 How we helped a mining company decide whether to remediate their ERP or implement a new solution |
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| Mining company involved in precious metals and the production of metal concentrates |
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| Needed an evaluation of the compnay's ERP and other options in the marketplace |
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| Conducted a functional and implementation gap analysis, developed a Request for Proposal, performed the vendor evaluation and presented the case for change to the shareholders' committee |
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| Our analysis indicated the current solution had too many functional gaps and the company would be better served by implementing another solution |
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Our client is a major company involved in the mining of precious metals and the production of metal concentrates.
Our client was in the position of being very dissatisfied with their existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solution, in that it was not adequately supporting their complex business environment.
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The company already had a significant investment in existing technology, but was uncertain which way the organization should proceed — remediate the existing technology implementation, or implement a new solution? |
Mine operations are very capital intensive, and have a complex shift-based human resource scheduling requirement. They also rely on a very well executed equipment maintenance capability.
The management at the mine site was concerned about whether the existing ERP system had adequate functionality to deal with for example, equipment maintenance. PricewaterhouseCoopers was engaged to conduct a detailed evaluation of the client’s current ERP environment. The client required a detailed functional and technical evaluation of the implementation in order to evaluate the fit of the existing solution against the current business model, as well as a newly designed “to-be” business model.
The scope of our engagement covered the full spectrum of the business operations, including:
- Finance
- Controlling
- Projects
- Maintenance management
- Logistics and procurement
- Human resources
- Health and safety
Additionally, the client required assistance to evaluate other ERP options in the marketplace, and lead them through a full ERP selection process.
In order to conduct this assignment we performed the following tasks, working closely with shareholder senior management and mine management:
- Conducted a detailed functional gap analysis for the maintenance, logistics, finance, human resources and safety functions. This entailed a detailed analysis of the current business processes against the functionally implemented configuration of the software, and against the unimplemented configuration options for the software;
- Conducted an implementation gap analysis, identifying the characteristics of the current implementation strategy that led to the significant performance deficiencies of the current software solution. This included configuration elements, customization strategies, knowledge gaps, etc.;
- Created a detailed Request for Proposal to select a new ERP solution. This included defining detailed ERP requirements and articulating the unique business needs of our client;
- Represented the client with regard to all vendor matters:
- Conducted vendor discovery sessions at the client site;
- Facilitated the vendor proposal and Response Submission;
- Analyzed vendor proposals; and
- Assisted with vendor negotiation strategies.
- Performed the vendor evaluation and developed the case for change for submission to the shareholders’ committee; and
- Represented the project sponsor to the shareholders’ committee, presented the case for change, and facilitated negotiation with shareholders’ committee.
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PwC’s team of experienced advisors provided our client with objective and knowledgeable assessments to help them through a difficult and challenging period, when it was not clear which way the company should proceed with respect to its use of enabling technology. The Board and executive management was looking for an unbiased assessment to help them understand the issues they faced and make a decision that was grounded on a strong analysis and business case. In the end, our analysis indicated that the current solution had too many functional gaps and that our client would be better served in the long run by implementing another solution. As part of our value add to the engagement, our team provided the client with detailed advice on how to successfully manage the complexities of the pending implementation of the new solution.
