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Energy companies should prioritise talent alongside technology investment

The energy sector believes in the power of strategic technology investment, but companies should focus on accessing the talent that can bring their digital transformation ambitions to life.

The 2023 Global Energy CEO Outlook by ���㣨Leyu���������� found that 52 percent of energy companies wanted to invest more in their people to enhance their skills and capabilities (a seven percentage point increase from 2021). Experts warn that technology investments can only be successful alongside appropriate talent investment.

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Energy firms have cracked low-code/no-code

According to Rabra, this confidence is because “the energy sector has historically been at the forefront of adopting new technologies. Now, we’re seeing a lot of innovation in core business models.�� One example of this is in the sector’s adoption of low-code/no-code platforms that can fast-track processes.

“Compared with classic platform buildout, low-code/no-code platforms make processes up to five times faster,�� says Rabra. “Which expedites time-to-market, time-to-value and time-to-change.�� Digital transformation projects involving low-code/no-code systems have boosted organizational profitability and performance for 72 percent of the energy executives in the survey.

“Low-code/no-code platforms are being used to improve the customer experience, service quality, ESG [Environmental, Social, and Governance] compliance and overall collaboration,�� says Rabra.

This progress explains why 74 percent of energy respondents say that their business’s leaders are confident in the resilience of applications built by these platforms. The average across all sectors surveyed is 59 percent.

“Energy organizations are aware that this is the way forward,�� says Rabra. “They have seen the value of these systems first-hand, so they are not going to go back to classical application development factory models.��

That said, low-code/no-code platforms require coding from scratch, which could limit control of the code and how it is executed. But Rabra says that energy organizations are trying to safeguard these systems. “Companies are using more cloud-based standard platforms,�� he says. “They are going through extensive security and scalability testing, compliance reviews and third-party assessments.”��

Security concerns are top of the agenda��

Both regulators and consumers are watching energy companies closely, which might explain why energy executives in the research say that regulatory obligations and security concerns are their top triggers of digital transformation. They also say that stronger data privacy or cyber security are the user expectations that are most influential on digital transformation projects.

To meet these expectations, energy companies monitor security internally and in their wider ecosystems. “It’s often repeated that a chain is as strong as its weakest link, so energy firms hold ecosystem partners to a very high standard,�� says Rabra. “Energy companies often create governance models for the entire ecosystem to adhere to, helping ensure a clear and strict security baseline.��

These safeguarding exercises create built-in trust. According to 72 percent of energy executives, digital transformation efforts involving cyber security have increased profitability and performance over the past 24 months �� 12 percentage points more than the average across all sectors.

“The energy industry is asset-heavy in the upstream and customer experience heavy in the downstream,�� says Rabra. “As such, there’s a lot of value to be created, especially with new business models. Then, there’s the preservation of that value �� and that’s where the focus on cyber security and compliance comes in.��

This security-by-design approach creates trustworthy digital transformation initiatives that energy companies can implement technology with confidence moving forward. “With new business models �� including renewable energy �� I’m quite optimistic about the growth technology promises,�� says Rabra. “And the industry is just getting started.”��

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