Tools You Need to Digitally Transform in the Energy Sector

The energy, oil and gas industries face mounting pressure to complete more projects faster and with fewer costs. That means they’re looking everywhere possible for operational efficiencies. Mix in the added pressures to embrace digital ways of working, stay competitive through innovation, maintain compliance and security and drive sustainable practices, and the industry has a lot of work to do.

But digital documentation tools can help support all of these needs. Smart transformation solutions like digital PDF and eSign can ensure compliance, give energy companies more efficient ways of working and enable sustainability.

Digital document tools like PDF and eSign allow you to go paperless in a matter of months if your digital transformation partner has a smart onboarding strategy. Once you go paperless, you’ll start to see the time-saving benefits and efficiencies of digital documents. PDFs allow for faster workflows as parties do not have to wait for physical paper to land on their desk, and electronic signatures mean approvals and sign-offs occur much faster—speeding up processes and programs.

PDFs also support collaboration and working from anywhere. With files accessible through multiple device types and any location with an internet connection, employees, suppliers, buyers and more can collaborate in documents to get more done in less time.

The energy industry deals with highly confidential data in high volume. Documents must be rigorously protected—something increasingly difficult to do in paper format. Do not let the lock on the filing cabinet door deceive you; paper is more at risk than digital files are. A digital transformation lets you keep files in a single repository guarded by layers of strict security practices. And the right solution will keep all your document-related activity compliant and trackable for audits.

The energy industry knows it’s the target of much global ire when it comes to the environment and climate change. The need to embrace sustainable practices is not just to mitigate damage to the Earth’s resources, it’s to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving energy industry. With renewables gaining ground and momentum, energy, oil and gas companies need every opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to sustainable practices as buyers increasingly look for that.

A 2021 study found that 85% of consumers have become “greener” in recent years, with more than a third of them willing to pay more for sustainability. While you may not think going paperless makes a huge difference, the reduction in waste can be significant—and you can point to this commitment as a measurable way you’ve shrunk your carbon footprint.

You should definitely be able to get a free trial of your PDF and eSign solution before implementing them company-wide, but different vendors offer different trial periods. Look for a partner that gives you access to all the possible tools in a no-risk way—and one that gives you adequate time to truly evaluate the solution. You should not be limited in functionality or timeframe during your trial.

Get started with Nitro’s free business pilot program.

Digital transformation is achieved with smart documentation. Here’s how energy companies are using PDF and eSign to drive operational efficiencies and maintain competitive advantages:

Energy companies use digital PDF solutions to create documents and maintain their compliance throughout their lifecycle from a single, easy-to-use platform. Say goodbye to managing high volumes of paper—and struggling to keep track of document trails for audits—for anything from blueprints to construction plans, contracts, CAD files, maintenance records and more. With every project requiring so many moving parts and files, energy organizations can rest easy knowing their digital transformation puts their documents in secure storage and within easy reach for fast access to only the right parties.

As cybercrime tactics grow in sophistication by the day, the energy industry is under more stress to keep data breaches at bay. Digitizing files allows energy companies to enable secure viewing permissions, instant transfer and password protection. If you choose a secure partner like Nitro, you’ll be able to opt for implementing controls like password-based security or certificate-based security.

Creating digital documents like land and operator agreements, drilling rights and inspection reports can be time-consuming and tedious. And many document workflows in the energy sector require repeatable data entry. That’s where automation comes in as part of your digital transformation.

Energy companies are using automation to eliminate manual workflows that create bottlenecks and introduce errors. Automation solutions remove many human touches from a process and streamline operations for greater efficiency. You can tailor workflows to upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Without manual work taking up so much time, you’ll inherently support better security and compliance as well.

Nitro’s digitalization solutions not only meet the rigorous security and compliance needs of the energy, oil and gas industry, they also support your digital efforts for efficiency and sustainability.

You’ve likely got a handful of solutions you’re using today—from Google Drive to Salesforce to SAP and more. Choosing Nitro isn’t just piling on another solution your employees will have to juggle to get things done. Nitro integrates with your existing systems, processes and applications to enhance your tech stack, support your higher performance and seamlessly work into your operations with integrations and a powerful API. This makes document-related work easier across your ERP, CRM, HR platforms and more.

Nitro’s pilot program for organizations gives you one to three months to explore our full Productivity Platform in your real environment. It helps you navigate concerns and questions about it being the right fit while you settle into your digitalization process—and before you commit with cash. We understand a new system can ruffle some feathers if you’ve been using legacy systems for a while, so the program is divided into stages that allow you to educate your employees and see the real ROI you’d get from the solution.

Nitro’s customer support team is well-versed in the needs of the energy, oil and gas industries when it comes to digital transformation and how to manage the kind of change it brings. We help your staff become confident in your new digital document solution, so you can experience a smooth-as-possible transition away from paper.

To learn more about where to start with evaluating a new digital document partner, download our free eBook.

We’d love to learn about your organization’s digital transformation goals and needs. Get in touch with us to see a demo of our solutions and learn how we can help.