DUBAI: Microsoft has opened its largest centre of excellence for the oil & gas industry in Dubai, to assist organisations in the sector to drive digital transformation, cut costs and optimisation of their operations. The new centre will help companies in the sector take advantage of the latest trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT), advanced analytics, modern productivity and cloud computing using Microsoft technologies like Microsoft Azure and Office 365.
It is the largest such centre for Microsoft globally. According to the 2016 Upstream Oil and Gas Digital Trends Survey by Accenture and Microsoft, 80 per cent of upstream oil and gas companies plan to increase spending on digital technologies in order to help them drive leaner, smarter organisations. The International Data Corporation (IDC), predicts that IT spending in oil and gas will increase to nearly $50billion in 2016, while spending on connectivity related technologies should increase by 30 per cent.
“Digital transformation is top of mind for executives in the oil and gas industry, which is why we built the centre of excellence in the Middle East,” said Omar Saleh, director for Oil and Gas at Microsoft, Middle East and Africa. “For the industry to transform, companies need to develop sound digital strategies, built on secure and agile platforms, either on a company’s premises or in the cloud.”
“They are expected to continue investing in areas that help lower operations costs, infrastructure costs and drive better asset management through analytics,” Massimo Pagella, resources lead for Accenture Middle East and North Africa, said. “However, looking into the future, these companies are starting to realise that traditional cost cutting levers will not be enough to sustain future growth,” Pagella said.
