Digital Project Delivery
Shell
Overview
Shell is one of the world’s largest energy companies, with operations in over 70 countries. As a vertically integrated organisation, Shell delivers activities in all areas of the oil & gas value chain – exploration, production, refining, transport, distribution, trading and retail.Alongside oil & gas, Shell also has a growing renewables business, incorporating biofuels, wind energy and hydrogen.
Digital Transformation offers a huge opportunity for capital projects, representing a fundamental shift in the way projects are designed, delivered and operated. Digital Transformation can be achieved through better understanding of the problems worth solving, an enterprise-wide approach to data, and agile piloting of new technology to build the business case for change.
Shell launched a programme with the aim to delivering a step change reduction in total installed cost (TIC) of projects. Deloitte were engaged to deliver the digital strategy & roadmap.
How we helped
As the first step of the strategy, the team delivered a set of digital project delivery principles, describing the overarching vision for the future – encompassing the innovation, data and technology approach, as well the overall aim of digital project delivery.
As further context for digital transformation in oil & gas, the team conducted a high level benchmarking exercise to show digital maturity of major infrastructure and engineering sectors. Alongside this, an overview of digital capital efficiency opportunities in Oil & Gas were presented, as well as the benefits that were being delivered. This helped to set the scene for the need to change.
The main section of the strategy was a “digital project delivery blueprint” which provided a portfolio level view of how the project would be executed in new ways. This high level operating model encompassed an understanding of internal and external stakeholders, change management approach, new ways of working, and a cross-project based roadmap for how digital transformation will be executed in the organisation.
One of the key transformation challenges is identifying the exemplar projects which can demonstrate success in the short-term. To accompany the blueprint, an analysis of Shell’s existing major project delivery schedule was done, identifying key opportunities for digital implementation, and the benefits that could be realised in the short, medium and long term.
A capability model was developed to describe the overall core and supporting capabilities that would need to be implemented to support Shell’s organisation in embracing new ways of working. These capabilities incorporated digital at every step, to indicate a fundamental shift in project delivery.
The overall outcome of the project was a clear strategy of how Shell would reach its target of 50% reduction in TIC against a five-year plan. This strategy was aligned to organisational benefits, business benefits and a priority projects hopper. Some practical examples of contract management, data platform architecture and change messaging were also provided to support rollout.
...a clear strategy of how Shell would reach its target of 50% reduction in delivery costs against a five-year plan...
