Coal news and updates

Rio Tinto moves to new information systems platform

April 16: Rio Tinto, a global diversified mining company, will move to a ground-breaking information systems and technology (IS&T) delivery model, partnering with Accenture to shape and deliver the transformation, Rio said in a release.

The new model will migrate core enterprise IS&T systems to an “As-a-Service” solution based in the cloud. It also incorporates consumption based pricing to ensure costs are fully flexible and in line with business demand, the release added.

The programme will include modernisation of the company’s existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and information management (IM) platforms, consolidating and hosting these applications in the public cloud.

Under the terms of the agreement, Accenture will also manage the maintenance and upgrade of this application landscape and related infrastructure and transform the global service desk and site support functions.

Managed via the Accenture Cloud Platform, and adopting a public cloud first policy, the solution will accelerate Rio Tinto’s journey towards a truly digital business.

Rio Tinto expects to directly benefit from significant cost savings through increased business agility and cost flexibility inherent in cloud services, and from continued lower infrastructure prices in line with cloud economic trends.

The solution is based on a platform for innovation - including a co-located innovation centre in Singapore – and a long-term commitment to partnering.

“Rio Tinto is on an ambitious journey to a world-class IS&T delivery model that is innovative, adaptable and cost-effective, fully supporting our business priorities and group operating model,” said Rio Tinto Group CIO Simon Benney.

“We selected Accenture to help us manage this transformation based on its global delivery capabilities, its vision for the intelligent business cloud and its ability to support our digital transformation programme,” he said.

“This project redefines the delivery of application and infrastructure services,” said Pierre Nanterme, Chairman and CEO, Accenture.

Rio Tinto is a leading global mining group that focuses on finding, mining and processing the earth’s mineral resources. Rio Tinto’s major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, gold, industrial minerals (borates, titanium dioxide and salt), iron ore, thermal and metallurgical coal and uranium.

Activities span the world and are strongly represented in Australia and North America. The company also has significant businesses in Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.