Microsoft & Arabesque Group sponsors “K IT Day” to Drive Forward Digital Transformation in Oil & Gas Sector

Monday 24 April 2017

Kuwait – MENA Herald: Microsoft & Arabesque Group participated in this year’s “K IT Day” an event that brought together Oil and Gas Sector Professionals from across the country to discuss the latest technology trends in the industry.

Microsoft stepped up as a gold sponsor for the event this year in collaboration with Arabesque Group for General Trading and Contracting to empower Oil & Gas sector professionals with its latest technological innovations.

K IT day’s theme this year, centred on the Internet of Things (IoT), showcased latest trends to Kuwait’s industry professionals and how IT can drive impact in the industry. Omar Saleh, Director for Oil and Gas at Microsoft, Middle East and Africa, delivered a session on advancing Digital Transformation and taking advantage of technologies such as the IoT, advanced analytics, modern productivity and cloud computing.

Saleh’s session elaborated on the three key areas that all companies seek to optimize: growth, innovation and operational excellence; and how the systems of intelligence integrated in Microsoft technologies like the Azure IoT suite can help achieve higher enterprise productivity through increased automation, rich data platforms, connected smart products, and more connected assets, employees and customers.

“21st century digital transformation promises to drive unprecedented industrial innovation. New digital technologies combined with data-driven insights can transform operations, boosting agility and strategic decision-making, and resulting in new business models.” said Omar Saleh, Director for Oil and Gas at Microsoft, Middle East and Africa. “We are pleased to sponsor this event that brings forth top industry professionals on this unique platform, and are keen to share knowledge on access to solutions that will help drive the industry forward.”

Saleh further highlighted how Digital Transformation built on the systems of intelligence such as Engaging Customers, Empowering Employees, Optimizing Operations and Transforming Products is enabling organizations to achieve more.

According to a 2016 Upstream Oil and Gas Digital Trends Survey by Accenture and Microsoft, 80% of upstream oil and gas companies plan to increase spending on digital technologies in order to help them drive leaner, smarter organisations.

Attendees at K IT day learnt about accessing solutions that are critical in improving operational and incident-free performance. In addition, Microsoft’s Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) Esri and OsiSoft, showcased a real-time demo on updating data into the Plant information (PI) system. The demonstration highlighted the process of data being cleansed, aggregated, and transmitted to an SQL Server using the “PI Integrator for Business Analytics”, and then being sliced by a power BI report to be presented in different ways for sector professionals to gain real time insights and make smarter decisions.

“Our collaboration with Microsoft underlines our commitment to promote advancement of technical skills in the sector.” Said Mr. Abdullah Makki the Deputy CEO of Arabesque Group. “K IT day represents a great opportunity to join forces and share knowledge base for introducing latest initiatives and technologies that would contribute towards sustained future growth in the oil and gas industry”.

With 44% of respondents in the 2016 Upstream Oil and Gas Digital Trends Survey reporting that investing in the Internet of Things (IoT) is their next big priority, it's clear that in the current environment the industry is focusing technologies on areas that will deliver efficiencies and savings while enabling faster decision making. Respondents also saw the greatest impact from IoT in enabling connected field workers, with 60% planning to have field workers and assets digitally connected with smart devices.

Microsoft has been committed to technological advancement in Kuwait and has taken part in several key initiatives to assist the government of Kuwait in transforming the services it provides. According to a Right scale cloud report, overall Microsoft Azure adoption surged from 20% to 34% in 2017, with Forbes recently predicting annual revenue for Azure to be close to $2.3 billion. Technologies like Azure IoT suite play a vital role in the oil and gas sector and helps reduce costs, gather intelligent data to determine if an oil rig part needs to be replaced, view production for optimization while increasing effectiveness of processes overall.

“Technology is increasingly becoming entrenched in business processes and in the tools needed to run business more efficiently; it is constantly evolving. Our participation in K IT and similar initiatives endorse our aim to support the government and organisations in Kuwait adopting latest cloud technology and accelerate their journey towards Digital Transformation.” added Saleh.

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