Going into 2022, one of the biggest challenges for energy and utilities organizations are facing is innovating with a limited budget. According to Gartner, about 90% of IT budget is spent on operational costs, leaving only 10% for transformation and sustainability efforts, which will only become more important in the future.

At our virtual event with Rimini Street, Funding Secure, Compliant Transformation: Remaining Competitive in the Energy and Utilities Space, the expert panelists dove into ways to shift resources, attract new talent, and quickly adapt to new changes in the industry.

Check out some of the most valuable takeaways from our discussion on November 16th.

1. The path to net zero will have worldwide ramifications

“This is going to be the single greatest shift in capital allocation in human history,” said Digital Transformation Consultant Geoffrey Cann at the start of the conversation.

The massive energy transition to decarbonization will require rewiring the entire global energy system, something that we as a society have not undertaken in a very long time. The pressure for net zero is mounting year by year.

2. Transformation is necessary to attract new, younger talent

Ibrahim Al-Syed of Celanese spoke about how young talent, especially students right out of university, view the utilities space as “archaic.” He emphasized the need to incorporate smart technologies into the workplace to disband this notion.

He sees it as bringing new hires along for the journey of “leveraging all the technologies out there to run our facilities better.”

3. Free up existing resources to focus on critical imperatives

“Culturally, workers would think of digitization as something that’s going to take over their job,” Hedilyn Ago of Orlando Utilities Commission said.

However, by giving these workers opportunities to elevate their skill set and work on higher-level initiatives while their monotonous jobs are automated, she’s hoping this big culture shift will ultimately lead to higher job satisfaction.

4. The value of digital companies is increasing

18 years ago, Microsoft was the largest company in the world, followed by four industrial-first organizations, like ExxonMobil. In 2020, the top seven companies in the world are all digital companies.

Geoffrey emphasized concerns that energy and utilities companies are “a revenue rich industrial model that is suffering from very low capital returns… when we need access to capital so we can transform the industry.”

5. Be intentional with your data

“If we don’t really sort out how our data is stitching together, playing together, governing together, creating it in the right way, we really can’t achieve any of our aspirations,” Ibrahim said.

This emphasis on high-quality data is certainly new for the industry, but making informed, data-driven decisions about future transformation initiatives will separate the leaders from the laggards.

Curious to learn more about ways that top energy and utilities organizations are innovating? Access the full event content by filling out the form at the top of the page.