Tata Consultancy Services, a global IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation, has been selected as a strategic partner by South32 to enhance its IT operating model and provide application and infrastructure services critical to its global operations, strengthening its operational resilience and business agility, TCS says.

The multi-year managed services partnership builds on the relationship TCS has had with South32 to enable accelerated execution of recent divestiture programs, and track employee health and safety at South32’s global mining sites during the pandemic. Under the new contract, management of critical infrastructure that was previously managed by multiple service providers has been consolidated with TCS, driving end-to-end accountability.

As part of the expanded partnership, TCS will leverage its Machine First™ Delivery Model, powered by ignio™ AIOps and ignio ERPOps to enhance South32’s IT operating model. Leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, TCS will infuse self-healing capability and greater resilience in the IT stack consisting of ERP and other corporate applications, operational technology and the underlying infrastructure. TCS will also provide a unified service desk for all South32’s operations in Australia, with immediate assistance from on-location IT staff.

The new IT operating model will assist South32 in reaching its strategic objective of standardising, simplifying and streamlining its IT operations, TCS said.

“To achieve our strategic goal, it is imperative that we work with partners who have the global network aligned to South32 operations and offer the breadth of services required for an organisation like ours,” Sara Braund, Vice President, Digital Technology, South32, said. “In TCS we found a partner who understood our vision of simplification and had proven experience in establishing a resilient technology foundation.”

Seema Mehra, Head, Energy & Resources – UK, Europe and ANZ, TCS, said: “The mining industry is embarking on digital transformation journeys to drive greater productivity, health and safety and environmental sustainability. Foundational to all this is a resilient and future-proof digital core that will provide the flexibility, agility and resources needed to sustain their transformation journeys. We are delighted to partner with South32, and use our technology expertise, domain knowledge, innovation and our ability to contextualise our digital assets with cross industry knowledge, to transform their IT operations globally.”