As IM’s annual review of ventilation advances goes to the printer comes news of RPMGlobal (RPM) entering into a software integration partnership with Chasm Consulting to enable RPM and Chasm to further develop an integration between the industry leading Chasm mine ventilation software Ventsim™, with RPM’s underground software solutions.
RPM’s underground software solutions provide a platform for successful mine planning in underground mines around the world. With the latest in technology innovation at the core of RPM’s software solutions, partnering with Chasm for best-of-breed ventilation software was a natural fit.
RPM knows that it is through the connected, digital mine that mining companies will be able to reduce costs, maximise operations, increase productivity and deliver shareholder value. “Our solutions have always put the mining enterprise at the centre to ensure that information across the entire mining value chain is not siloed but shared empowering stakeholders across the business to make informed decisions about their operations. This integration partnership illustrates RPM’s continual drive to only deliver enterprise wide solutions.”
Chasm Consulting’s Ventsim product is the leading underground mining ventilation software and was originally introduced to mining operations in 1994 to help visually design, improve and optimise underground ventilation systems. It is now licensed to over 1,000 mine sites, consultants, universities, governments and research agencies around the world.
Under the integration agreement, RPM and Chasm will collaboratively develop tight integration between RPM’s Underground Solutions and Chasm’s Ventsim, allowing joint customers to quickly simulate mine ventilation as the mine develops.
Commenting on the new software integration partnership, RPM’s CEO and Managing Director Richard Mathews said “We are pleased to have entered into the software integration agreement and partnership with Chasm Consulting that will allow RPM and Chasm to continue their work to develop the integration between our market leading solutions”
Mathews concluded “With over 1,000 customers of the Ventsim solution, they are clearly the industry leader in underground mine ventilation and we look forward to furthering the integration of our respective products to deliver real value to our underground mining customers in delivering the digital mine.”
RPM has also launched XERAS (XE) Enterprise 2.0 which includes an industry first with the XERAS Analytics module, which will assist the development of the connected, digital mine, allowing mining companies to reduce costs, maximise operations, increase productivity and deliver value. “This is why companies who have a serious cost focus use XERAS Enterprise. Not only is XERAS Enterprise the industry’s leading zero-based budgeting solution, it a true enterprise platform for the cost focused organisation.”
Michael Baldwin, EGM Product Strategy, said, “From the recent reporting season it’s official. The world’s lowest cost producers, mining companies with a real focus on cost, use XERAS. XERAS Enterprise is the industry’s leading zero-based budgeting solution. With SAP certified integration, XE delivers a live forecasting environment, significantly reducing the time it takes to generate budgets and forecasts, delivering companies an accurate financial position, at any given time.
“With a single button click, companies can visually see the complete cost driver tree for a department, a mine or the entire organisation. “This is incredibly powerful when trying to understand the fundamentals of your business and, more importantly, drive a cost focused organisation. This level of visibility and understanding is something a business run on excel sheets can never deliver.
“With this new release, our customers now have the ability to take these cost drivers and run real-time sensitivity and plan variance analysis. This allows users to rapidly understand how changes to each driver impacts their business and plan accordingly. For example, users can adjust supply contracts, run commodity price scenarios and understand the impacts of currency fluctuations. Any cost driver, or combination, can be adjusted and XE will instantly re-calculate the entire forecast from a zero base. The ability to run rapid scenarios like this and understand the true impact each driver has on the business is something you can’t do when your forecast is spread across multiple spreadsheets! The ability to do this through a mobile interface is a great real world example of today’s digital mine where information is delivered with context, amplifying the abilities of key decision makers within a business.”
The ability to compare budget and forecast versions against actual spend and get behind the high level numbers is another key new feature. Scenario and Version Control Manager does the heavy lifting and automatically generates waterfall comparison chart for presentations. Again all this is something that is impossible to do in a spreadsheet, or any other package for that matter.
Baldwin concluded “The question I would be asking if I was a CEO, CFO or Financial Controller of a mining organisation would be do we have a serious cost focus underpinned with XERAS, or are we focussed on managing uncontrolled and bespoke spreadsheets?”
Mining companies that have a serious cost focus use XERAS Enterprise. Not only is XERAS Enterprise the industry’s leading zero-based budgeting solution, RPM claims, it is a true enterprise platform for the cost-focussed organisation.
