Middle East and Africa oil and gas industry gets Microsoft centre of excellence

Microsoft has launched a new Middle East and Africa centre of excellence for oil and gas in Dubai, built specifically to assist customers in driving digital transformation, cost cutting and optimisation of their operations across the region and the world.
It is the largest such centre for Microsoft globally. The centre will help companies in the sector take advantage of the latest trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT), advanced analytics, modern productivity and cloud computing using Microsoft technologies like Microsoft Azure and Office 365.
The centre also brings together leading industry players like Accenture, Aveva, Baker Hughes, Honeywell, OSIsoft, Schneider Electric and Schlumberger. Despite oil price challenges, the industry is seeing increasing IT spend as a way to maintain profitability and boost productivity.
According to the 2016 Upstream Oil and Gas Digital Trends Survey by Accenture and Microsoft, 80 per cent of upstream oil and gas companies plan to increase spending on digital technologies in order to help them drive leaner, smarter organisations. The International Data Corporation, or IDC, predicts that IT spending in oil and gas will increase to nearly $50 billion in 2016, while spending on connectivity related technologies should increase by 30 per cent.
"Digital transformation is top of mind for executives in the oil and gas industry, which is why we built the centre of excellence in the Middle East," says Omar Saleh, director for Oil and Gas at Microsoft, Middle East and Africa.
"For the industry to transform, companies need to develop sound digital strategies, built on secure and agile platforms, either on a company's premises or in the cloud. Continuous dialogue with our customers and partners is essential for enabling innovation and moving the industry forward. This is what the centre of excellence is built for." With 44 per cent of respondents in the 2016 Upstream Oil and Gas Digital Trends Survey reporting that investing in the Internet of Things (IoT) is their next big priority, it's clear that in the current challenging environment the industry is focusing technologies on areas that will deliver efficiencies and savings in the short term while enabling faster decision making.- business@khaleejtimes.com