In December 2005, Barrick Gold acquired Placer Dome with the vision of becoming the best gold mining company in the world. To take advantage of the substantial synergies between the two companies extensive work was undertaken at all levels to integrate business processes. The successful integration of information and communication technology infrastructure and processes was identified as an important part of the amalgamation.
Openet was engaged by Barrick to manage the network merger in the Australia Pacific region which accounted for approximately two-thirds of the global network merger.
The merger was achieved by working with Barrick's existing IT staff and their new colleagues from the former Placer sites together with additional resources provided by Openet. Openet undertook a range of tasks including:
- Project management for the Australia Pacific region
- Auditing and assessment of existing Placer ICT infrastructure
- Interconnection of the Barrick and Placer Australian WANs in conjunction with Telstra
- Decommissioning and relocation of Placer's Brisbane data centres to Barrick's Perth headquarters
- Preparation and deployment of AD infrastructure to former Placer sites to facilitate subsequent migration into the Barrick AD domain
- Deployment of Barrick's standard Microsoft Exchange messaging infrastructure to former Placer sites and subsequent migration of mail services from Lotus Notes/Domino to Exchange
- Provision of personnel to migrate sites in the Kalgoorlie region to Barrick's AD domain
- Provision of personnel to migrate sites in Papua New Guinea to Barrick's AD domain
- Consolidation of WAN infrastructure and services
- Decommissioning of remnant Placer infrastructure
The merger project was officially completed in December 2006.
Openet continues to provide ICT consultancy services to Barrick Gold in the Australian Pacific region. Keep an eye on the website to read about further projects as they are completed.