Silverhorse Technologies has appointed industry veteran Steve Rogers as a non-executive director on its advisory board.

Rogers, a former senior VP of Woodside Energy, will be tasked with handling high-level management relations with the growing list of operator clients who rely on Silverhorse to deliver their modernisation and transformation objectives.

“This is a big day for us,” said Silverhorse chairman Stuart C. McLeod. “Steve has a deep knowledge of the operator side of the business that I’m convinced will prove enormously valuable. Silverhorse is in a fantastic strategic position right now for this phase of industry disruption, and we are determined to make the most of it. Steve is obviously hugely respected across the industry, but on top of that he is an absolute pleasure to work with.”

Rogers is the first board appointment since executive director David Cumings joined in July last year as Silverhorse’s digital expert. Last month the board approved $1m in direct investment to underpin the company’s 2019 growth strategy.

“It’s like oil and gas in the 70s”

Having played a leading role in many innovative oil, gas and mining businesses, Rogers spent the last two years working in renewables. That’s when the Silverhorse team got him excited about the potential of its data-driven approach to managing large assets.

Rogers was particularly intrigued by the original way in which Silverhorse approached the problems facing operators. “I don’t think anyone out there is doing anything quite like Silverhorse,” Rogers said. “What I particularly like is the way in which they’re using technology-driven project management techniques to achieve their goals. They’ve come at it from an angle of getting involved in tracking completion of projects which were ready to move into operations. Now they’re tackling the operations end by providing a tool which will allow operators to track and control their own destiny, particularly when it comes to maintenance and operations.”

Rogers has been in the business long enough to remember the last major phase of industry disruption, and how quickly everything changed. “The technology and renewables space today reminds me of oil and gas in the 1970s,” said Rogers. “Young people are moving in and being given great opportunities, really being let loose to create new things. It was like that 40 years ago: we were thrown in at the deep end and it was sink or swim.”

Taking Back Control

According to Rogers, Silverhorse’s AssetHive technology can deliver something hugely valuable to operators: control. “Through the changes that occurred in the 1990s and early 2000s alot of control was vested in the engineering and maintenance companies. But with Assethive, operators can regain control of both their physical and now their digital assets with full knowledge, and that’s what’s important here, because the full knowledge is what will allow them to run their own businesses and affairs.”

According to McLeod, technology isn’t the only thing that sets Silverhorse apart from the competition. It’s about collaborating closely with the client and scaling up fast in order to reach their objectives.

“Proactive collaboration is key to the Silverhorse approach,” said McLeod, “because in our experience it’s by far the most effective way to deliver management by exception and capital discipline. Driving proactive collaboration is the core of everything we do across all of our scientific, technical and commercial activities. It means getting the client involved in the development of the software, and turning their problems into our objectives. Problems get solved by people making better decisions, and for that to happen they need the most useful insights they can get their hands on. That’s our mission basically.”

Assembling complementary skillsets on the advisory board is all part of that mission. “The board is going to play a pivotal role in ensuring that the company can scale at speed and keep pace with the enormous growth potential of the digitalisation space, both in the energy sector and further afield. Because timing is crucial.”