On February 8-10, we held our second annual Digital Transformation Summit. Over 250 attendees from all functional areas of our businesses joined sessions to hear from peers and experts to learn about how we are continuing to transform our companies use in technology and data to be more efficient on how we run our businesses and our decision-making.

The Summit introduced the theme of “Building a Better Digital World,” and over the three days of sessions, we mapped out what we have done thus far; what we are currently doing; and what we are all doing to move forward together in our continued digital transformation. A reoccurring message was witnessed throughout the Summit, which is that RPM continues driving towards having technology not just be a support mechanism, but an integral part of strategic initiatives and enablers of the organization’s growth.

I’d like to highlight some key takeaways from the Summit that we will continue to drive over the next many months to support our continued Digital Transformation:

• Plant Modernization – As a joint effort between our IT and Operations teams, led by Gordy Hyde, we will be looking to utilize technology and data to become more efficient and world-class in our manufacturing facilities.
• Data Analytics – Last summer, we embarked on rolling out a Data Analytics initiative to begin harnessing the power of our data as a competitive advantage. A key product of this initiative is a focus on creating a “Cost Model Analytics Tool," which will increase our visibility on the impact of market drivers on the costs of our finished goods – down to an ingredient level.
• On-going Technology Education – We will put emphasis on educating employees and empower them on our technology offerings as we roll them out. We will be creating a Center of Excellence team that will develop technology based educational offerings and programs. The first platform we will focus on is the use of PowerBI, which is one of the fundamental tools we offer that handles interactive reporting and dashboards.
• Digital Transformation and Technology Communications – One of the common pieces of feedback we received was our employees were unaware of the many initiatives, platforms and projects that are going on throughout the organization. To follow the lead of other initiatives such as Building a Better World, EH&S and Route 168, we will be providing more frequent updates on critical and emerging RPM-wide and group-led DTS activities and projects.

Once again, the Digital Transformation Summit proved to be a great success and we look forward to next year’s meeting in person! I need to express my gratitude to each of the presenters, our senior leadership team for their support of our continued digital transformation and last, but not least - each of the RPM IT team members who helped pull off this year’s event.

Visit the Digital Transformation Summit website to view the presentations.