For a while we’ve been talking about the benefits of bringing Risk, Operations, EHS and Industry 4.0 technology together in one enterprise platform. It is the only way to reach new levels of safety, productivity, and transparency.
Our Industry is Changing
I am thrilled to say that over the past year there has been a significant shift in our market following this exact strategy. In fact, since Wolters Kluwer’s acquisition of eVision in October 2018, there has been more than $2.5B invested in our Operational Risk Management (ORM) and EHS space! This is unprecedented.
But this isn’t the most exciting part to me. What is far more exciting is the work we have been doing with some of the market’s leading customers – our partners and co-innovators. The work we are doing together is having a far greater impact on the business than simple technology improvements.
An Extraordinary Meeting
The best example of this happened just several months ago when I was in Houston, Texas meeting with several of our Oil & Gas customers. We host user groups and SPF events, and SPF Houston included more than 200 attendees.
While in Houston, we joined a strategic working session with one of our customers. What made this session unique was the professionals who attended from the company’s upstream, midstream, and downstream business. Also attending were executives from their IT, Corporate and Operations departments.
Why was this so unique? If anyone is from this industry, you know this is a rare occurrence – especially for large, global enterprises. Many divisions have broad safety and productivity goals but deploy different processes and tools to accomplish these goals. Most of the industry operates this way today – but this is changing.
In the above meeting, despite being at the same company for many years, several of these professionals met each other (in-person) for the very first time. What brought these people together were their internal leaders, one uniform strategy and our EHS & ORM digital platform. That week set the future direction to operate as one cross-functional team building processes on one digital platform focused on new levels of safety, productivity and operational integrity.
This company meeting is not the only example, there are many more. One of our large Energy customers sunset 40 independent IT tools to consolidate processes and technology on our one platform. The IT cost savings are substantial, but far more value is achieved by the breaking of silos and enabling communication between people in the organization.
If any company wishes to reach new levels of safety and productivity, breaking silos and merging Risk, Operations and EHS functions onto one platform is critical. The net effect of operating in silos builds barriers to accomplishing everyone’s EHS and ORM goals.
How many times has a corporate safety policy impacted operational productivity? How many times have operational changes impacted the safety or integrity of a company? How many times was the impact of these misalignments realized after an accident or incident?
With new Industry 4.0 technology and a truly integrated 4.0 platform like Enablon/eVision, companies can now bring these functions together in one proactive and transparent program.
My Personal Mission
At a personal level, the above meeting was the highlight of my year. Seeing how our joint efforts can break down internal barriers to accomplish new goals is rewarding. I’ve made it my mission to help break down the silos and barriers in this industry that prevent us from saving lives and ensuring more productive and sustainable operations.
As the year ends and we look forward to 2020, I am looking forward to incredibly exciting times for Enablon, eVision, our clients and partners, and the industry. I know the story above will be repeated many times.
Stay tuned for large developments and announcements from us ahead, and here’s to breaking down process and communication silos in 2020!
