The challenges facing the mining industry should be seen as opportunities to improve and grow the industry.

This is the view of SAP head of sales: mobility Julie Tregurtha, who told a Business Improvement in Southern Africa seminar, held in Johannesburg earlier this month, that “one of the opportunities that can be integrated effectively into mining businesses and industry is the effective use of mobile technology to transform the mining industry”.

She added: “When we look at certain mining companies that have been successful over the years and that have made certain improvements in their way of doing business, the first thing we note is that many mining companies are distributors. The logistics of that means that companies often have people who are stationed in remote areas and they do not have on-hand access to back-end systems and digital data.

“This is a challenge that can be dealt with through the introduction of mobile technology and using it to the companies’ advantage.”

Mobile technology could enable a business to involve all stakeholders in the mining business.

Therefore, there would greater opportunity to overcome challenges, provide people with better information, replace paper-based types of processes, reduce the risk of double data capturing and have information readily available for on-site managers and workers who were far removed from, and do not have access to, head office while working on site.

“Through the use of mobile technology and solutions, we are able to streamline operations, reduce the time between the phases of operation and tear down data communication silos because data that is needed for the workers on site can be easily accessed,” she says.

Mobile technology enables mining companies to virtualise the business and deploy these processes to accelerate daily activities, which, in turn, leads to better decision-making and running the business more efficiently.