Case Studies

Hamersley Iron Outsources IT to Maptek

In 1998 Hamersley Iron's commercial division investigated ways of reducing costs. As a result, a decision was made to outsource the IT department. The company then appointed Business Relationship Managers to set strategies, handle contracts and interface with outsourcing groups.

Maptek won the right to take over the Application Services Department and provide development and support services to Hamersley's extensive suite of in-house applications (some 40 applications in total, ranging from mining to financial systems). Maptek also provides a host of other services such as data transfers and major project management.

Hamersley's strategies have been passed on to Maptek to develop the best methodologies and technologies for implementation.

Maptek provides Hamersley with a fully integrated system. Maptek literally locks into Hamersley's business, with full network access through a frame relay. Maptek has become part of HI's Helpdesk operations. All support-maintenance calls are placed in a call tracking system, to be dealt with on a priority basis (ranging from Critical - with an immediate response, to Low - with a response time of up to one month).

A Quality Assurance system, which was co-developed by Hamersley and Maptek, is used to review applications or versions before they are released. A development model has been adopted to give a cyclic flow to all development work.

Projects Completed

Examples of recent projects include:

• Technical Planning and Production System - TPPS.  Project to combine the 8 individual Oracle site databases into one corporate-wide repository.
• Grade Control System for all mine sites. Essential production system for predicting ore blocks from waste. Complete re-design, development and implementation. Uses 3D modelling capabilities.
• Plant Reporting Application - PRA. Monitors process plant performance. Development and implementation across all Hamersley mine sites.
• Support and development work on approximately 40 key mining, port, rail and financial applications.

Benefits to Hamersley Iron

Hamersley has recognised significant improvements in the levels of Application Support since outsourcing has been introduced.

• The level of after-hours support has increased.
• HI no longer bears the cost of training developers.
• A large backlog of enhancement and development work has been cleared.
• A fixed price maintenance contract has provided Hamersley with clear cost accounting.
• Maptek has responded to Hamersley's needs quickly and effectively.

Hamersley has for the first time been able to continually monitor application development and support performance via the monthly reports provided by Maptek. Read about Maptek's Web Based Reporting.

Conclusion

Feedback has been very positive.

Mr Christian Thompson, Hamersley's Business Relationship Manager, states, "Outsourcing has allowed Hamersley Iron to produce a better IT solution. We are now able to identify and control costs and reduce risk through fixed costs and time lines."

Maptek provides Hamersley Iron with IT support by working closely with Hamersley at all levels to provide a high quality solution. To most site personnel, Maptek is indistinguishable from any other Hamersley department.

Maptek is proactive in independently seeking IT solutions for Hamersley without the need for a formal request.