| | September 20168CIOReviewWhether the reputation is fair or not, the oil and gas industry is often considered a "laggard" in adopting the latest technologies. Considering the current energy commodity price environment, adoption of new technology to improve efficiency and institute "lean manufacturing" concepts in oilfield operations is necessary. Moreover, learning from other industries and applying innovation is critical for those companies that want to remain competitive.Innovation begins and ends with all staff-whether in IT or other functions-questioning the status quo and looking for new ways of working and improving efficiencies in everything they do. Adopting new and leading-edge technologies is facilitated by IT as digitization is integrated throughout the organization. Information technology is vital to the safe and profitable production and marketing of oil and gas today.Innovation in IT means discovering and exploiting new ideas, technologies, and methods that empower our most valuable resources--our people. Their imagination, creativity, and functional expertise will enable oil and gas companies to thrive and deliver value. IT must also provide technical leadership to the overall organization. How do we predict technology changing over 1 year, 2 years, 5 years? How can we apply technological advancements to achieve better outcomes? Information Technology is changing fast and it is necessary to take some risks to keep up. In the past, IT organizations have often been "order takers." Innovation came from the business teams. Today, IT is expected to lead and demonstrate how technology can be used to achieve business goals. With the Internet of Things, mobile computing, the cloud, operational analytics, production optimization, and other recent advancements, IT innovation is no longer limited to IT systems, but includes almost every aspect of the oilfield: smart devices, smart controllers, mobile distributed work force, enterprise networking, etc.At Occidental, our business leaders are expecting us to develop innovative solutions at a faster pace. It is our job to know technology and how and when to apply it for the best business outcomes. As the dynamics between IT and the business evolve, we are collaborating to prioritize investments and design and build solutions for the future.We routinely evaluate best practices in the Information Technology industry to find innovative solutions that contribute to the business objective and ultimately the bottom line. As a result, we formed an IT enterprise architecture team consisting of typically seasoned IT professionals with diverse backgrounds and experience who understand the business opportunities and challenges of new and leading-edge technology. The team's charter is to examine current and ongoing projects and recommend new disruptive technologies being used inside and outside of the energy industry. These strategies are then reviewed by senior management for potential discovery investment. For example, our IT department is collaborating with our oil and gas business leaders to re-imagine how the oilfield will operate 5 to 10 years from now. This partnership has given us the By Yanni Charalambous, VP & CIO, Occidental Petroleum CorporationFinding the Right Balance between Protecting Data and Fostering InnovationIN MY OPINION
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