Welcome to the launch of our new weekly Q&A blog series. After sharing an interview blog with our CEO and Co-founder, Erik Nijveld (See blog here), we got the idea to create a series of weekly Q&A sessions with Erik for the month of April. Erik brings a wealth of experience, having previously served as a Technology Deployment Manager at Shell.
In this first edition, Erik sheds light on the pivotal role of a Technology Deployment Manager and why it's indispensable for companies aiming to stay ahead in today's rapidly evolving technological landscape.
Ready? So are we!
Erik, before starting TechnologyCatalogue.com, you worked as Technology Deployment Manager at Shell. Can you say something about the role?
Absolutely.
Something that you see often in companies is that technologies get deployed once or twice, and there it stops. This way missing opportunities to deliver significant business value.
In my last role at Shell, I was tasked to make technology replication across Shell happen. For this, I started a global task force - the Technology Replication Thrust for Production Excellence.
As a next step, we also started looking at technologies other companies used, which our company had not yet. Finding & selecting those technologies wasn’t easy. It was already challenging enough to create an overview of what has been considered and used within our own company, but even more challenging was knowing what others have done.
I can say that the over 600 deployments that we realised over a period of 7 years when I was leading technology deployment activities in Shell delivered a very, very significant business impact. I still remember one of the first deployments that we did. With an investment of USD 0.5 million, we got about 4 million barrels out of a field that was already given up, with the wells scheduled to be abandoned. And this is just one example. The deployments that we delivered resulted in cost reduction, CO2 footprint reduction, safety improvements as well as additional production.
Why is there a need for a Technology Deployment Manager. I mean: if technology is so valuable, it should be picked up sort of automatically. Can you explain?
In theory, you’re right. In practice, even if a technology has been used many times by others: it still requires a focussed effort to then deploy it in your own asset. But it’s worth the effort.
To make it happen, I always recommend every company to have someone responsible for technology deployment.
It makes a lot of sense to make the same person responsible for the scouting. After all, a measure of success of scouting is not how many tech you find, but how many of those eventually get deployed. By making the same person overall responsible, the scouting efforts get the right business focus. This is a topic in itself, and suggest we focus a bit more on that during next week’s chat!
Why do many companies not have a Technology Deployment Manager?
Simply stated: because many company leaders don’t realise how much impact can be made with technology, and therefore don’t give it priority. Particularly deploying technology that has already been successfully used by peers and competitors. They still consider technology as nice to have. And by doing that, they leave a lot of money on the table. Also, without a dedicated technology drive, decarbonising the business is not going as fast as it could be!
Is this a full-time role?
Depending on the size of your company, it may be a full-time role or a part-time role. I would be happy to share a job description that companies can use, including lines summarising the required experience and personal characteristics of a preferred candidate!
That’s it for this week. If you have specific questions you would like to ask Erik, please let us know, and we’ll include them in one of the next chats!
Join us next week again, where we will zoom in further on creating strong links between technology scouting and the technology deployment drive. Stay tuned for more!
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