Aveva CEO Craig Hayman: "It's never been easier to start the digital change process!"

© Aveva

The two-day event was held under the motto: 'Accelerate Innovation and Transform Your Digital Future'. In addition to a series of technology presentations by Aveva, partner companies and customers reported on their specific experiences, problems and results already achieved in the implementation of digital transformation - from transportation to shipbuilding, the oil and gas industry and the food and beverage sector. It became clear in almost all of the presentations that many companies are already making some progress towards digitalization and have already achieved initial successes. However, very few have reached their goal.

Craig Resnick, Vice President of ARC, emphasizes: "The path to digital transformation is never a straight line!"

© Computers&AUTOMATION

Things could or should also move faster: After all, while the finance, insurance, healthcare and retail sectors have been quick to use the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and big data to meet the changing needs of their customers, the industry has recently been slower to adopt new technologies. This is the conclusion of the ARC Advisory Group (ARC). Its Vice President Craig Resnick reported in Singapore on a recent study by the consultancy, according to which only 5 to 8% of companies in the industries mentioned are actually "ready for digital transformation". There are still barriers, particularly in the areas of organizational responsibility, culture and employee change management, which are hindering the transformation. Resnick therefore emphasized emphatically at the conference: "The key to successful digitalization is agile, digitally savvy leadership that sets out a strategic vision and embeds a digital mindset across the entire workforce." The decisive factor here is that mistakes must be allowed and a "tolerance of risk" established.

Aveva CEO Craig Hayman is convinced that now is the right time to actively embrace change: "It has never been easier to start a digital transformation program! Access to cloud computing is now extremely affordable, connectivity is excellent and connections from the edge to the enterprise level have been established. In combination with powerful analytics solutions and the possibilities of machine learning, enormous productivity gains can already be achieved in the industrial world." The topic of asset performance management in particular has developed very quickly in recent times. Companies should therefore use their data specifically for simulation, for example, and ultimately create an end-to-end digital twin across the entire value chain - from engineering to operation and maintenance of their systems.