In Focus: Scaling up digitalisation

Digital technology has enabled cost reductions, production increases and increased margins across Shell’s businesses. In 2019 alone, Shell reaped more than $1 billion from its concerted digitalisation programme.

For digitalisation to continue having a widespread impact, P&T helps Shell businesses to package hardware and software into solutions that can be deployed rapidly and globally across all markets. To do this, we have introduced common data structures, software platforms, developer tools and ways of working across businesses. This makes it easier for Shell data scientists and software engineers to share best practices, adapt machine-learning algorithms and work seamlessly in interdisciplinary teams scattered around the world.

We are focusing on replicating a few priority solutions throughout Shell. For example, we selected C3.ai software running on Microsoft Azure as the standard artificial intelligence platform on which to deploy predictive maintenance across our industrial facilities. Another exciting area with potential for scaling up is in the customer domain. As our customer-facing businesses grow, we are developing new types of artificial intelligence solutions to help understand our customers’ patterns of energy consumption and how they interact with Shell.

Our new loyalty programme in the UK, Shell Go+, is an example of how we are using digital technology to improve the customer experience. With the customers’ permission, the Go+ app combines transaction histories with other aggregated data to make bespoke offers and give rewards to individual customers. The machine learning in the app responds to feedback, learning from what the customer does and does not select. As of the end of 2019:

• 1.3 million customers have registered with the programme.
• More than 14.2 million digital rewards have been issued.
• 86% of the customers opted to receive communications from Shell (well above the industry benchmark).
• 66% of the members revisited the Go+ app within a 90-day period — double the revisit percentage of its predecessor app.

Shell continues to gain opportunities from its deep understanding of the energy system, its affinity with digital technology, its expertise in integration and its global asset base.