Barrick

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Vision

African Barrick Gold needed a stable, cost effective IT platform to connect mining operations in Tanzania and South Africa to a new head office in London.  

Key challenges lay in navigating the logistical and regulatory complexities of establishing IT platforms in remote African locations.  

To accomplish this technical transformation, we also needed to align two disparate business cultures to create a new entity attuned to the Barrick Gold corporate model.

Traction

Traction needs great timing!  We redesigned, merged and optimised the South African and Tanzanian networks while planning and implementing African Barrick Gold’s new UK presence. We also established secure hosting for ERP and corporate applications in Johannesburg.  

Choreographing these moves called on our full repertoire of skills and experience to:  

• Audit and benchmark the African sites 
• Develop a long term regional IS strategy 
• Establish the London headquarters and hire a regional IT Director 
• Merge and upskill the IT teams to manage the new infrastructure and extended applications 
• Manage the rollout of the infrastructure platform including new and reconfigured satellite and terrestrial links 
• Establish unified communication and storage platforms 
• Migrate Placer Dome sites to Barrick AD and Exchange 
• Convert redundant off site data centres to provide secure hosting

Results

This project built a unified platform that links users across very remote regions and corporate centres. Regardless of their location, everyone has access to the same familiar, secure experience. The platform is also very secure and flexible so it can run additional applications. Finally, it is maintained by a skilled, cohesive IS team equipped to support further regional expansion.