Information advisory, execution and enablement firm Decision has designed a document management accelerator specifically tailored for the intense regulatory demands of the mining industry.

The company says the solution represents a substantial step forward for governance and control, assisting in mitigating the risk of noncompliance with legislated policies and procedures.

“Noncompliance exposes mining organisations and their management to potential legal, financial and even criminal liability,” Decision states.

The Document Management Mining Accelerator (DMMA) leverages the Microsoft SharePoint platform and provides companies with a configurable, system-driven workflow to facilitate the authoring, review, approval and publishing of documents. It is designed to ensure that required documentation is available to those that need it, at all times, and that the latest version is always used.

“DMMA provides mining organisations with the solution they need to easily manage and distribute key documentation throughout the relevant operational areas,” says Decision content and collaboration GM Henri Fourie.

He further points out that the DMMA is in use at global mining houses’ operations, such as De Beers and Kumba Iron Ore, and has proven to be the “leading structured document management solution”, as it provides a repository containing overarching standards with which all mine sites, departments and individual contractors can easily comply with.

“The document management capabilities provided by the solution enhance the out-of-the-box functionality provided by SharePoint, and provide formal and structured work-flow-driven processes that are user-friendly and improve turnaround times significantly.

The DMMA also provides a robust layer of security to control who has access to specific content, and who can play what roles within the system,” Fourie states.

He adds that the DMMA supports the streamlining of essential business processes into a cohesive and accessible whole. The authoring of new documents is template-driven, with prepopulation of metadata into the documents themselves, ensuring consistency and efficiency.

Fourie, moreover, remarks that the solution leverages off familiar Microsoft interfaces to enable ease of use and minimal requirement for upskilling and training.

He says that the solution has been designed specifically for the unique requirements of the mining industry and caters to its need to adhere to the rules and legislation that govern the sector.

“The benefits include a powerful search facility, centrally managed document libraries for critical documents, strict access control and a built-in PDF conversion tool, among other advantages.