Newmont Outsources to Streamline Mining Operations

Rising costs, increasing environmental regulations and intensifying competition have the world’s mining industry leaders reassessing their operational strategies to push ahead in a fiercely competitive sector.

Newmont Mining Corp., a leading gold producer, is responding to these challenges by consolidating and restructuring its global IT operations from several local vendors in five continents to CSC, a single service provider with a global reach.

Overriding multiple vendors with experience

Long-standing relationships with several leading natural resource companies has given CSC a highly developed expertise in the mining industry.

“We are able to differentiate ourselves from other IT companies that don’t have that background,” says Teresa Carroll-Childers, CSC’s account executive for the Denver-based Newmont. “We can speak their language and leverage what we’re doing with other mining customers to help Newmont achieve their goal of global, consistent IT.”

CSC will manage IT operations for all of Newmont’s global shared services operations and regional gold mining facilities in North America, Australia, Peru and Ghana. The seven-year deal includes responsibility for enterprisewide infrastructure, help desk, desktop, network, telecommunications and security services, as well as server support and applications maintenance.

“CSC knows the mining industry,” says Alex Morrison, Newmont’s vice president of IT. “That was very important in our decision to go with them. It absolutely distinguishes CSC from other potential outsourcing companies.”

Newmont’s decision to seek improved service delivery through a single vendor is based on achieving several goals, including:

• A flexible model for future growth and change
  
• Operational excellence in cost, performance and efficiency
  
• Automation throughout
  
• Technology and innovation for continuous improvement
  
• Improved consistency and standardization
  

“The solution we need is the platform CSC is providing,” Morrison says. “CSC is coming to the table with a solution, which we have not had in the past, providing our IT operations a very solid platform for growth.”

Standardizing a solution to meet a global challenge

In May, the first major accomplishment of the project was completed as scheduled. CSC moved over 250 Newmont servers from previous providers’ sites in Arizona and Perth, Australia, to CSC data centers in Chicago and Perth. The time-restrained work set the pace for a vigorous partnership.

“This has been a tough project with many issues,” says Ray Storace, Newmont’s IT sourcing lead on the initial transition. “However, considering the complexity and the many moving parts, the user impact is minimal.”

Newmont’s current and future business is dependent upon IT solutions to manage its worldwide operations. With CSC, Newmont expects to:

• Deliver world-class, evolving services
  
• Focus on its core competencies
  
• Establish a flexible framework
  
• Address service delivery gaps
  
• Identify responsibilities and share risks
  

“We're absolutely looking for scalability and standardization,” adds Morrison. “I believe standardization across processes, applications and training, particularly in a global context, provides the best vehicle for cost efficiency.

“Currently, we do not have common processes at our locations and that's a primary reason why we looked to bring CSC in. The services they are providing can act as a foundation toward standardization.”