Total cost transparency: How MagicOrange’s end-to-end ITFM solution supports mining giant Exxaro

Its CIO and Information Management division faced the time-consuming challenge of manually allocating shared IT costs to Business Units.

The process was demoralising, labour-intensive and involved multiple complex spreadsheets and manual journals. Crucially, the client’s system lacked transparency to the Business Units and key stakeholders, which prevented the CIO from optimising their costs, driving accountability, and influencing positive change.

Challenge

Exxaro needed an ITFM solution to support and improve budgeting, accounting, and charging disciplines within the Information Management division, as well as to clearly demonstrate the value this department brings to the organisation.

Solution

After an extensive RFP process involving several global ITFM tooling vendors, MagicOrange was chosen as the ideal platform for addressing these challenges, enabling CFOs and CIOs to bring clarity and simplicity into their organisation’s IT costing processes. The user-friendly integration of MagicOrange with Microsoft’s Productivity Platform served as the automation and transformation middle layer, streamlining operations.

“To ensure long term success, we assisted Exxaro to define its ITFM vision and develop a three-year roadmap,” comments Blake Davidson, Chief Customer Officer at MagicOrange.

The listed mining company, Exxaro Resources, is now able to effectively demonstrate the cost of IT within the organisation. Exxaro Resources has complete transparency into IT costs following an end-to-end MagicOrange ITFM implementation for the mining sector. Its Information Management team can actively manage the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of its IT services, and chargebacks to business units have been fully automated, resulting in significant time-savings.

Benefits

Exxaro has experienced numerous benefits following the strategy, planning and implementation of the MagicOrange platform. Its entire IT recharge process is now automated, resulting in a transparent, defendable, robust recharge model.

“The MagicOrange team truly earned my trust, and nothing was ever a problem for them. That stands out for me in my 30 years of experience in the IT industry.” - Mariana Bredenkamp, Principal Architect Enterprise Applications at Exxaro.

• Rapid time to value: Exxaro saw immediate value from Prism, even before the implementation period process was completed.

• Cost transparency and saving opportunities: With MagicOrange, all chargebacks are now supported with granular data down to invoice level, empowering CIOs and CFOs to obtain predictable, transparent, and accessible IT bills through self-service. By fully understanding costs related to each ICT service, CIOs and CFOs can identify savings opportunities and optimise resource allocation effectively.

• Streamlined operations and reduced manual effort: Automation through MagicOrange liberates management accountants from mundane manual tasks, allowing them to focus on value-adding analysis that directly impacts the organisation's financial performance.

• Accurate cloud cost and allocation: MagicOrange enables Information Management to allocate cloud costs accurately to various applications and services, facilitating the development of a comprehensive Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model. CIOs and CFOs gain a deeper understanding of the true cost implications of cloud services, aiding in strategic decision-making and cost management.

• Efficient implementation and user-friendly features: The change management process ensures easy adoption, empowering users to understand and utilise the ITFM tool to access the information they need. The MagicOrange team provided customised system playbooks tailored to different user groups, including analysts and cost model administrators, facilitating a smooth learning curve and maximising user proficiency.

• Collaborative approach and comprehensive training: The MagicOrange team worked closely with Exxaro’s project and change management teams, and delivered comprehensive, face-to-face training across a number of locations. As Principal Architect, Bredenkamp, notes, “it felt as if we were one team.”

• Enhanced security and simplified user management: MagicOrange's single sign-on feature ensures secure access to critical information, allowing administrators to easily add and manage users within the platform. User management becomes a streamlined process, ensuring authorised individuals have seamless access to the information they need.

Following the ITFM implementation for mining giant Exxaro, this marks another successful project for MagicOrange in the mining sector. Exxaro realised the benefits of cloud-native ITFM within only three months - before implementation had officially finished – including granular support of chargebacks, transparent self-service IT bills for CIOs/CFOs, and automated IT recharge processes.

If your organisation is interested in gaining total transparency into your IT and shared services costs, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our expert team. MagicOrange Prism; the market’s most advanced cloud native ITFM platform.