Copperleaf Hosts First AIPM Forum in North America
On November 2, 2023, Copperleaf,® hosted its first North American AIPM Forum in Houston, Texas! After successful Forums in Europe and Asia Pacific, we brought together organizations from the oil and gas, chemicals, transportation, and utility sectors to discuss how Asset Investment Planning and Management (AIPM) can help maximize capital efficiency, manage risk, and drive strategic goals.
We kicked things off with a keynote address by Boudewijn Neijens, Copperleaf’s Principal Marketing Consultant, on “Capital Allocation: Fueling Profitable Growth”. He highlighted the mounting pressure on asset-intensive organizations to improve Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), while balancing uncertainty due to a rapidly changing energy system, geopolitical events, technology disruption, and increasing ESG commitments.
Pointing to data from global survey on capital allocation, Boudewijn explained that the top five barriers to optimal capital allocation are related to data and decision making—all key areas that can be addressed by implementing a consistent, value-based AIP approach.
Figure 1: Survey of 1,050 CFOs globally and across industries on the primary barriers to optimal allocation of capital. Source: EY Global Capital Allocation Report 2021. Retrieved from: ey.com/capitalallocationreport.
This was followed by a panel discussion led by Cicely Striolo, Copperleaf’s Global Industry Lead for Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals, titled “Beyond the Balance Sheet”, on striking the right balance between reliability, sustainability and profitability. Guest speakers included Ron Armstrong, President, RWJ Advisors, and former VP, Phillips 66; Ames Onthuam, Senior Manager, Intelligent Asset Management Solutions, Accenture; and David Shimbo, Oil and Gas Industry Advisor, SAP. Panelists discussed challenges related to capital allocation and risk management in the oil and gas sector, and key capabilities that can help companies address the tension between short-term financial goals and long-term sustainability and growth objectives.
Leaders must judiciously balance capital reinvestment to ensure investor returns and long-term business vitality. Moving beyond spreadsheets to a continuously refreshed view of project expenditures, status, and well-defined alternatives can lead to better optimization of sustaining capital spend in real-time.
Ron Armstrong
President
RWJ Advisors
Matt Fulghum, Director, Asset Investment Planning & Management at ONE Gas, provided an insightful presentation on how the company transformed its asset management approach by establishing consistent, transparent investment decision-making processes across the entire organization. He shared how ONE Gas has embraced the asset management mantra “do the right work at the work time” to maximize risk mitigation across an asset base that includes millions of both discrete and linear assets.
Earlier this year, Copperleaf achieved Premium Certification as an SAP Endorsed App. David Shimbo highlighted how the integration between Copperleaf and SAP solutions creates a continuous feedback loop between planning and execution, enabling businesses to choose the right work to do and the optimal time to do it—and execute the work efficiently and accurately across the asset lifecycle.
Curtis Edwards, Capital Projects Consulting Manager at Accenture, elaborated on this topic by describing the business benefits and value that can be achieved by advancing asset management maturity. A multinational energy company that embarked on a journey to improve asset risk management and increase investment efficiency is realizing reductions in capital spend, O&M costs, asset downtime, and outage duration. The success of this implementation has led Accenture to include both Copperleaf and SAP solutions as foundational components in its Intelligent Asset Management offering.
At left, Cicely Striolo led a panel discussion with industry experts, Ames Onthuam, David Shimbo, and Ron Armstrong. At right, attendees were tasked with identifying the most valuable investment portfolio as part of the Copperleaf Optimization Game.
Last but not least, one of the key highlights from the day was the Optimization Game, where attendees had the opportunity to dive into the challenges of portfolio planning and decision making. Copperleaf Account Executives Chad Murphy and Diane King led an interactive session, where attendees were tasked with analyzing several projects to build an investment portfolio that maximizes value and satisfies a multitude of constraints. This was an opportunity for participants to understand how value-based decision making can transform investment planning by making the process quicker, easier, and more cost-effective.
We would like to thank all our speakers, partners, guests, and the team involved in making the Houston AIPM Forum a success. We look forward to seeing you next year!
To learn more, download this report by Ron Armstrong and Cicely Striolo on Optimizing Capital Allocation and Risk Management: A Strategic Approach for Downstream Oil & Gas Organizations.