XERAS for Enterprise: three case studies

Launched with the support of global enterprise resource planning (ERP) powerhouse, SAP AG, RungePincockMinarco’s (RPM) XERAS for Enterprise integrates SAP’s financial and maintenance management modules with the financial modelling capabilities of XERAS, RPM’s financial modelling product for mining.

In this article, RPM provide three case studies detailing the early implementation of XERAS for Enterprise at three clients in South Africa, Australia and Indonesia. 

Case study: mining coal for Sasol

The integration between XERAS for Enterprise and SAP’s financial and maintenance management modules offers financial visibility and cost control from individual minesites through to corporate management reporting systems – the key benefit behind the decision made by Sasol Mining to purchase XERAS for Enterprise. Mining 40 million tpa of coal a year, Sasol Mining is a part of Sasol, a leading international energy and chemicals company. Sasol Mining supplies coal to Sasol Infrachem and as a gasification feedstock to Sasol Synfuels. 

For Sasol Mining, it was critical that its operational systems were more tightly integrated with their corporate SAP ERP system, so they could better analyse planned versus actual financial results.

The XERAS for Enterprise implementation at Sasol Mining will automatically consolidate XERAS models from multiple minesites into an enterprise-wide view of the business. As a result, the South African coal miner now expects the budgeting process to be more accurate and streamlined, given that the information flow between these key systems can now be monitored and controlled. Data integrity will be maintained by functionality within XERAS for Enterprise, providing confidence to all users that they are always using the correct version.

The integration with SAP allows for visibility of actual monthly results in XERAS and provides management at Sasol Mining with the ability to easily re-forecast, as well as compare results by site. The corporate visibility and control of key budget assumptions, ensuring governance over data integrity, was also a key XERAS for Enterprise feature that the coal producer required.

When implemented, Sasol Mining intends to use XERAS for Enterprise to manage the integration between SAP and XERAS for all financial aspects of modelling, budgeting and forecasting. The company is an early adopter of XERAS for Enterprise and, as such, is working with RPM to influence the product direction as additional functionality opportunities are identified during the implementation.

Case study: mining coal for export in Australia

Yancoal Australia is also in the process of implementing XERAS for Enterprise. The company is one of the largest coal exporters in Australia, producing both thermal and metallurgical coal from its mines in Queensland and New South Wales.

Reece Margetts, head of commercial operations at Yancoal’s Moolarben mine in the Hunter Valley said: “Yancoal prides itself on being one of the world’s most innovative coal companies. We see enormous business benefits in using technology such as XERAS for Enterprise to enable us to set up a best of breed integrated forecasting system that ensures complete financial visibility from our boardroom right across all of our operations. The solution provides us with a level of control and trust in the planning process that we have never had before, giving us the confidence to make the right operational decisions”.

Case study: BUMA Group

In Indonesia, RPM is working with the BUMA Group, one of Indonesia’s largest mining service contractors, to implement XERAS for Enterprise. BUMA is a new RPM client and is using XERAS for Enterprise to consolidate multiple financial models to immediately explain the difference between actual and planned financial results. It is also using XERAS for Enterprise to easily show the financial implications of changes in the mining environment to their forecasts.

The benefits of integration

“Having spoken with many of our customers and particularly those with SAP systems already installed, I am convinced that being able to move data seamlessly between corporate systems and operational systems will become a “must have” going forward,” said Richard Mathews, RPM’s CEO and managing director. “Miners with the ability to do this will have a competitive advantage over those that cannot. It’s very exciting to see the take up of this product in such a short timeframe. It validates the investments we are making in our enterprise products.

“In addition to these customers who are implementing XERAS for Enterprise, we currently have 7 customers who are either trialling the software, undertaking a proof of concept or who we are in discussions with to acquire the product in this calendar year.

Written by RPM. Edited by Jonathan Rowland

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/mining/20052014/xeras_for_enterprise_three_coal_case_studies_coal864/