future direction of your digital transformation, helping bring others along with you and, ultimately, aiding change management within the business.
We’ve listed some of the key elements of our roadmap below:
- Allocating Resources: The transformation required significant investment in new tools, new digital architecture and upskilling our team. This involved acquiring new software, hiring specialists, and providing comprehensive training and support.
- Prioritising Initiatives: We identified the digital projects that would deliver the most value and prioritised them, accordingly, laying the foundation for future opportunities. Our initial focus was on implementing relatively easy-to-achieve, but high impact projects that would generate momentum, such as rebuilding our operational system and establishing a cloud-based platform for data integration, visualisation, and analysis (i.e., PetroStrat Connect).
- Assigning Responsibilities: We clearly defined the roles and responsibilities for each aspect of the transformation. A hybrid dedicated team, comprised of leaders from various areas of the business, was formed to oversee and drive each element of the initiative.
- Setting a Timeline: Developing a realistic timeline for each phase of the transformation was challenging for our growing and developing team. However, we successfully navigated the initial setup and are now progressing towards testing, rollout, and evaluation of the initial stages. Flexibility has been crucial in addressing unexpected challenges and adapting to evolving circumstances.
Step 4: Getting Leadership Onboard and Focused on Change Management
Digital transformation isn’t just about technology, it requires the active engagement and support of the entire organisation. To ensure success, these factors will be crucial;
- Leadership Buy-In: Our leadership team’s unwavering commitment to the digital transformation journey was crucial. Through strategic discussions at various levels and client demonstrations, they gained a clear understanding of the benefits and were prepared to invest resources and actively champion the change throughout the business.
- Communicating the Vision: Ensuring that everyone within the organisation grasped the rationale behind digitalisation, its implications for them, and the anticipated benefits for the business and clients was paramount. Clear and transparent communication has been instrumental in fostering understanding, addressing concerns, and securing widespread support.
- Addressing Resistance: Change can be challenging, and it is natural for some individuals to exhibit resistance. We proactively addressed challenges arising from resistance by reflecting on our previous journey and implementing strategies such as training, support, and open dialogue. Being open and transparent also plays a significant part in reducing resistance; if the team know the ultimate destination, they are more likely to join on the journey.
- Celebrating Wins: Recognising and celebrating early successes within our teams has been instrumental in building momentum and maintaining motivation. This includes acknowledging the contributions of our outsourced development teams, who have played a vital role in our transformation.
Wrapping Up: Our First Steps Toward Digital Success
While the initial stages of our digital transformation may have felt overwhelming at times, the combination of a well-defined plan and the dedicated efforts of our teams has positioned our consultancy for future success.
Reflecting on our journey, we have assessed our progress, refined our goals, updated our roadmap, and reaffirmed our team’s commitment to the transformation.
In our next post, we will delve into the crucial aspect of selecting the appropriate digital tools and technologies to support our ongoing development. Stay tuned as we continue our digital transformation journey.
Blog series brought to you by Our Digital and Data Team (part of the New Ventures department)
Other Blogs In This Series:
Blog 1: The Future of Geological Consultancy, Embracing Digital Transformation
Blog 2: Why Digitalisation Is Crucial For Geological Consultancies
Blog 3: Building a Digital Foundation: How We Took Our First Steps Towards Digitalisation
Data & Digitalisation Blog 4 : From Laboratory to Cloud: Digital Tools and Technologies in Geological Consultancy
Data & Digitalisation Blog 5 : Harnessing the Power of Data Science for our Consultancy
Mark Weldon – New Ventures Director
Mark Weldon is a geoscientist with over 30 years of experience in the energy sector. Having co-founded and helped grow PetroStrat into a leading consulting firm, Mark has a proven track record of applying geological and stratigraphic expertise to complex subsurface challenges. Currently focused on the energy transition, Mark is dedicated to leveraging PetroStrat’s world-leading geoscience expertise to drive a sustainable future.
