Situation

A major mining organisation was experiencing rising friction between business operations and digital technology. Technology delivery and responsiveness was slow, demand pathways were fragmented, and both sides lacked a common view of technology cost, capability, and ownership.

Challenge

The business increasingly bypassed formal channels to acquire new digital tools independently. This created duplicate demand, integration backlogs, compounding complexity, and further distrust. Vendor relationships were also managed through a fragmented internal model that weakened buying power.

Approach

A joint business-technology operating model was introduced to bring business-facing and technical teams into regular decision forums with shared data.

Decision rights were clarified, intake pathways simplified, and portfolio visibility improved across applications, vendors, utilisation, and spend.

For the first time, stakeholders could assess technology demand, existing capability, and commercial leakage through one forum rather than multiple disconnected views.

Outcome

Identified multi-million-dollar savings opportunities across software and licensing spend.

Exposed licence pricing variances of up to 100% for comparable services, highlighting significant recoverable buying power.

Improved decision quality by aligning business priorities with actual technical capacity and existing underused platforms.

Key takeaway

Shared visibility and faster joint decisions between business and technology cut waste, unblock delivery, and focus spend where it matters.