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Fig.4 - Saipem Digital
Reinvention Journey

aligned to company strategy by senior managers as automation and predictive maintenance for the Saipem
project sponsors. fleet (the Smart Ship), digital technologies, robotics and
The main contribution of the colleagues involved in the new materials and processes for fabrication and
programme consists in generating creative ideas construction, big data and machine learning to speed
emerging during design thinking sessions. The key to up tendering and basic engineering activities, artificial
success, therefore, is the human factor of in-house intelligence to better support the decision makers and
innovative thinkers and the external ecosystem. the employees in general.
The sessions are organized and managed by the
Enabling Team, colleagues from the Innovation,
Systems and Corporate Marketing function, who The collaboration
support the activities with methodologies (Scrum, with the Ecosystem
Agile, Lean start-up etc.) guaranteeing the constant
coordination of activities with internal and external It is interesting to note how the whole innovation cycle
stakeholders. is based on promoting the intermingling of experiences,
The set of ideas resulting from the sessions is presented methodologies and technologies that are already used
in the form of storytelling for the approval of the successfully in industrial sectors to which the company
sponsors, who select the most promising ideas on is not traditionally linked. As an example, during 2017
which to concentrate prototyping efforts on a “scale a strategic collaboration agreement was signed with
fast or fail cheap” basis, thus seeking to assess their NTT Data (a Japanese system integration company) for
effective potential through an efficient investment in the co-development of innovation projects in the field
time and resources. of augmented and virtual reality and the application of
cognitive computing. At the same time, the Innovation
Factory started a collaboration with an important Client
Topics currently under study for the development of a smart wearable devices
During the Proof of Concept (PoC) phase, the support platform to improve the safety conditions of the field
offered by disciplines specialists is fundamental in the operators and it is hosting the activities of the first
ideas being developed. They help to integrate the skills executive pilot project for the digital and data-centric
available in the groups thanks to their specific know- collaborative methodology for the management of the
how. The results are submitted for the approval of the entire project life-cycle called xDIM™.
Advisory Committee. The experiments considered valid In the meanwhile, in lieu of traditional “built-to-last”
are then scaled-up in the Saipem business divisions, approach, Saipem has re-invented its IT organization
where the benefits offered are checked and validated. by embracing the adaptive sourcing and signed a long-
If the prototype does not reach the desired outcomes, term partnership with three major players of digital
the experience gained is capitalised, and the team is services (Accenture, DXC and Tata Consulting
ready to move on to a new challenge. Services). As a crucial enabler, Saipem has also started
The topics currently under study concern virtual reality, a full migration on Microsoft Azure Cloud platform.

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