Creating a uniform accounting platform to make consolidated reporting more accurate, and time and cost-efficient is a challenge for any mining company.
The Central African Mining and Exploration Company (CAMEC) decided to proactively address this at the start of November 2006 and have recently concluded a very successful implementation - thanks to Softline ACCPAC and AccTech Systems.
John Raath, financial director: CAMEC, explains that beyond the need for consolidated reporting CAMEC wanted to exert better control over its spending and ensure its reporting figures were trustworthy.
"To make the implementation even more interesting, we also required the system be accessible over the Internet, enabling our people to be able to work anywhere at anytime. This would also make the company's information available to the rest of the group 24/7 without their having to wait for reports from the various regions."
With CAMEC and Softline ACCPAC already having an established relationship (the mining company implemented its "Accpac for Mining" solution earlier in 2006), the solution provider was an obvious choice for a project of this size.
Keith Fenner, sales director: Softline ACCPAC, was confident the Accpac solutions would exceed the expectations of CAMEC - something they have gone on to do.
"It was decided to implement all the core ACCPAC modules, both financial and those involved in distribution, with the GL consolidations module sitting on top of these. The powerful ACCPAC Insight module was also installed to allow users to drill through information quickly and easily."
He adds that to meet CAMEC's Internet requirements, all applications were hosted on an Internet-based platform by Exordia: "This provides fast secure access to applications deployed through the company's Citrix application server. This was critical in terms of maximising flexibility for users running offline in rural locations who then need to consolidate back to the headquarters set up at the data centre."
When it came to selecting the right implementation partner, CAMEC didn't hesitate in following Softline ACCPAC's recommendation of AccTech Systems. Tertius Zitzke, MD of AccTech Systems, says AccTech's experience in the mining and service industry was invaluable in this implementation. "We drew on both this and our proven project methodology throughout to eliminate risk and maximise effectiveness."
Zitzke adds that the implementation was a challenging one - with the scope of the project very hard to determine initially. "CAMEC was making a number of acquisitions at the time and a variety of entities were involved. This caused the goal posts to change as time progressed."
AccTech Systems' approach was thus to decide on three basic phases of implementation, dividing the relevant entities into these three groups. "Because the offices involved were so diverse, the project required some innovative thinking on the part of the engineers involved. We ensured though that each and every company on the list was put onto the Accpac applications which, in some cases, involved redesigning certain aspects of the systems," says Zitzke.
CAMEC's official implementation started in November 2006, with phase one being completed in February this year. Phase two and three followed suit. While change management and training staff to use the new systems proved challenges, Zitzke says his team's commitment to making the implementation work resulted in extending user training to build confidence.
"In any implementation like this, it is the users who ultimately determine the success of the project. By taking that extra time to ensure they are happy using the new applications - and want to use them - we were able to create the ideal environment for the consolidation and more accurate reporting."
The result of all the hard work? CAMEC is already enjoying the benefits. "We had a clean audit report and were able to report in record time for this financial year. On top of this, the consolidation module together with Insight reporting has made the consolidation process much simpler with fewer queries and mistakes being made when reporting to London - an incredible 23 companies were consolidated in six weeks," says Raath.
The combination of CAMEC, Softline ACCPAC and AccTech systems has thus proven a winning one yet again. And, with the best possible solutions in place and new company acquisitions continuing at the mining company, the sky would seem to be the limit for CAMEC.
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