Sharepoint Portal Solution for Leading Mining and Processing Company
The Client
The Client is a world leader in finding, mining and processing the earth’s mineral resources. The Group's worldwide operations supply essential minerals and metals that help to meet global needs and contribute to improvements in living standards.
It is the world's one of the largest producer of iron ore. It produces more than 50 million tonnes of iron ore a year before acquiring the iron ore assets of North Limited of Australia in 2000.
The Client is a significant energy producer, providing low-sulphur steam coal to power stations that supply homes, businesses and industries in the US, Australia and elsewhere, and metallurgical coking coal to iron and steel mills in Asia and Europe. The company also mines uranium oxide which, enriched into fuel rods, raises steam in nuclear power stations to generate electricity in Europe, the US and the Asia Pacific.
Business Situation
In May of 2000, Fourteen of the world's leading mining and metals companies announced the creation of an independent, global internet-based procurement marketplace. The venture created a platform to bring together mining and metals producers and suppliers in more than 100 countries and provide unrivaled access to procurement sources worldwide. The expansive, open and neutral platform has transformed the procurementpractices of the mining and metals industry and brought significant benefits to both suppliers and buyers through standardization, transparency, streamlined transaction processes and improved inventory management.
Solution
Ray Business Technologies implemented a collaborative online workspace based on Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint™ Services and SharePoint™ Portal Server on the extranet of The Client Procurement (RTP) hosted at FrontPages Web Hosting Network (St. Louis, MO), A Microsoft Certified Partner specializing in SharePoint hosting.
Our Client allow RTP to utilize a common catalogue of products in multiple languages and allow participants, regardless of size and location, to access and trade with a large pool of suppliers and buyers both locally and around the world. The RTP SharePoint based procurement marketplace is intended to help companies satisfy their buying requirements in a more efficient and streamlined way and bring benefits to the wide range of industry suppliers worldwide in reaching an increased universe of customers. At the same time the market place will preserve the confidentiality of information and relationships between the trading partners.
Benefits
- Searchable digital repository of documents: Like any other large company, This client also had tens of thousands of documents stored on file servers, in Microsoft Exchange Public Folders, on legacy systems, and in other places.Since there're so much information in so many locations, it was difficult to find what you need in a reasonable amount of time. Ray Business Solutions our client created a searchable digital repository, which enabled faster document search, document sharing, security, and team management capabilities. This helped client to reach producers and suppliers around the globe in quick time and resulted in better inventory control.
- Enabled a collaborative online community: The solution enabled better access to team and enterprise data,improved collaborative functionality, and enhanced capacity for business intelligence helped Client's information workers as well as senior level management.
- Enabled sharing of best practices: Improved team collaboration by supporting active discussions, calendar and meeting synchronization, and the display of common tasks within Windows SharePoint Services-based team sites, client’s staff can become more productive as they create and share best practices, projects, and related information.
- Provided a forum for chat and online discussions: Client’s teams needed to communicate, share tasks, and work together in order to get their work done.Additionally, team members often needed to work with people from other teams and divisions to complete tasks. This is even more difficult when people are located in different locations. SharePoint Portal Solution helped client’s team to find, communicate, and collaborate with people no matter where they were located.
- Minimal administration and management: Enhanced business intelligence. Using Microsoft Excel, Microsoft SQL™ Server Analysis Services, Microsoft Office XP, Windows SharePoint Services, and Microsoft Data Analyzer for critical business analysis, ACS information workers can have better business insight, enabling them to respond more rapidly to changes in the marketplace.
- Rapid time to use – site design and deployment: Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server is a knowledge management tool that brings together a wealth of information under one simple Web interface. SharePoint Portal's simple installation and configuration, as well as its easy-to-use development platform, meant that client could deploy a SharePoint server and quickly see results and a return on its investment.
Partner(s)
- FrontPage Web Hosting Network
Software & Services
- Microsoft Active Directory
- Microsoft Internet Information Services
- Microsoft SQL Server 2000
- Microsoft Windows Server 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services
- Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
- Microsoft ISA Server
