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Mines must adapt rapidly to new digital age – Wipro

8th May 2015

By: Ilan Solomons

Creamer Media Staff Writer

  

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For mining organisations to remain competitive in the digital era, there needs to be transformation within their information technology (IT) functionality, says IT consultancy and systems integration firm Wipro Africa business director Shailendra Singh.
“As technology plays an ever-increasing role in every aspect of a mine’s operations, those that do not modernise their logical applica- tions and physical infrastructure will struggle to keep pace with their peers,” he states.
Singh highlights that the Relentless Efficiency Lifecycle framework enables miners to better understand and create strategies to transform their enterprise architecture.

“It views the concept of IT maturity as a six-phase process that ultimately transitions mining organisations from having a loose set of fragmented infrastructure to a virtualised, mobile-optimised environment that capitalises on the latest mining technologies,” he explains.
The first phase involves standardising all the different systems that have evolved over time for different business functions and different mine locations.

Singh says that this involves the miner selecting a set of vendors and open technologies that enable standardisation from an infrastructure and support perspective.

“For example, the systems used to plan for blasting would speak to the systems used to calculate yields in a common language. Standardisation achieves cost efficiencies and enables a smoother flow of information throughout the organisation,” he states.
Singh notes that the next step is the process of unifying various mine operations within a country, or across the globe.

“Through centralisation, the miner can start creating shared services, such as ‘accounts payable’ shared services for example. Functions that would previously have been done independently at the mine premises are shifted to a head office location with the right infrastructure underpinning the newly designed, central functions,” he says.

Singh is of the view that automation goes “hand in hand” with the previous phases.

“As the IT estate begins to mature, tighter integration between the various systems creates new opportunities to automate processes with rules-based engines.

“This reduces the reliance on manual processes, eradicates certain low-skilled IT tasks, generates greater efficiency and positions miners to scale up their operations with relative ease,” he enthuses.

Once the business processes have been standardised, centralised and largely auto-mated, chief information officers can thus elevate their focus to visualisation.

Singh highlights that online, real-time graphics can present visual representations of every aspect of a mine’s operations, thereby providing managers with “unprecedented” visibility into the inner workings of the organisation.

Therefore, a plant manager can monitor the throughput of a mill, and then “mash up” that data against other data sources, such as the previous week’s performance, or the specifications expected, or against industry standards.

“Mobilisation is the process of extending key services and information down to mobile devices like tablets, smartphones or netbooks,” Singh explains.

He points out that this process allows managerial staff to continue operating and interacting with colleagues and customers, from wherever they may be located.
Additionally, Singh says that virtualisation enables the mining company to reduce the need for skilled resources “on site”.

“In a virtualised environment, skilled technicians, maintenance engineers and managers can perform most of their day-to-day functions from anywhere in the world.

“This eases the age-old problem of struggling to attract certain skills owing to the remote locations of most mining operations. Virtualisation also significantly improves the productivity of specialists, as they can work off multiple mines from one central location,” he adds.
Singh states that the Relentless Efficiency Lifecycle is essentially a way to conceptualise IT transformation.

“In reality, these phases may overlap to some degree, and there may be a heavier focus on some areas than on others. However, it paints the picture of a largely chronological sequence, and helps miners draft strategies that inform the right tactical approaches within each phase,” he says.
However, Singh comments that, while reaching a state of “full virtualisation” is probably currently out of reach for most miners, those that progress to the final stages of maturity can reap significant benefits.

These include greater efficiencies, more streamlined operations, improved productivity and profitability, more control over the business through better insights and faster decision-making owing to the immediacy of the data available.

Additional benefits include the wiser use of skilled and expensive senior resources, quick response times to changing market conditions, such as rapidly starting or stopping certain operations in times of price fluctuations, more time to focus on core capabilities and strategic activities as well as ensuring the ease of on-boarding new mines, or even whole mining companies, in the case of merger and acquisition activities.
Singh, however, acknowledges that, while the benefits to miners may be significant, the complexity involved in reaching greater maturity and realising these benefits is never an easy task.

Nonetheless, he says that, with an experienced outsourced IT partner, which understands the sector, mining companies are able to concentrate on their core competences and benefit from the experience of IT specialists.
“Innovations, particularly in areas such as cloud architecture and mobility have opened up fantastic opportunities for miners. Knowing how best to implement these new technologies in line with the maturity roadmap requires strong partnerships within the miner’s extended IT ecosystem,” Singh concludes.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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