Industry Deep Dive: Digital Innovation in Energy Supply, Trading & Risk Management

The global energy sector is undergoing a profound transformation. Supply, trading, and risk management functions for oil, gas, and power & utilities are facing unprecedented complexity and volatility. Years of underinvestment, the accelerating energy transition, rising inflation, and geopolitical unrest have all contributed to a market environment where agility, transparency, and innovation are not just competitive advantages—they are imperatives for survival and growth.

Yet, with this complexity comes opportunity. Energy companies that modernize their digital infrastructure and embrace data-centric, AI-powered ecosystems are unlocking new sources of value, driving operational efficiency, and positioning themselves to thrive amid ongoing disruption.

Traditional commodity and energy trading organizations have long relied on a patchwork of legacy systems—commodity/energy trading and risk management (C/ETRM) packages, shadow IT, and manual processes. While these systems may have sufficed for single-commodity, single-market operations, they are ill-equipped for today’s interconnected, multi-jurisdictional, and multi-asset trading environments. The result? Data silos, process inconsistencies, limited automation, and a lack of real-time insight—all of which hinder innovation and increase operational risk.

Key challenges include:

• Inflexible, commodity-specific, on-premise C/ETRM systems with overlapping functionalities
• Data silos and limited collaboration tools restricting timely, data-driven trade and risk analysis
• Over-customized, complex system architectures that are costly to support and difficult to integrate
• Manual intervention in data aggregation, analysis, and reporting, increasing the risk of human error
• Slow pace of modernization, hampering the ability to optimize and support the energy transition

To address these challenges, leading energy organizations are moving away from C/ETRM-centric architectures and toward data-centric digital ecosystems. This approach breaks down silos, streamlines business processes, and unlocks the value of data across the front, middle, and back office.

Core value drivers of a digital ecosystem include:

• Agility: Real-time access to data and insights enables rapid response to market changes and new opportunities.
• Collaboration: A single source of truth and integrated workflows foster cross-functional teamwork and innovation.
• Visibility: End-to-end transparency across the value chain supports portfolio optimization and sustainability goals.
• Efficiency: Automation reduces manual effort, mitigates risk, and frees up resources for higher-value activities.
• Innovation: Advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning power next-generation decision support and portfolio optimization.

The adoption of cloud platforms—particularly Microsoft Azure—has been a game-changer for energy supply, trading, and risk management. Cloud-native architectures enable organizations to scale rapidly, reduce total cost of ownership, and deploy advanced analytics and AI services with unprecedented speed and flexibility.

AI and Generative AI are unlocking new use cases across the value chain:

• Front Office: Demand and price forecasting, market simulation, schedule generation, sentiment analysis, and regulatory impact assessment
• Middle Office: Credit scoring, contract review and generation, automated hedging, and risk policy monitoring
• Back Office: Automated reconciliation, invoice matching, regulatory reporting, and management reporting
• Corporate Functions: Employee chat and help desk, information discovery across disparate documents, and co-pilots for business intelligence and app development

Chevron, managing over 200 data pipelines and vast supply data, needed to replace its legacy on-premise platform. By migrating to Azure with Publicis Sapient, Chevron:

• Achieved 45% faster query completion
• Launched self-service business intelligence for seamless data exploration
• Minimized support and disruption costs
• Gained the ability to rapidly deploy advanced analytics and AI services

As Troy Engstrom, Senior Manager, Digital Carbon Management at Chevron, noted: “We can now easily deploy advanced analytics services, including AI, quickly and easily on top of our existing data assets. Integrating those on-premise would take significantly longer.”

A leading oil and gas company sought to improve scalability and operational efficiency for its C/ETRM systems. By adopting Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) on Azure:

• Reduced total cost of ownership by 25%
• Decreased time to provision new hardware by 80%
• Optimized capital investment with pay-as-you-go models

A global power and utilities leader, aiming to be climate-neutral by 2040, partnered with Publicis Sapient and Microsoft to standardize its trading and risk management for renewable assets. The result:

• Streamlined business processes across North American operations
• Centralized certificate management for operational efficiency
• Automated settlement and invoicing
• Significant increase in trading P&L through advanced optimization models

Publicis Sapient and Microsoft have developed a proven framework for energy supply, trading, and risk modernization:

1. Decouple front, middle, and back-office systems to reduce complexity and enable modular innovation
2. Migrate storage and compute to the cloud for scalability, security, and cost efficiency
3. Federate and contextualize data to enable real-time analytics and AI-driven decision support
4. Automate and optimize business processes to reduce manual effort and risk
5. Enable new business models—from carbon credit trading to new energies and data monetization

Transformation is a journey, progressing from tactical automation (H1), to strategic optimization (H2), to aspirational innovation and new revenue streams (H3). The key is to unlock existing value, build new capabilities, and ultimately create transformative business outcomes.

With decades of experience in digital business transformation and deep sector expertise, Publicis Sapient and Microsoft are uniquely positioned to help energy organizations navigate volatility, regulatory change, and the energy transition. Our joint approach combines:

• Industry-leading cloud and AI technologies
• Proven frameworks for data-centric digital ecosystems
• Agile, outcome-driven delivery
• A track record of success with global energy leaders

The energy sector’s future belongs to those who can harness digital innovation to drive agility, efficiency, and growth. Whether you are looking to modernize legacy systems, break down data silos, or unlock the power of AI and cloud, Publicis Sapient and Microsoft can help you define and realize your digital vision.

Contact our Energy & Commodities team at energyandcommodities@publicissapient.com to start your transformation journey.

Relevant Links

• Driving Business Growth Through Strategic Innovation and Digital Transformation
• Reimaginando la Gestión de Suministro, Trading y Riesgo Energético: Oportunidades para la Transformación Digital en América Latina (LATAM)
• Reimaginando la Gestión de Suministro, Trading y Riesgo Energético: Una Perspectiva para América Latina (LATAM)
• Regional Innovation Strategies: Navigating Digital Transformation in EMEA & APAC
• Reimaginando la Gestión de Suministro, Trading y Riesgo Energético: Una Perspectiva para América Latina (LATAM)
• Réimaginer la gestion de l'énergie, du trading et du risque : une opportunité pour l'Europe (Europe)
• Driving Business Growth Through Strategic Innovation and Digital Transformation
• Réimaginer la gestion de l'énergie, du trading et du risque : une opportunité pour l'Europe (Europe)