Dassault Systèmes recently announced a new partnership with McDermott International, Inc., to take their business to a new level of digital transformation with the help of our 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
As a leader in the EPCI (engineering, procurement, construction, and installation) services field, and a roster of clients that includes some of the world’s largest offshore drilling and oil companies, McDermott faces constant pressure to execute in a timely, cost-effective manner on projects that pose more challenges than traditional construction or engineering projects on dry land.
These tremendous challenges caused McDermott to reevaluate their entire process and realize it was time to move to a digital platform which provides collaboration, real-time data analysis and virtual 3D modeling. These new capabilities not only makes it easier to meet their business requirements, but also provides insightful analytics that allows them to stay ahead of their workload and anticipate potential mechanical malfunctions that would otherwise hinder their project timelines and incur serious repair costs.
McDermott adopted the “Integrated Plant Engineering,” “Optimized Plant Construction,” and “Efficient Plant Operation” industry solution experiences – powered by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform – to enable digital standardization across their project management processes, with an unprecedented level of collaboration that encompasses their many responsibilities, such as engineering, procurement, construction, and installation through a holistic approach.
Furthermore, their new virtual simulation and 3D design capabilities allow McDermott to create “3DEXPERIENCE twins” of their production facilities, pipelines, and subsea systems, which provides visibility into operations based on real-time data they receive across the company’s seamless design and management platforms. Such an innovation enhances a team’s ability to make informed decisions about product life cycle management including maintenance, managing design changes, and performance optimization.
McDermott’s digital transformation with to a digital platform makes them the first EPCI company to pursue such an ambitious goal, which is part of their overarching strategy according to VP of Global Engineering Vaseem Khan, who said McDemott’s goal was “to become the first energy-focused EPCI company to implement a project lifecycle platform,” as it advances them beyond their competitors in terms of capabilities and effectiveness, enabling them to provide superior services at a more competitive price.
In fact, their digital transformation made enough waves to earn a feature story in the most recent edition of Energy CIO Insights. As noted in the article:
“The [3DEXPERIENCE] platform will enable McDermott to digitize and standardize its processes, driving down costs by eliminating legacy systems and simplifying work processes into a single integrated, software-agnostic engineering platform.”
The real success behind McDermott’s move to a digital platform was the company’s belief that digitalization shouldn’t just be a compliment to the processes they already had in place, but rather a full scale adoption and migration to digitalized business. They weren’t content with using a few solutions to fix their problems; they wanted to transform how they operated, as part of an ambitious strategy to put themselves ahead of their competition. This is the proper decision-making mindset for the digital age of business. The acknowledgement that platforms are a full hip replacement, and not just a bandage, is critical for decision makers to accept in order to successfully digitalize their businesses.
In the Energy CIO Insights article, Akash Khurana, VP, CIO and CDO, McDermott, also laid out the myriad ways that digitalization and our industry solutions enhance the way McDermott operates. Most notably is how digitalization helped them “overcome a siloed infrastructure, which did not have much visibility into operational data.” As we’ve previously pointed out, the greatest advantage of digitalized business is how holistic it is, and this is critical when it comes to data sharing. All companies fall victim to the silo mentality at some point in their existence. Company procedures and protocols create social structures which inhibit collaboration and adversely affect data sharing and analysis. McDermott is using their digital platform to break down these silos and improve data sharing and communication. This newfound synthesis between functions will inevitably lead to creative solutions and innovations that were not previously possible.
We’re excited to announce McDermott’s story will be one of several customer success stories featured at our upcoming 3DEXPERIENCE FORUM, where McDermott’s VP of Global Engineering Vaseem Kahn will join other industry leaders on stage to discuss the platform business model. The discussion will explore the complexities of our modern economy and platform based solutions, and we encourage anyone who is curious about business platforms in the digital age of business and how it relates to their own company to attend.
