Case Study - Establishing a Scalable Technology Backbone for a New Joint Venture in the Australian Mining Sector

CLIENT OVERVIEW 

In 2024, a newly formed joint venture acquired a portfolio of coal mining assets in New South Wales, Australia. The acquisition included more than 10 operational mining and support locations and involved approximately 1,500 employees and contractors. As part of the transaction, the new joint venture was responsible for rapidly establishing its own independent IT and digital infrastructure fully decoupled from the seller’s legacy systems to support critical mining operations and ensure safe and stable operations for growth.

THE CHALLENGE

The joint venture faced an aggressive timeline, with a six-month Transition Service Agreement (TSA) mandating the full separation of IT systems from the previous owner. This effort had to be executed without any impact to safety or mine production. The company also contended with limited internal technical resources due to competing investment priorities and simultaneous asset projects. Additionally, the migration of sensitive operational data and user environments such as communications and collaboration platforms posed a high risk, requiring strict adherence to cybersecurity standards. A smooth coexistence strategy was necessary to maintain business continuity during the transition, which included dual-access environments for some applications.

APPROACH

The project involved a comprehensive, end-to-end design and deployment of a new backoffice technology backbone. Key components included supporting over 1,200 end-user devices across more than ten remote locations and deploying a secure and scalable SD-WAN network to ensure reliable site connectivity. A hybrid cloud environment, combining Microsoft Azure and on-premise infrastructure hosted at Equinix data centers, was architected to support both operational and corporate systems. The environment was designed to enable rapid onboarding of new enterprise applications while facilitating the migration of essential legacy systems from the seller. The approach also included strong cybersecurity foundations, with remote access capabilities, endpoint protection, identity and access controls, and compliance focused configurations.

SOLUTION 

Within the TSA timeline, a modern IT environment was successfully delivered. This included the deployment of a robust SD-WAN across all operational sites, enabling dynamic routing and high availability. Microsoft Endpoint Manager (Intune) was implemented for device management, while identity and access were secured using Hybrid Entra ID. New cloud-based business systems were introduced to support health, safety, risk, workforce, and time management functions, complemented by site-specific operational tools. A complex Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant migration was executed, encompassing mail, OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint, with coexistence maintained throughout to minimize disruption. A full suite of security measures, including multi-factor authentication (MFA), secure VPN, and endpoint protection, was established to ensure a secure and compliant IT environment.

IMPACT 

The joint venture successfully completed the IT transition within the required timeframe, achieving zero operational downtime. All personnel were seamlessly onboarded into the new environment, gaining uninterrupted access to critical systems and collaboration platforms. The newly implemented IT foundation not only ensured regulatory compliance but also provided scalability for future business needs and digital transformation initiatives. Ongoing managed services and governance frameworks were put in place to support secure and sustainable IT operations moving forward.