Introduction

Customer success means so much more than customer support. It’s a different mindset. It’s long term, embedded and absolutely critical to transformation projects in sectors as complex as oil, gas and renewables. Ultimately, the goal of customer success teams is that the operators, contractors, IT teams and business leaders using the tool know it better than the provider, in the context of their own projects and organizations.

It’s complex, of course, because no application can change an entire workflow overnight. And in fact, if a provider promises instant transformation, that should throw up an immediate red flag.

Digital transformation isn’t about chasing every new technology. It’s about focus and discipline. The most successful teams don’t try to do everything at once. They prioritize, implement thoughtfully and build momentum by solving one challenge at a time. While the value of a tool doesn’t show up immediately, if you invest the time to use it intentionally, the long-term return can be huge.

At FutureOn, our approach to customer success is built around this need for meaningful commitment to create lasting change. All the way from defining a first use case to creating proprietary APIs.

This long read outlines the key stages of that approach, showing how structured execution leads to lasting impact. Read on for the necessary considerations at each stage of digital transformation in oil, gas and renewables, calling on best practices from our customer success team and lessons learned from our work with a number of leading majors.

Phase one: planning and pre-tender

Ultimate objective: form a team, find a first use case

Successful digital initiatives don’t start with technology, they start with people and planning. Taking the time upfront to define challenges, identify quick wins that will quickly prove concepts and set a roadmap that builds value over time.

At the heart of all this thinking should be the people you need to take along on the journey: internal adoption is one of the major roadblocks to any digital initiative, so considering the people best placed to drive the project - as well as the internal stakeholders that need to be impressed along the way - is critical.

That means approaching the journey in phases. Avoiding trying to “do everything at once” and instead, creating momentum through early success, proof of concept and building excitement around opportunities.

First then; a small, motivated team to guide the effort and define desired outcomes before bringing in contractors or other partners. Keep the group small, focused and controlled at this early stage. They don’t need to be dedicated full-time to the project, but they do need the bandwidth and enthusiasm to champion adoption. Their role is to connect business needs and human pain points with technical capabilities. This includes clarifying which use cases will deliver immediate benefits and which can be developed over the medium and long term. By sequencing initiatives in this way, your core team can maintain enthusiasm and steadily expand adoption as expertise grows.

This ensures that initial use cases are closely tied to business value and day to day challenges - and solved quickly. Value is recognized and communicated quickly. The biggest payoffs from investment in digital - as occasionally frustrating as it seems - come from steady progress, so it’s important to have these initial ‘smaller’ wins to prove progress and establish strong digital foundations.

Key thought starters

• What do we want to accomplish?
• What challenges are we trying to solve?
• Which processes or workflows do people push back against most?
• Where do we lose most time to manual work and rework time to inefficiency?
• What do we want to solve each year over the next one, two, three and five years?
• How are we going to measure success? What are our baseline metrics?

What to look for in…

• Your internal champions
  • The best internal champions aren’t always the ones assigned to digital transformation, they’re the ones who genuinely see the value and take ownership. Read our deep dive into creating successful champions.
• The technologies you’re considering
  • You’re starting by looking at the business challenges you plan to solve first, so technology is almost a second thought at this stage. Consider the tools you already have, those that work well and those that perhaps don’t deliver the value they were promised. Consider where there’s duplication - we see a lot of clients that are using two or three tools for the same workflows due to historic mergers and acquisitions. Is there overlap that could be dealt with first?
  • Consider platforms that don’t require a wholesale ‘rip and replace’ of existing systems. There’s plenty of value in many of the systems you already use - the sweet spot for transformation lies in bringing them all together, standardizing disparate communications and making information more accessible.
• The providers you’ll be doing business with
  • Committed providers that are realistic about timelines, investment and objectives. Look for organizations that commit to ‘boots on the ground’ support, and have dedicated departments in place - not just to troubleshoot issues, but to proactively ensure you get maximum value.

Customer success in action
Shell

The work we've done with Shell is a great example of this approach. Rather than trying to overhaul operations, Shell created a phased roadmap, continuously adding use cases as the program matured. A small internal group, many working outside their day jobs, took ownership and helped drive success. They stayed engaged, helped to drive milestones and became power users in the process: an essential part of preparation for wider roll out.

Over time, Shell also collaborated with Bentley to connect FieldTwin with its topside digital twin, iTwin, enabling teams to visualize subsea data in a more meaningful context. This was an exciting initiative - and exactly the kind of use case we want to see FieldTwin being part of. And it worked so well, because the team at Shell remained conscious of the need to work up to it, and mature and refine through other use cases first.

Phase two: discovery and integration

Ultimate objective: establishing data and technology foundations

Effective data discovery starts with mindset: quality over speed.

We've all been guilty of falling prey to the temptation to act fast. But when it comes to data - cleanliness, completeness and context are key. Shortcuts will always just create rework, confusion and wasted effort later. By investing the time upfront to gather, validate and contextualize high-quality information, teams set themselves up for success. Like starting small and focused with the project group, initial discipline here will pay dividends throughout the project. When data is contextualized and easy to access, the difference in productivity and decision-making is night and day.

Integration is the natural counterpart of discovery. In developing FieldTwin, we've focused heavily on the idea of complementary systems and streamlined workflows. It's absolutely no good 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater', which is why it's so important that planning and pre-tender is led by strategic objectives and real, day to day pain points.

Specialized tools exist for good reason. AutoCAD, Excel, GIS and countless others are indispensable in their domains. But when these tools operate in silos, productivity (and profit) can be lost in the gaps. An integrated approach doesn’t mean discarding trusted systems; it means connecting them in ways that make workflows more seamless and data more meaningful. The goal isn’t to hop inefficiently between tools, but to create a central hub that bridges them, so information flows naturally across the project landscape. Open, API-first architectures make this possible, allowing evolution without the need to sever ties to proven processes.

This kind of integration is about long-term impact. Consider how often a presentation gets buried in a shared drive. That “PowerPoint problem” highlights the limits of disconnected, one-off solutions. By contrast, integrated platforms grow with a project over time. From the first sketch of an idea through planning, operations and even decommissioning, the model evolves. A decade later, instead of digging through documents, a team can simply open the model and immediately see what work was done, when it was done, and why.

Discovery and integration create a foundation for sustainable digital practice. Discovery ensures that the information feeding into decisions is trustworthy and contextualized. Integration ensures that this information moves fluidly across teams, tools and time.

Key thought starters

• What are our most used tools and where do they overlap?
• What limitations most frustrate employees? (Ask them.)
• Which legacy systems are we holding onto just because they’ve been around for so long?
• Who outside of the core team needs to be involved in the upcoming pilot project?
• How can we keep that team as small as possible?
• Where does data exist and what are the commonalities and disparities in how it is managed?

What to look for in…

• Your internal champions
  • Having established ‘quick win’ projects earlier on, internal champions should now be looking at the existing workflows and data sources that these processes rely on. Taking a business-wide approach to understand interdependencies and gain a clear view of project scope from end to end.
• The technologies you’re considering
  • You’ll likely now be in the process of putting this work out to tender. Look for platforms that allow you to continue using familiar tools, but add value and efficiency by improving real-time collaboration between them.
• The providers you’ll be doing business with
  • Ask about the support you’ll have in place during onboarding and beyond. Service desks and robust documentation should be a given. Be wary of SaaS platforms that don’t offer proactive, personalized support. ‘Off the shelf’ is not a friend in a sector as complex as ours.

Phase three: pilot implementation

Ultimate objective: prove value and establish governance 

The next step is to put theory into practice through a focused pilot. The aim isn't to launch or test as much as possible at once, but to prove value in specific, targeted ways. Undertaking one or two high-impact use cases to demonstrate benefits and build momentum for broader adoption.

As with everything in life, timing matters. In the case of FieldTwin, the pilot use case will ideally feature early in the asset lifecycle, during planning or construction. This early involvement means that the twin grows alongside the asset, evolving naturally instead of being retrofitted later when much of the opportunity for value creation has already passed.

Equally critical is stakeholder involvement. A successful pilot requires buy-in across departments and often from external partners or contractors. Engage the groups that are core to the first use cases now with the stated intention to build alignment, reduce resistance and ensure the pilot reflects real-world workflows.

This collaborative approach will be so important to making sure the first and subsequent use cases are robust, combining feedback from diverse perspectives at this 'small scale', to ease the way for smoother adoption when it's time to scale.

Clear project governance and proactive feedback loops turn a pilot from a test into a learning process. This foundation can be the launchpad for scaling digital solutions while building confidence that the approach will deliver long-term value.

Key thought starters

• Who needs to be at the table from day one? (Consider external partners and contractors too)
• How will we measure success for this pilot? (Define what value looks like: time saved, errors reduced, improved visibility)
• What’s the plan for capturing feedback?
• What’s the plan for acting on feedback? Live in pilot or afterwards?

What to look for in…

• Your internal champions
  • Internal champions should be proactive in tracking baseline metrics before the pilot begins. This sets the stage for demonstrating impact. Your tech provider should support you in identifying what to measure and how, so you can clearly show the value the new tool delivers.
• The technologies you’re considering
  • Consider proficiency. When familiarity is lacking, using a new tool will always be slower in the beginning. That’s normal. The important thing at the pilot stage is to track and mitigate common pain points before rolling the solution out more broadly.
• The providers you’ll be doing business with
  • You should be receiving clear guidance on setting goals and tracking progress, with access to support and tools to gather user feedback, ensuring issues are quickly addressed and the pilot stays on course.

Phase four: wider roll out

Ultimate objective: building continuity and accessibility at scale

With a successful pilot in place, the next phase is scale. Shifting from isolated solutions to a more cohesive, organization-wide digital approach. Again, the focus here isn't on replacing specialized tools, but on connecting them in ways that ease workflows, strengthen collaboration and generate richer insights.

This stage is a true inflection point. As data integration deepens, silos between departments and partners begin to dissolve, creating a more collaborative culture. Information is no longer locked in individual files or systems; instead, it becomes a shared resource that supports collective decision-making. This expanded visibility both improves day-to-day operations and lays the foundation for strategic planning.

Continuity and accessibility should be guiding principles. A strong platform and provider support at this stage will be focused around making it easy for users to surface and use information. The goal is to ensure that data isn’t just collected, but is meaningfully available and reduces friction across the business.

Finally, success in wider rollout depends on people as much as technology. Training, onboarding and change management are essential to ensuring adoption - and a key part of our focus in the customer success team. Lessons learned from the pilot phase should be brought forward to anticipate pain points and smooth the path for new users. By investing in user engagement and continuous improvement, digital transformation scales sustainably, building not just new systems, but new ways of working that deliver enduring value.
 

What to look for in…

• Your internal champions
  • Working with your tech provider, you internal champions should be a key part of the onboarding process. Ideas gain the most traction when they’re championed internally. When a colleague shares why a tool works, it builds trust and lowers resistance in a way external voices often can’t.
• The technologies you’re considering
  • Adaptability in the tool is key. How will it support you over entire asset lifecycles? With the pilot project most likely focused on planning phases, consider how this tool can now extend across the lifecycle of the asset. What data have you gathered that can assist in future audits, integrity management and even end of life scenarios?
• The providers you’ll be doing business with
  • Your provider should aim to make you self-sufficient. Empowering you to use the application confidently. At the same time, they should be highly accessible, not just to answer questions, but to understand the root cause of issues and guide you toward greater efficiency.

Customer success in action
IPT Global

IPT Global specialize in digital pressure testing and comparative analysis. Blowout  Preventers (BOPs), choke manifolds and subsea Christmas trees that must be pressure-tested regularly. Historically, this was done using analog paper charts: circular graphs with pins that tracked pressure manually.

Digital pressure testing introduced a significant shift. With IPT Global’s technology, pressure tests are now captured and analyzed digitally, improving accuracy, reliability and auditability.
 

Phase five: operations and optimization

Ultimate objective: confident strategic decisions and compounding ROI

Once a technology is well adopted and embedded across a business, focus shifts into optimization. Getting the most value out of the investment by moving beyond the basics into advanced features and capabilities.

At this point, the foundation is already in place. Data is flowing, teams are engaged and workflows are connected. It likely took a long time to get here, and it may feel like mission accomplished. But the challenge now is to push further; how can you refine processes, deepen insights and continuously elevate performance?

We work with our clients well into this stage, often seconding our own team out, to ensure they continue to realize more value from FieldTwin. This is a perfect example of the need to be wary of ‘off the shelf’ SaaS solutions and those that promise immediate results.

When it comes to FieldTwin, one of the key opportunities in this phase is the use of contextual visualization. By mapping projects and assets across all lifecycle phases, organizations gain rich, dynamic insight. Data tells a story about where an asset has been, where it is today and where it’s headed. These visualizations transform raw information into actionable intelligence, allowing users to anticipate challenges, identify efficiencies and make faster, more confident decisions.

Optimization also means using the platform to evolve lifecycle management. With robust data streams established, organizations can fine-tune maintenance schedules, streamline resource allocation and better plan for long-term asset integrity - all the way to decommissioning.

What to look for in…

• Your internal champions
  • It’s time to expand out your pool of internal champions. Building more of a ‘board’ or ‘committee’ with each member responsible for feedback from different departments, and spotting opportunities for better integration across teams.
• The technologies you’re considering
  • After deployment, the solution should transition into optimization mode. Leveraging advanced analytics, what-if simulations and predictive insights to unlock further value.
• The providers you’ll be doing business with
  • Proactivity is key. You’ve implemented a tool with data as its lifeblood and the value of that shouldn’t just come from internal improvements, but from how your provider can ‘read’ your usage and make suggestions for refinement. Your provider will also have the benefit of knowledge taken from across projects, and should be able to advise from other implementations.

Customer success in action
Shell and Bentley

We worked with Shell and Bentley to build a connector to their topside digital twin, iTwin. With that integration, they could push subsea data into iTwin and visualize it from the topside with a very high level of detail.

They didn’t need to know everything happening subsea, but they did want situational awareness. And by combining technologies, we helped create that. Again, it all comes back to contextualizing data in a way that’s meaningful and accessible.

Ultimately, that’s what Field Twin enables: faster access to relevant information, smarter decisions, and better operational awareness. Data doesn’t always get lost, but it often gets buried. With the right setup, FieldTwin becomes the easiest place to find it and the most powerful place to use it.
 

Final thoughts

It’s natural for there to be resistance to change. Especially from established and long-serving oil and gas professionals and veteran engineers. The systems and processes we’ve had in place for decades have served us well; that’s why we take a respectful approach to integrating and bringing the best parts of them into the new world.

But the reality is the opportunity for insight and efficiency in the new tools at our disposal make it critical that we continuously move along the path to new digital solutions.

Incrementally, intelligently, empathetically. This thinking is at the heart of my team's role and our success in customer success.

Over time, when supported and brought along on the journey, people begin to see that digital tools led to better quality decisions. I’ve seen firsthand how that transition plays out. When we’re able to show, over and over, how digital systems can pinpoint issues that would’ve been missed on paper or in PowerPoint; that’s the kind of tangible value that changes minds.

This is what digital transformation is really all about. Not touting new buzzwords, but fundamentally changing workflows. It’s about asking: 

• How were we doing things before?
• What can we do now with the tools now available?
• How can we incrementally - and most impactfully - get the most value out of the two?