Gold Fields Limited, the second largest gold mining group in South Africa, has awarded one of the most ambitious human resources and payroll software contracts yet seen in the local market to Centurion-based software group Solit.
The contract, worth between R20 million and R30 million, is for the implementation, configuration and delivery of ARMS (Automated Resource Management System), Solit's own, fully integrated human resources and payroll system.
It will be used to help administer the human resources function associated with managing Gold Fields' more than 53 000 people across South Africa.
"Gold Fields needed an HR and payroll solution to help it in its drive to become a competency-based organisation committed to developing its people," says HR General Manager Mike Adan. "We are currently using seven different payrolls, only two of which are integrated with the human resource function and then in a very limited way."
Gold Fields' existing HR and payroll systems were also characterised by inadequate audit, costing and security controls, and had become outdated and expensive to maintain.
"We wanted to introduce, efficiently and cost-effectively, a common and integrated human resource and payroll solution to assist in standardising certain processes and activities," says Adan. "The implementation of an integrated HR/payroll solution creates a window of opportunity to standardise and simplify processes and conditions of employment. This should be seen in the light of the differences and anomalies between operations and regions, bearing in mind that this company is the result of the combination of the gold assets of two very different mining houses.
"Another key objective has been the empowerment of our many thousands of employees, and in line with this, employee self service forms part of our thinking. We also required the ability to adapt quickly to changing requirements."
Gold Fields CIO Tom Fowler says the Solit initiative fits in well with the overall IT strategy to acquire and implement "best-of-breed" solutions which add value to the organisation. In this instance the deployment forms part of Gold Fields' overall rightsizing initiative: it is moving off its mainframes to a Windows NT platform, as a consequence of which it expects to save more than R20 million a year. Apart from the cost saving, it expects to enjoy far more flexible systems.
A combined team of between 40 and 50 people from Gold Fields, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Solit are working full time to deploy the ARMS system, and they expect to go live initially by year-end, with countrywide delivery expected in 18 months to two years.
"Mining is one of the most human resource-intensive environments, and exceedingly complex, so our solution is very well suited to Gold Fields' requirements," says Solit chairman Francois de Klerk. "Our solution naturally conforms with the latest technology, but more important than the technology is how it's applied."
Another key issue for Gold Fields was the ability of ARMS to address asset management related to employees. "Using the employee as the starting point for corporate interactions, we've addressed the need for integrated asset management, and created the potential for managing many other fixed resources associated with people," notes De Klerk.
The software is first being deployed in the West Wits region, for payroll and limited HR; then it will be deployed in the Free State. The software is being deployed to run on Microsoft's SQL Server on Windows NT. It was written in Visual Basic, using cube technology to deliver real-time payroll calculations, with significant business intelligence built in to the core application.
"This represents a giant step in our strategy of using local skills to develop world-class South African IT and export it internationally," says De Klerk. "We appreciate the support from local companies such as Gold Fields in achieving this objective."
"We wanted to assimilate and adopt best practice in the design of HR and payroll processes and policies," concludes Adan. "The implementation of ARMS will play a major role in this regard."
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