Energy companies are overcoming traditional hurdles by harnessing the power of data, cloud innovation, and human collaboration to reshape the industry.
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A powerhouse panel of industry experts came together at the recent ASUG Best Practices for Oil, Gas, and Energy summit in Houston to share how technology is reshaping operations across the sector.
Melanie McMahan, Director of Finance Systems Innovation at Oxy, the Occidental Petroleum Corporation, opened the discussion by saying that digital transformation means never standing still.
“Our biggest hurdle is keeping up with the pace of change,” she said. “Oxy moved to SAP S/4HANA back in 2020, and we’ve been evolving ever since as SAP continues to innovate.”
Her team focuses on technology that supports functional efficiency and better business insight. Using SAP Signavio for process mining, SAP Fiori for finance analytics, and SAP Datasphere paired with SAP Analytics Cloud, Oxy is building a foundation for real-time financial intelligence.
“Our goal is to create a single source of truth for financial data,” McMahan explained. “We want everyone fishing from the same pond, so that every analysis, KPI, or ad hoc report is built on the same reliable foundation.”
Bridging the human and IT divide
Bob Pennington from CITGO Petroleum brought attention to a challenge many in the room could relate to: getting people and technology to work together. One of the first companies to provide gas and electric utility services to the Midwest, CITGO prides itself on its long legacy of putting people first.
“Our biggest challenge is putting together the human space with the IT space,” he said. “We’re dealing with massive change — AI, cloud migration, new reporting tools — and we have to make sure our people can move in sync with that technology.”
Learn how energy companies are finding new ways to harness the power of data, cloud innovation, and human collaboration here.
Pennington emphasized the importance of mastering fundamentals, or “blocking and tackling” as he called it. Before jumping to AI and automation, enterprises need to ensure that core processes like planning, maintenance, and procurement are executed consistently and with clean data.
“Big data and tools like Microsoft Power BI give us new capabilities,” Pennington said, “but they only work if we’re collecting the right information at the right level of detail.”
Industry expert Justin Lester, a former oilfield veteran turned transformation consultant, said that the best insights often come from the field. “The guys out there touching the equipment every day know the assets better than anyone. If you give them the right tools and ask them to capture accurate data, you’ll get the most valuable information your business can have.”
His message was simple but powerful: you can’t go fast without building a solid foundation first. “Most companies already own the tools they need in SAP,” he said. “They just have to start using them to their full potential.”
From infrastructure to insight
Kenny Shih of Hilcorp, one of the largest independently held energy companies in America, shared how his organization is building a modern data foundation that supports both IT scalability and business agility. “We started simply with an SQL database,” said Hilcorp’s SAP expert, “but we’ve since moved toward technologies like SAP Datasphere and SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) to unify our data.”
He emphasized three key principles for any enterprise starting this journey:
- A unified data foundation: whether it’s on-premise or in the cloud, start by bringing data together in one accessible framework.
- Embrace real-time visibility with SAP HANA and visualization tools like Power BI.
- Modernize and communicate: having clear, direct channels between IT, functional teams, and end users is critical.
Shih gave an example of how collaboration recently saved Hilcorp from a costly system outage after a 2-billion-record limit was hit in an SAP table. “By having an open line of communication, we were able to solve the issue quickly,” he explained.
Information, not data
The panelists agreed that the industry is still in its infancy when it comes to data analytics. Pennington pointed out that while companies are collecting enormous amounts of data, many are just beginning to realize what to do with it.
“We’re learning that efficiency alone isn’t the goal. Sometimes, we’re extremely efficient at doing the wrong things,” he said. “The next phase of maturity is using data not just to optimize, but to make sure we’re optimizing the right work.”
McMahan agreed. “We have plenty of data. What we need is information.” She concluded by highlighting Oxy’s recent Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud implementation — a project designed to unify reporting, enable AI and machine learning readiness, and eliminate redundant tools.
“We partnered with IT to decommission legacy systems and align on a single analytics strategy,” she said. “The goal is capability building. We’re empowering our teams to model data, visualize insights, and grow with the system. That’s how we future-proof finance.”
Across all perspectives — finance, maintenance, IT, and operations — one message stood out: transformation in oil and gas isn’t just about technology. It’s about people, processes, and a shared commitment to clarity, communication, and consistency.
As Justin Lester summed it up: “You’ve got to slow down to go fast. The tools are there — use them, build the foundation, and then go to work.”
Learn how energy companies are finding new ways to harness the power of data, cloud innovation, and human collaboration here.
