How has Covid-19 sped up digital transformation
March 2022 is particularly focused on digitalisation, with the Second EAGE Digital Workshop in Vienna. Ironically, the First EAGE Digital Workshop was planned in 2020, the same year the too well-known COVID-19 pandemic invited itself in our lives and altogether accelerated digitalisation worldwide. For the last two years, we have developed new habits, and I am not talking about the fact that we now know how to queue across Europe, even in Italy! We have adopted new ways of living, working, and learning, thanks to the ‘digitalisation transformation’ across so many sectors. From the health and education sectors up to the collaborative working tools, more and better digitalisation tools and services are now available than ever before. From home schooling to home office, these two years have given us the trust and confidence that we can adapt well to new learning and working practices and be better and faster connected.
Positive snowball effect of the digitalization
During our daily work in geoscience, we are craving for collaborative data management. We are focused in gaining and generating values from improved communication, integration, and automation of data flows across teams within our organisations. Using technology and best practices to accelerate the design, development, and validation of data delivery generates trust and confidence in expanding together knowledge in new solution delivery for new value generation and data insight. It is key to unlock data silos and share the same data views within the teams to create new ideas and new knowledge. Data democracy is needed to get to the right expertise faster and in better conditions. Various teams are working on developing solutions for, or on top of, data platforms to make data easily accessible and shareable across teams. Growing new insights in a collaborative way is a powerful and efficient way of learning. Teams work not only together within the same company but also across institutions as a united task force; one great and leading example is the OSDU Data Platform, where cooperation and collaboration have been picking up fast. This created synergy is not only positive but extremely contagious. We are all users of digital solutions, and our expectations in our daily solutions as geoscientists are also increasing. In addition, our sense of urgency to change and our flexibility to adopt new tools to get further insight on our data is clearly visible. This synergy is a drive that many teams experience and want to push further to get the necessary data insight now. From this common and global digital experience raises the trust and confidence in business growth, generating right solutions for users who are as engaged and as willing to get new added value.
Trust and Confidence from 2022 DAVOS Agenda
One theme of the World Economic Forum DAVOS Agenda on January 25–29, 2022, is that ‘no institution alone can address the economic, environmental, social and technological challenges of our interdependent world’. To overcome these challenges together, as mentioned by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, two main areas of investment are the European Green Deal and digitalisation, which require cooperation built on trust and confidence. Another key point is the European energy price crisis. However, today with respect to the first oil and gas crisis in the mid-1970, we have more options to choose from as alternative sources of energy. In addition, we have more knowledge on how to move from only a fossil fuel–based system to a clean energy–based system. The people and businesses trust that this transition is finally occurring.
Within our EAGE community, I trust that we will see further fantastic contributions to the challenge of energy transition and digitalisation transformation that the energy sector needs. Hence, I am looking forward to the outcome of the Second EAGE Digital Workshop to learn about other experiences in overcoming data challenges and improving geoscientists’ data insights and decision-making through new digital solutions and technology.
Article initially published in First Break March 2022 in WhatsUp! section.