Big Data and the Digital Transformation Journey

Companies the world over are on a data journey, and that includes companies in the energy industry. Power and utility companies are shifting to digital data technologies in order to capitalize on the increased opportunity to create value and derive insights from data.

Deloitte’s recent survey of industry executives showed that “95 percent of power sector respondents agreed with the statement: ‘Digital transformation is a top strategic priority at my organization.’” Clearly, using digital technologies and data to power businesses is a top priority for executives in the power industry. Big Data and Data Analytics offer energy companies the opportunity to improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, and operations. However, Big Data and the digital transformation journey offer some challenges to companies as well.

Big Data requires a skilled talent workforce to make it meaningful and insightful. One of the challenges companies on the data transformation journey face is that there is a shortage of skilled talent in the industry. Additionally, the ever-increasing volume of Big Data presents further cybersecurity risk. The energy industry is particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks and ransomware. (If you didn’t see our blog Could Something Like the Colonial Pipeline Attack Hit the Power Grid check it out here). Additionally, the data transformation journey requires an agile, adaptable organization to implement the changes required. Digital Data transformation is coming to all industries, whether we like it or not. Despite the challenges, the potential rewards are well worth embarking on the journey. So what does this journey look like?

According to Deloitte, there are four phases of the digital journey: 

1. Exploring Digital - No significant change to the organization, companies in this phase are still utilizing traditional technologies and are at risk of losing out to the competition if they do not progress in the journey.

2. Doing Digital - Making the digital changes that are necessary while following the lead of other companies.  Deloitte warns that it’s easy to get stuck in this phase, implementing new digital technologies as individual projects rather than integrating digital change throughout the organization. 

3. Becoming Digital - Companies in this stage are implementing digital technologies throughout the organization by collaborating and synchronizing their adoption of new technologies across all teams and processes. 

4. Being Digital - Very few companies are in this stage.  In fact, Deloitte says most power companies are in the first two stages.  Companies in this stage have implemented the use of digital technologies throughout the organization and are creating their own technologies, and scaling their technological abilities.