Analysis
Modernizing core technologies: Considerations around cloud, cyber, and revitalising the core Paul Klein, partner, consulting, and Roland Labuhn, digital and analytics lead at Deloitte discuss the challenges that mining companies face in their digital transformations Over the years, most mining companies have made significant investments in a range of back-end technology systems. In embracing a digital future, however, miners will likely need to modernise many of these legacy systems and migrate to a digital core—raising a range of considerations around moving to the cloud, adopting sound cyber risk strategies, and choosing the best approach for modernising their core systems. The digital era has presented mining companies with a significant opportunity to innovate, reduce costs, enhance productivity, improve safety performance, and realise operational efficiency improvements. Unlocking these benefits, however, might be easier said than done—especially given the industry’s ongoing reliance on legacy back-end technology systems. “Mining industry digital investments to date have demonstrated the potential but have often been constrained by legacy system and data challenges,” Paul Klein, partner, consulting, Deloitte Australia, says. “Businesses aren’t expected to be able to realize the full potential of the intelligent mine without modernising their digital core.”
Core modernisation: The carrot and the stick 06 Mining and Tunnelling Technology
As Deloitte noted in Tech Trends 2019, “Core modernisation seeks to solve the riddle of how companies with significant investments in legacy systems can extract more value from these systems by making them a foundation for new disruptive innovations. Beyond just re-platforming legacy systems, core modernisation involves creating a roadmap for building a next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) core that incorporates—rather than merely enabling—digital, cloud, and other macro forces.” If these gains represent the carrot, the danger of ongoing reliance on legacy solutions that are
