Kissflow’s Chief Product Officer Dinesh Varadharajan explains why internal agility, not just tech upgrades, is the key to scaling digital transformation in energy and how low-code platforms empower non-IT users to automate critical processes.
The energy sector continues to struggle to scale digital transformation beyond pilot projects.
Legacy systems, siloed data and a culture resistant to change often hold organisations back. IDC forecasts ICT spending in Asia Pacific will reach US$1.4 trillion by 2025. Organisations are prioritising technological resilience and focusing on digital transformation, artificial intelligence and automation. Despite this, progress remains uneven.
Disconnected workflows and manual processes are at the heart of the problem. When information exists in silos, decisions are delayed, duplicated or made without full context. Manual processes consume time and introduce errors. These inefficiencies compound at scale, especially across geographically dispersed teams and asset-intensive operations.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed these vulnerabilities. Organisations with manual, paper-based systems struggled to operate remotely and collaboration across teams broke down. In contrast, organisations with agile, digital platforms were able to respond faster and recover more effectively.
This is where low-code/no-code platforms offer a path forward. They decentralise development and allow business teams to automate and adapt workflows without heavy reliance on IT. When organisations empower users to take ownership of their processes, digital transformation moves beyond pilot and becomes embedded in the way work is done.
“Energy companies must remain agile and navigate volatile prices, regulatory pressure, demand for sustainability and rising consumer expectations,” said Dinesh Varadharajan, Chief Product Officer at Kissflow. “But technology alone, no matter how advanced, can only go so far. Without internal agility, the most modern infrastructure upgrades rarely deliver impact.”
The reality is this: approval workflows are buried in email threads, there’s a growing backlog of business requests waiting on IT and the costs from relying on external developers are mounting.
One energy company overcame these barriers by adopting Kissflow’s low-code/no-code platform and launching a citizen development programme. Rather than waiting on IT, business users were empowered to solve their own problems. In just six months, the company automated over 95 processes, increasing productivity and reducing its reliance on third-party developers.
“This is what internal agility looks like: people, processes and technology moving in sync to drive enterprise-wide transformation,” Varadharajan said.
Simplicity is at the heart of this shift. The energy sector faces business process challenges such as complex workflows and siloed systems that slow innovation and increase operational risk. Low-code platforms help overcome these bottlenecks by accelerating application development time.
Using intuitive drag-and-drop tools, business users can develop and deploy custom solutions without relying on overstretched IT teams. This empowers frontline teams to respond to operational needs faster while IT maintains oversight to ensure governance and security.
For instance, business users can utilise low-code tools to digitise inspections, track assets, streamline maintenance scheduling and improve environmental, health and safety (EHS) reporting. These applications can be deployed in a shorter amount of time, making it easier to scale successful solutions.
“This is what internal agility looks like: people, processes and technology working in sync,” said Varadharajan. “Low-code platforms turn complexity into clarity, helping the energy sector and oil and gas companies remain efficient, competitive and ready for what’s next.”
Organisations can unlock speed and scale by embracing citizen development, a model where development efforts are democratised across business users while IT provides the governance to keep everything secure and aligned.
“The people closest to the problem often have the clearest view of what needs to change. But in traditional models, they are sidelined by long IT queues and rigid delivery models,” Varadharajan commented.
“Speed, however, still must be balanced with control. When done right, citizen development reduces shadow IT, accelerates innovation and fosters a digital-first culture. It’s not just about filling IT gap. It’s a sustainable strategy that allows digital transformation to become a shared responsibility across the enterprise and not just a top-down initiative.”
