What is the value that technology brings to you and your organization? How do you measure the success of investing in these technologies?
As the leader of EcoStruxure Foxboro DCS, this is one of the most important discussions I can have with customers. Understanding digital transformation—its value-add and promise of energy efficiency—is imperative when an organization considers its stake in future technology investments.
The Covid-19 pandemic put the technical capabilities and operations of many industries to the test. The impact was resounding. It was another reminder that, as executive leaders, I feel we must always have our finger on the pulse. What are our options, and how will we choose the right one? What do we have to gain by enabling distributed control system (DCS) technologies?
To get an objective answer to those questions, Schneider Electric recently commissioned independent research firm Omdia to survey today’s digital transformation landscape, also known as digitalization.
An in-depth analysis of digital transformation
Omdia’s analysts surveyed 250 participants globally. Comprised of IT, operational, and corporate managers, respondents made up a range of segments, including water and wastewater, energies and chemicals, refining, pulp and paper, and power generation. Additionally, those surveyed had a wide range of company sizes from <1,000 to >100,000.
Of those surveyed, 94 percent felt that their operations would be positively impacted by digitalization two or three years after making the transformation. Over half of those leaders expect the impact to be considerable.
Download the survey report, “Taking Control of Industrial Digital Transformation.”
Many companies that underwent some form of digital transformation during the pandemic introduced remote monitoring and operations. Meanwhile, legacy systems were put to the test. With a greater sense of data-driven operational efficiency in place, such early adopters could maintain performance metrics in those challenging first two years of the pandemic. Fortunately, the survey also revealed that underprepared companies have since taken a deeper dive into the value-add solutions that digital transformation offers, investing in the lifecycle of their facilities.
3 takeaways from an industry-driven survey
The Covid-19 pandemic gave to a quick rise in companies scaling digitalization. Over 50 percent of survey respondents mentioned deploying digitalization as a cost management driver across multiple facilities, while 25 percent had done so in at least one facility. Many expect their investment in digitalization will begin to significantly impact their operations within a couple of years.
The study also showed an increase in digitalization across the supply chain to gain a competitive edge while enabling a more responsive system to demand fluctuations and supply chain disruptions.
The Omdia study made it clear that this is a very exciting time for building future-proof solutions. Here are three other key takeaways from the survey worth considering for your own organization:
1. Opportunity vs. Capability
There is a strong acceptance among organizations that digital transformation is required for their industrial enterprise. However, there is a hesitancy to make step-change improvements to technologies, such as a DCS, due to cost and opportunity lost during the transition.
Schneider Electric is fully equipped to support organizations throughout their digital transformation journey. From training services to migration roadmap sessions, we help manage the design and implementation of solutions that reduce the disruption to operations and minimize downtime resulting in the least operational and financial impact.
2. Criticality of Working Cross-Department
Many leaders worry that by adopting new digital tools, they will jeopardize veteran staff. Additionally, uncertainty arises around the different role responsibilities in the core function of the digitalization rollout.
People are your number one asset. Communication is key in establishing clear ownership and avoiding combative duplication of effort or misalignment. Schneider Electric helps establish a shared business model and digital training to result in effective productivity and prompt leaders to drive the reorganizational shift with their existing core teams.
3. Vendor Confidence and Expectations
Industrial customers show a clear understanding of what they need from control system vendors, like interoperability. But many come at it from different perspectives of deploying digitalization. Some take a traditional systems approach versus one more aligned to step-change, future-proof solutions.
Our experts come from various fields and have a firm understanding of which fundamental solutions are required. Entering the world of vendor-agnostic solutions can feel like a large undertaking. However, we remove complexities and provide innovative technologies to modernize your legacy control systems. We work closely with our customers to co-innovate the DCS technologies of the future.
Future-proofed systems through digital transformation
These are exciting times because companies are seeing digital transformation for its true potential: the ability for organizations to simultaneously optimize their energy efficiency while improving operational performance and profits.
Cost management aside, digitalization is critical to driving business strategy and innovation. We have seen how distributed control systems help businesses achieve their initiatives. This recent survey, which I encourage you to read at your leisure, is a good indication of where the DCS technologies are heading.
Feel free to continue the conversation with your Schneider Electric representative, and keep an eye out for my next blog in this series about digital transformation readiness.
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