Accenture collaborated closely with Rio Tinto and its contractors, helping to lead project management, technical architecture and data teams. The massive changeover involved transitioning supply chain, financials, human resources, production management and data warehousing to SAP solutions, as well as developing an enterprise portal, e-learning and e-recruiting capabilities.
Accenture had primary responsibility for the complex global rollout, which is being released in stages. To ensure a smooth transition, Accenture professionals have worked onsite to train business unit users on the state-of-the-art systems. In addition, Accenture has assisted with ongoing support through its application management processes.
With Accenture’s help, Rio Tinto has transitioned over half of its users to the fully integrated, centralized business program. The rollout is complete for the company’s 50,000 employees and contractors.
Already, the benefits are immediate and far-reaching. Managers in Australia, the United States, Africa and the United Kingdom can quickly share and retrieve up-to-the-minute information, improving their ability to make timely decisions, while at the same time reducing costs.
Accenture’s continuing research into high-performance businesses has found that they share certain traits. They include rationalizing, simplifying and standardizing IT systems to improve productivity and manage costs. By teaming with Accenture, Rio Tinto has transformed its business systems, giving it a competitive advantage, and moving the mining giant close to its goal of achieving high performance.