Mrs. Veronique Durand-Charlot is the chairperson of ICT Task Force of the International Gas Union (IGU). The Task Force is responsible for the organization of the program for ICT 2005 Global Congress, the 7th Global Congress on Information and Communication Technologies in Energy. The congress will take place May 23-25, 2005 in Busan, Korea. The ICT Task Force is composed of 12 professional members from 7 countries representing Asia, Europe, Africa and America. In the following interview, Mrs. Durand-Charlot, Vice President of Gaz de France, explains role and purpose of the IGU and how ICT 2005 will seek better ways for the energy industry to respond to consumer needs and manage resources. Q. What are the role and the purpose of IGU IGU (International Gas Union) is a non-profit organization, whose objective is to promote the technical and economic progress of the gas industry. IGU is organized around several working committees and program committees as well as two Task Forces: the R&D Task Force and ICT Task Force, which I have headed since October 2003. The purpose of the ICT Task Force is to maintain a good level of knowledge sharing in the field of information and communication technologies among IGU members and outside the IGU. We aim to promote the use of latest IC technologies to improve energy companies operations. Our most significant function is the organization of a triennial congress, the ICT Congress. ICT 2005, the 7th edition in the series, will be held in May 2005 in Busan, Korea. The last edition was organized in Prague, Czech Republic in 2002. Q. What would you say are the most significant breakthroughs/developments in technology in recent years The last decade (the mid to late 1990s) saw the emergence of the Internet and its numerous applications across the scope of business: ERPs, CRM applications, SCM, procurement marketplaces, collaborative work solutions, etc. All these web-enabled applications have allowed energy companies to improve their operations dramatically, focus on the customer and reduce their costs. Since the beginning of the century, I can say that the technology evolution has begun to slow a little bit. We are entering a phase of technological stability, in fact. By this, I mean that there are few new business concepts that have emerged. Nothing very new has appeared in information technologies but rather it is the communication technologies and mobility solutions that are taking the lead: wires are being replaced by wireless; the Internet is faster thanks to DSL technologies; and VoIP is expanding. RFID technologies allow "contactless" information exchange and thus revolutionizing supply chain management and other business areas. Open operating systems allow significant cost reductions in software, but they are still not used very much at the moment. So I would say that we are in a phase of generalization and consolidation of technologies that appeared in the late 1990s. Another key point is that business processes are evolving towards more outsourcing. This trend is pretty new to the energy industry. Historically, energy players are more reluctant than the banking industry to outsource more than their IT maintenance. Now reasons of costs reduction are pushing them to outsource large parts of their non-essential business processes. Q. How do you see technology/IT changing the oil industry going forward The oil and gas industry has the reputation of being a conservative, not leading-edge adopter of new technology. Energy companies use new technologies in a moderate fashion, and their spending on technology is low compared with other industries. I don't expect this trend to change in the short term and neither do I expect new technologies to revolutionize business models in that sector. On the other hand, energy companies are facing crucial challenges, and new technologies are essential to accompany them as a business partner. Energy companies must continue to spend in domains that allow them to deploy their strategies and respond to business issues such as CRM and IT integration. Finally, I expect energy companies in the coming years to make greater efforts to "close the gap" relative to other industries in terms of adopting IT best practices: IT alignment with corporate strategy, IT portfolio management, and IT governance, for example. Q. What are the principal challenges facing the energy sector in terms of IT Could you break this down by business segment, e.g., upstream, midstream and downstream Looking upstream, there is an interesting challenge associated with "digitalizing" the oilfields. With oil reserves decreasing, oil companies are looking for improvements in efficiency. Oil companies will need to increase the output of their oil fields, and new technologies can help them achieve this goal. The most important technologies in this regard are remote sensing, 3D visualization, intelligent drilling, and data integration. Mobile technologies also play a role in the digitalization of the oilfields. Another challenge is data integration with other downstream functions. EAI and other middleware systems can provide the necessary technology for that purpose. Midstream: Energy, especially the gas sector is a challenging and risky industry, not only because accidents can cause huge damage, but also because in these troubled times, we need to keep vital energy assets safe. The energy sector is also asset intensive and costly to maintain. So most Midstream challenges are about infrastructure security and cost reduction. To face these challenges, SCADA and forecasting systems will continue to drive the trend. Geographic Information Systems, coupled with mobility solutions and automatized maintenance management (predictive maintenance, work management systems and online maintenance) will contribute to improving assets maintenance and ensure better infrastructure reliability and security. As in the case of the Upstream, mobility can also play an important role in the Midstream. Automatic meter reading systems (using wireless) are an example of what mobility can bring to the Midstream segment in terms of operational improvement. Downstream: The main challenges faced by downstream segment are more or less those that concern the client. In an open market, a customer-centric organization aims to keep and grow profitable clients. A large panel of technologies can help energy companies reach this customer-centric model. After years of use, CRM systems have reached maturity and are largely used for client service improvement. Internet portals reduce interaction costs and allow the automatization of some functions like meter reading and bill printing. Analytic tools based on business intelligence and data warehouses are used to increase client knowledge and facilitate targeting and profiling. They also help in mounting offers as well as cross- and up-selling products and services. Once we come to payment, e-billing solutions are very helpful in reducing the length of the payment cycle and so improving the financial situation of companies. Finally, the multiplicity of actors in the energy market (marketers, traders, retailers, etc.) will stimulate data exchange technologies from a B2B perspective. Q. What do you hope the conference will achieve The ICT Task Force objective is to generate a state-of-the-art program for the ICT 2005 Congress tailored for top-level executives that has a strong focus on value creation. In order to attract top-level attendees, we have set up a CEO forum and attracted the participation of top energy and IT company leaders. We are also proud to accommodate high-level keynote speakers, famous analysts and well-known strategists. In conclusion, ICT 2005 will: - Gather top-level speakers - Attract top-level delegates - Provide practical feedback on the issues facing energy companies - Address business as well as technological issues - Serve as a platform of exchange between participants to exchange best practices - Provide value to all attendees More information on the ICT 2005 Global Congress is available at http://www.ict2005.com.