Equinor embraces Power Platform to increase process efficiency while cutting costs
In this new blog series, we are sharing examples of customers who have been able to Do More With Less by utilizing the Power Platform in their organization to build applications, automate processes, determine insights and more.
Equinor, a forward thinking energy company based in Norway, has forecasted the estimated annual value from a solution delivered by their DigiTEAM and citizen developers at more than 500 million NOK. As of the currency exchange rate on November 16th, 500 million NOK equals to more than 49 million US Dollars. These savings do not include the Power Platform projects delivered by their IT Team.
The company is on a journey to net-zero emissions through optimizing its oil and gas portfolio, accelerating growth in renewables, and pioneering developments in carbon capture and hydrogen. Given the significant changes required in operations to move to renewable energy, the technology leadership at Equinor turned to Power Platform to enable rapid development of enterprise-level solutions that would deliver immediate business value.
“The business impact and benefits of the resulting Power Platform solutions truly speak for themselves, so our focus is to promote them effectively.” -Rebecca Brekke: Center for Enablement Task Lead
The teams at Equinor have digitally transformed multiple use cases including those in the logistics and supply chain area.
Svein Inge Heggøy, Discipline Responsible Logistics and crane operator at Equinor, had no prior Power Platform experience and built a “Crane and Lifting” Power Apps app. This app enabled users to easily make crane lift requests, a process that had historically been ad hoc and decentralized with requests coming via email using Excel or SharePoint lists, and via phone calls and handwritten notes. Hans Martin Berge, who has an engineering background and is a Task Lead at Equinor’s DigiTEAM, partnered with Svein Inge to integrate Dataverse and replace SharePoint for data storage so it could be scaled and deployed to other Equinor installations. Now, crane lift operations run more efficiently and effectively with a centralized tool to manage requests.
Another example is the “Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) Dashboard” solution that started out as single Power App utilizing AI Builder capabilities to automatically count pipes in photos uploaded by users from tablets and mobile phones. The solution expanded to centralize the critical data in the supply chain in Dataverse with orders’ creation and updates via a Power Apps app, automated notifications and reminders on pending/delayed/confirmed orders via Power Automate and visualization of logistical trends, risks, and areas for improvement in Power BI.
Read more about how Equinor approached and implemented governance, provided training and best practice guidance on Power Platform and, are furthering fusion development in their organization.
“Power Platform’s low-code technology fosters better innovative relationships between business experts and IT experts and avoids the ‘shadow IT’ pitfall many organizations operate within.” -Per Kåre Foss: Vice President Enterprise Infrastructure Platforms
