Digital twins often begin in early concept or design phases, but their impact expands significantly when they are maintained and leveraged across operations and the broader asset lifecycle.

Much like moving from simulating one manufacturing line to expanding across the entire plant ecosystem; a digital twin shouldn’t just handle one phase or task, but span the full asset or project lifecycle, connecting people, data and decisions across time and teams.

The digital twin concept has evolved. So, naturally, FieldTwin is not the same as it was four years ago. Its capabilities have grown significantly and we have taken and acted on hundreds of learnings across implementations.  

You may still envisage FieldTwin as a pure design and visualization tool, but thanks to some smart principles embedded early in its development, it’s become so much more than that.

We now refer to FieldTwin as an integrated visual workspace. It’s the only geospatial digital twin platform purpose-built for subsea projects, and it supports the full project lifecycle.

Having listened to our customers and their challenges, we’ve realized that visualization alone is no longer enough. Concept selection and design are no longer enough. We’ve extended the parameters of what a ‘digital twin’ platform can do: across projects and for all stakeholders. 

Lowering the usability barrier across stakeholders

Accessing the right information, for a specific presentation or decision gateway for example, often requires multiple tools, spreadsheets, reports and subject matter expert Teams messages. With integrated workspaces like FieldTwin, it’s easy to surface relevant data and connect information across systems.  

That's because we've really concentrated on lowering the barrier to usability; making sure that senior stakeholders - and anyone else that's not in the platform daily - can surface insights quickly. Smarter, faster decision-making across the team, without requiring everyone to become a technical expert. 

Improving data flow across departments

A major challenge with many large enterprise systems is that they’re excellent at storing and organizing information, but not always at helping you find what you need. SharePoint is a good example: it’s powerful, but even when you know where something lives, tracking it down again can be difficult. And because it’s so large, it often can’t flex to the specific needs of your organization. FieldTwin is different. We’ve made it fully configurable so it can be shaped around a business’ workflows.

Customer success depends on translating data into actionable insights. Turning raw information into something useful. And a key part of that is connecting data sources. That’s where the real value lies: new insights often emerge simply by bringing data together and viewing it in new contexts. Combining disparate datasets - and surfacing the right information without forcing users to log into multiple systems - saves significant time and removes unnecessary friction between departments. 

Bringing clarity to complexity

Engineers and project teams consistently tell us the same thing: they’re drowning in data but starved of clarity. Surfacing the right insights often means trawling through documents, systems and models; a slow, fragmented process that eats into already tight timelines. That’s why we built FieldTwin Intelligence. It gives teams the ability to surface insight fast and interrogate projects quickly.

FieldTwin Intelligence is a secure AI assistant that connects decades of your historical engineering data to today’s teams in seconds, helping them understand decisions, context and risks without the usual detective work. Imagine your engineers and project teams having an actual conversation with the project itself; asking questions, getting instant answers. 

Fully preparing for end of life

Responsibly tackling end of life planning is essential to protecting both the environment and the reputation of our industry. But the scale of the decommissioning challenge is enormous. Legacy infrastructure is rapidly stacking up; idle - and worse, leaking - in fields across the world.

Digital twins offer a huge opportunity to better plan for and tackle decommissioning in the future. Because a smoother and environmentally sound decommissioning process starts with a strategic, full-lifecycle mindset; considering end of life much earlier and putting the systems in place to support it.  

There’s a major opportunity to digitize cessation planning and decommissioning, helping operators streamline disposal and environmental impact assessment. As digital twins become more complex and more informed, the integration of environmental, operational and financial data will give companies a clearer picture of what decommissioning should look like and how to justify decisions.

Our CEO, Stig, recently published a deeper look at this; Doubling down on decommissioning discusses how the full lifecycle approach can and should be embraced to support decommissioning as a matter of both responsibility and reputation. 

Final thoughts

As digital twins have matured, and FieldTwin has evolved exponentially, one thing that has remained constant has been our razor sharp focus on keeping it configurable. Our customers love this about FieldTwin, and it’s an important part of making sure the platform is able to continue to grow and evolve in the way our customers need it to.

If you’d like to discuss what FieldTwin could do in the context of your business, across any of your projects or lifecycle phases, please get in touch.