Certas Energy

In an interview with Graham McCracken, Head of Business Intelligence, Certas Energy introduces the company and how it supports companies while exploring opportunities in emerging business intelligence technologies like Qlickview for complex data analytics, interpretation, and sharing.

Could you talk about your journey in the insight engine landscape?

I have nine years of experience in the insight engine landscape at Certas Energy. Initially, I worked in the customer insight area for around three and a half years, overseeing marketing campaigns, data acquisition, cleansing, preparation, and reporting. Later, I led the business intelligence team while still managing customer insights. I merged the teams to establish a unified source of truth for both areas. Subsequently, I transitioned to the IT department, where I worked under the IT director for the past four and a half years. During this time, we migrated our data warehouse from on-premise to Azure cloud, exploring machine learning and data science projects with external partners. Our goal is to gradually enhance the skills of our inexperienced team members and eventually propose bringing these technologies and projects in-house.

Could you talk about your role and responsibilities at Certas Energy?

I oversee the teams across BI and Insight. Seven people make up our team. My key role is to ensure that all of the reports, applications, campaigns, and analytics are produced on schedule and are available. The business is not experiencing any downtime in any part of our reporting state. Running that team is the core of my responsibility, but I also have to develop it by putting in development plans and evaluating them annually to ensure that we are giving them the proper degree of training and exposure to the business so they can do the jobs that we want them to.

“We should maintain doing what we know, but we should also be on the lookout for new technology and strategies that will allow us to infuse the company with new ideas and energy.”

Outside of the team, I play a slightly more strategic role. It involves ensuring that the plan for business intelligence and insight at Certas Energy that I have developed and laid out is being implemented. We are looking to test the waters with new technologies as and where we can now, whether that will be free technologies that we download demo versions of technologies to have a little play around with, or whether it will be bringing in new technologies where I have to get investment from the business to buy licenses, for instance. 

Innovation is one of the main concepts we're trying to promote across the team. We should maintain doing what we know to be effective and have been doing for a while, but we should also be on the lookout for new technology and strategies that will allow us to infuse the company with new ideas and energy. Whether it's finding ways to make processes more effective, finding ways to give us information we don't already know, or adopting new technologies to enable us to carry out tasks in novel ways. While we do discuss team training, development, and personal growth, we have also added a small incentive within the annual bonus to encourage the team as a whole to come up with fresh, creative ideas. 

It's to persuade others to think and act a little bit differently so that we don't always do the same things, whether it is putting an idea into practice or simply communicating possible ideas. We can be a little more inventive in a business than other teams because we work in the oil industry and are a team within the larger organization.

My role does involve more strategic project work, and I also participate in prospective acquisitions of other businesses to add to the Certas portfolio from an IT standpoint. The energy transition is one of our current key areas of interest. Having a strategy and plan for switching to renewable energy so that when the energy transition picks up speed and the demand for fossil fuels is the mainstay of our business. We are in a position to provide options to all of our clients, whether they are business or domestic clients. 

What are the challenges that you solve for Certas Energy?

Certas Energy, like many businesses in the industry, faces challenges as a low-margin distributor. While the company generates significant revenues, profits remain modest due to narrow margins and reliance on purchased goods. The primary focus and investment are directed toward sales and operations, given the need for cost control and vigilance in a market susceptible to rapid price fluctuations. Certas Energy operates with a substantial cost base, employing over 2,500 individuals, maintaining around 800 oil tankers, and managing 100 depots, including a lubricant manufacturing facility.

Justifying the need for team expansion becomes increasingly challenging as the emphasis shifts toward sales and delivery. While Certas Energy's leaders are open to team growth, the justification process becomes more stringent each year. The next strategic step involves expanding the team's capabilities in the field of data science, which is currently outsourced to third-party providers. Bringing data science in-house would provide the company with increased flexibility and tangible cost savings. Although the organization may not be fully matured for this transition, there are plans to evaluate the costs and benefits within the next 12 months to propose an in-house data science capacity supported by internal resources.

Like other business intelligence teams, the Certas Energy team faces an ongoing challenge of managing a workload that surpasses available time and resources. Prioritization becomes crucial to ensure that efforts are aligned with adding value to the business. Building relationships with key stakeholders and understanding the scope of their requests are essential for meeting expectations and delivering valuable insights. The team has adopted a proactive approach, seeking explanations from stakeholders about the potential impact and value of dedicating time and resources to their requests.

The primary challenges revolve around growing a centralized team within a cost-conscious organization with a strong focus on sales delivery and transitioning to new energy sources. Additionally, managing expectations within a large and complex organization with a relatively small team poses an ongoing hurdle. However, Certas Energy aims to address these challenges through careful planning, proactive communication, and evaluating the benefits of expanding capabilities, ultimately driving business value and supporting the company's strategic goals.

 What are the technologies and trends that help you mitigate all these challenges?

Since my tenure in this position, we have embraced various BI tools, starting with QlikView and later transitioning to the more innovative Qlik BI tool, which offers comparable features to Power BI and Tableau. This shift brought new momentum to both the business and BI sides, as we obtained authorized investment and introduced licenses to construct BI apps. Demonstrating a departure from the previous BI team's approach was crucial, and we achieved this by migrating our data warehouse to Azure, leveraging its flexibility, and utilizing features like data segmentation and different landing zones.

We took our first steps into data science by employing Azure clustering to segment our customer base. Automation played a significant role in our processes, with Python enabling us to automate procedures and reduce their duration. Additionally, we integrated parts of Microsoft's power platform, such as using power automation with Microsoft Forms for automated data creation into reporting.

Embracing low-code development was another milestone for us, where we adopted Mendix as the supplier for a low-code pricing tool, which our domestic teams in the UK use to price consumers. While Microsoft also offers low-code options, Mendix was chosen initially due to its suitability, but we may consider Microsoft's offerings in the future. We have also started implementing Microsoft DevOps as a tool and methodology for BI development.

Consolidating our activities and projects under a single tool is essential for us, as it enables us to explore new project approaches, particularly as we transition from traditional BI to areas like data science and artificial intelligence. These examples highlight the various technology implementations we have pursued in our BI journey over the past few years, constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation.

What advice would you like to give your peers or other industry leaders?

I've found that doing the basic things well is the key. You can get sidetracked if you try to think too creatively and take on too many novel tasks. We've occasionally gotten into the habit of ignoring the fundamentals, including making sure that reports on distribution lists are maintained current and that applications are still being accepted. We are working on ongoing improvement, engaging user bases about performance and whether they are getting what they require from BI would be my recommendation. Doing the simple things efficiently gives provides a solid foundation upon which one can construct new and interesting things.

Another important point is to continue to think outside the box. The pace of change in the globe, the economy, and business intelligence should help you become more aware of what is available. Attend webinars and conferences to learn more since if you don't, you'll fall behind.

Simply put, you won't be able to keep up with how quickly things are changing if you don't always perform the easy things properly and efficiently. Additionally, don't assume you know everything, which is unquestionably something that we're bringing to the entire BI team as part of that innovation aspect, and that will serve us well in the long run.