Renowned financial management solutions company Magic Orange has won the tender to introduce end-to-end IT financial management (ITFM) into JSE-listed diversified mining company Exxaro Resources.
Competitive pricing, an excellent track record among large international clients, local presence and the quality of support during the sales cycle all contributed to Magic Orange being the solution of choice for the mining giant.
“We are delighted that Exxaro chose our platform to drive transparency and simplicity into its costing processes,” comments Greg Guye, CEO at Magic Orange. “This marks our first foray into the mining sector, with its enormous need for effective cost management and profitability. We are confident this win will mark the start of our penetration into this important vertical market.”
Exxaro is a large South African-based diversified resources group, with interests in the coal, titanium dioxide (TiO2), ferrous and energy markets. It operates facilities and offices in Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia.
“Securing business with a large client that operates in several territories promises to extend our international footprint,” notes Guye.
Exxaro’s process for allocating shared IT costs to its individual mines was tedious and labour-intensive, involving complex spreadsheets and manual journals. This led to delayed and limited visibility, both of shared IT costs and chargebacks.
The organisation identified the need for a comprehensive ITFM solution with mechanisms to effectively manage total cost of ownership (TCO) of IT services as well as demonstrate the value of IT within Exxaro. It required a solution to support and improve budgeting, accounting and charging disciplines within its Information Management Department.
As COVID-19 continues to disrupt the world economy, the mining industry is being impacted by numerous factors, from disturbed international trade flows to falling currencies and stock prices.
“Now, more than ever, we have a clear need for an ITFM solution and look forward to realising significant benefits on a number of fronts,” says Desmond Govender, CIO of Exxaro Resources. “Even though we are only at the start of our ITFM journey with Magic Orange, we are already seeing significant progress in the desired direction.”
The manager of one of Exarro’s major business units recently commented: "We are in a big crunch to ensure every cent spent is needed, so when we received our budget, we wanted to ensure we had all the detail. The team shared the Magic Orange detail with us and, for once, we had insight into what our charges were.”
Instead of billing the mines a set percentage of IT costs, Exxaro’s IT Department will now be able to charge them only for what they actually consume. Individual business units will gain full visibility into exactly which IT resources they are using, at what cost, and will thus be in a far better position to control their costs.
The solution will deliver measurable benefits for finance, the business and IT/shared services. Data is fed into the Magic Orange platform and interrogated via different views, all aimed at controlling costs. As processes are automated, so they speed up, and resources are freed from performing low-level, invoice-splitting tasks.
The solution will be implemented at Exxaro over three months and the organisation will then run its ITFM processes itself, with the Magic Orange team of experts providing ongoing support when necessary.
“We applaud Exxaro’s foresight to invest into progressive technology to secure future success at this challenging time,” adds Guye.