In 2013, Gartner elaborated a concept that they called the “digital business” and defined it as “…the creation of new business designs by blurring the digital and physical worlds…promis(ing) to usher in an unprecedented convergence of people, business and things that disrupts existing business models.”[1]
While the concept of becoming a digital business is fairly easy to envision and apply to the financial and consumer worlds (think big data, e-commerce, etc.), physical commodity businesses rely on tremendously expensive and complex assets that exist in a physical world. The commodities they produce, process, transport and sell are critical in the production of all manner of products that are required to sustain life and improve the human condition. In this context, becoming a “digital business” is not about transforming your company to produce and monetize data - it’s about leveraging available and emerging technologies and data sources to increase the value of the business by improving and/or transforming the myriad of processes that constitute the business and its value chain.
There is little doubt that the commodity price collapse in 2014 narrowed the focus of commodity industry IT organizations as budgets were cut and all costs scrutinized. However, with improving prices and increasing adoption of new technologies across the value chains of many commodity businesses, the upcoming 5-year anniversary of concept of the “digital business” could mark the broad adoption of its tenets within the markets served by CTRM and related technologies. Based on industry reports, anecdotal evidence and our own interactions with customers and prospects, it’s clear that CIO’s in this space are increasingly focused on onboarding new and innovative technologies and deployment approaches that help transform the way their companies conduct businesses – whether or not they use the term “digital business” to describe those strategies.
Though many initially viewed the cloud as a way to reduce costs, internet enablement of many of the technologies used by commodity companies, and new technologies such as drone-based surveys, have elevated the focus of IT organizations across the board. With new technologies available on demand, increased internet enablement of equipment, machine learning and secure peer-to-peer networks (including blockchain) enabling any number of processes from production to settlement, the accelerating adoption of these technologies indicates that 2018 may very well be the year that many commodities companies start to achieve the mantle of “digital business.”
Of course, the greatest challenges in becoming a digital business is not simply deploying new technologies to do thing differently. Creating real quantifiable value requires active cross-functional involvement, an organizational mandate (and willingness) to change, and teams with new skills, either hired or developed internally. Still, for those companies willing to take on the challenge and embark down the path of becoming digital companies, the availability of new technologies and new solutions opens any number of opportunities to transform their commercial and operational processes – enabling new commercial insights, accelerating decision making and exposing new business opportunities.
Eka produces solutions that are a central and critical component of any emerging digital commodity business. Our products incorporate the latest technology advances and can be quickly and efficiently deployed, via the cloud, to provide almost immediate improvement across any number of metrics. Our solutions help reduce software and deployment costs, improve trading margins and analyze any number of data sets to optimize operations - including accelerating inventories, reducing production and transportation costs, and improving commercial decision making for increased profitability.
As a technology company with deep commodity experience, Eka is dedicated to providing innovative solutions that leverage both existing and emerging technologies - such as drone-based measurements, virtual reality and machine learning – to help transform the business processes of our customers and enable their path to becoming “digital commodity businesses.”
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/gartnergroup/2014/05/07/digital-business-is-everyones-business/#d7483307f82b