‘How IT maturity promotes business efficiency’

internetTHE Information Technology (IT) Maturity Model leads to a more efficient organisation that is better equipped to accomplish its mission and goals.

This was the position of the Network Middleware Applications Information Technology Manager of Chevron Nigeria Limited, Eloho Agbaje, at the 61st edition of the Digital Jewels’ Information Value Chain forum held in Lagos.

The forum had in attendance senior executives from the Oil and Gas, financial services, telecommunications, IT and other sectors.

In her presentation on “IT Maturity: Lessons from the Oil and Gas Sector”, Agbaje explained that strategies had been mapped out to help continually grow the oil sector towards profitability and competitiveness being a multi-disciplinary sector.

According to her, this would enable the oil industry “have a competitive advantage with respect to their peers,” adding that “our key vision and strategy is to differentiate performance through technology.”

Dwelling on the impact of IT on the oil and gas business, Agbaje stated that a reliable telecommunication link between rigs and offices would lead to increased efficiency in drilling campaigns, better collaboration and communication, and reduced cost due to support for remote operations.

She further said: “If it doesn’t go well, there will be inefficient coordination of drilling activities, high cost of drilling campaigns and increased risks of incidents. With our Process Control Networks (PCN) and Machinery Support. If it goes well, we can remotely monitor critical systems and we can provide quick response to potential equipment downtime and improve operational excellence. But if otherwise, due to equipment failure and facility incidents, we could have blowouts, oil spills, we could be in the media for all the wrong reasons and all of the reputational damage that comes with that.”

As an IT support function, Agbaje said that the IT Maturity Model developed from a vision that would differentiate business performance with the strategic intents needed to deliver trusted information in a manner that would connect people, partners and business, accelerate business insights as well as automate, integrate and optimise business operations.

“The key enablers are an integrated IT operating model that builds functional excellence to deliver and steward reliable and efficient assets, easy to use solutions, an agile architecture and trusted information,” she explained.

Agbaje shared some of the strategic objectives that Chevron Nigeria had used over the last five years to progress on IT maturity. They involved creating a business value by investing in the core business, capital stewardship and digitised platforms to make the work processes easier, fast and more efficient.

She then shared key steps in an IT maturity journey, which involved determining a goal, vision or future state, assessing the current state, identifying gaps, developing prioritised roadmap to close gaps and measuring and tracking progress by aligning with business goals.

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Digital Jewels Limited, Adedoyin Odunfa ,who made a presentation on “IT Maturity: Stimulants, Enablers and Inhibitors”, said that IT maturity assessments were in many shapes and sizes, including those in the of areas strategy, culture, governance, people, skills, transparency, risk management, security, processes, asset management, customer satisfaction and supplier management. She said that an IT maturity assessment was designed to benchmark current IT capabilities against a fixed scale.

“It will give you a baseline – a snapshot of where you are now – from which you can plan a roadmap for improvement,” she added.

Odunfa also provided a cross-referencing of IT maturity models, which included the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) from the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnaegie Melon University, Pittsburgh, United States.