Case study

Anglo American

Global mining giant set to

profit from combined network

When Anglo American increased its

shareholding in De Beers to 85 per cent,
work began on aligning management
and governance systems. As part of the
integration process, Craig Charlton, newlyappointed CIO at De Beers, developed an
IT strategy to optimise service and value
across the De Beers Group of Companies.
Central to this was evaluation of Anglo
American strategic service partnerships,
including the global managed network
services contract with BT. In fact as its
original architect, no one was better
qualified than Craig to extract the value
inthat deal.

Merging our separate worldwide networks onto a single

BT global platform was part of the strategy to globalise
our infrastructure service at De Beers.
Craig Charlton, Chief Information Officer, De Beers Group of Companies

Case study

Anglo American

We work in the remotest corners of the globe, like

3,500 metres up in the Chilean Andes or hard to reach
parts of Africa. It means we face connectivity challenges
seldom found in other industries.
David Heppenstall, Chief Information Technology Officer and Head of Global Infrastructure,
Anglo American

BT global managed services bring innovation and collaboration even

to some of the planets most inhospitable places
Connectivity counts in a
complex industry
From the smartphone that runs your life to
the railway that takes you to work, products
from mining play vital roles in todays world.
But their sources are unevenly spread around
the planet and theyre seldom conveniently
placed. That poses peculiar problems for
the firms that find and extract them.
Anglo American is just such a company: in fact,
one of the worlds largest. David Heppenstall, its
chief information technology officer and head
of global infrastructure, explains: We work in
the remotest corners of the globe, like 3,500
metres up in the Chilean Andes or hard to reach
parts of Africa. It means we face connectivity
challenges seldom found in other industries.
Recently extended to 2018, a global managed
services deal between BT and Anglo American
originally swept away a large number of
different service providers to create a single BT
IP Connect global infrastructure. That assures
us of a fast and resilient network anywhere
to increase asset automation, improve
productivity and drive collaboration across
and between our businesses, adds David.

Many-times-faster network
at much less cost
Now, that global wide area network reaches
160 Anglo American sites across 31 countries
linking five regional data centres and nearly
160,000 employees and contractors. Of
the five regional data centres, two in
Hortolndia, Brazil, and Dublin, Ireland are
BT Compute facilities. BT Internet Connect
at the BT data centres provides highspeed internet access on a global basis.
One of the great strengths of BT is its strong
relationships with local service providers,
says Craig Charlton, CIO at the De Beers

Group of Companies. Thats complemented

by its knowledge of our industry and the
technical expertise it puts at our disposal.

Collaborative technology
cements global cohesion

The demands on the network have

changed in recent times. While at first the
primary goal was a joined-up business,
Anglo American has since added voice,
video and other collaborative apps. The
six classes of service (CoS) inherent in
BT IP Connect global allow prioritisation
of those different types of traffic.

An end-to-end BT IP Connect global

infrastructure comes with another major
plus: the ease of introducing collaborative
tools. For a start, a convergence programme
has seen the replacement of hundreds of
legacy PBXs with BT One Enterprise. This
uses Cisco Unified Communications Manager
(UCM) technology. Some 20,000 users are
served by UCM hubs in each of the companys
four regions, with full eight-digit deskto-desk dialling throughout the world.

A more recent development has seen BT

Connect Optimisation used to drive up the
infrastructures speed and cost effectiveness.
Some 68 appliances have been installed at
Anglo American sites globally, including two in
each data centre. Based on Cisco technology
these perform their magic in two ways: first by
using advanced data compression techniques
to make better use of bandwidth; and second
by locally-caching large files to prevent their
repeated transmission across the wide area.
David Walls, global infrastructure architecture
manager, says: Weve moved from routinely
adding expensive bandwidth by ordering
ever-larger pipes to putting in smaller pipes
that are more efficient, cost us much less
and are many times faster. Anglo American
estimates BT Connect Optimisation will save
it tens of millions of pounds in network
costs over the lifetime of the contract.

Meanwhile, BT One Voice ensures that

(where regulations permit) international
fixed and mobile calls are carried over the
BT network and incur only local call charges.
Taken together with BT One Enterprise,
the company is seeing a significant
reduction in its annual call charges.
As well as the cost savings, were now able
to operate as a truly global community,
says David Heppenstall. Connecting with
colleagues anywhere in the world can be
as simple as picking up the phone and
hitting a few keys. That means we share
ideas and knowledge much more readily.

Case study

Anglo American
Weve moved from routinely adding expensive bandwidth
by ordering ever-larger pipes to putting in smaller pipes
that are more efficient, cost us much less and are many
times faster.
David Walls, Global Infrastructure Architecture Manager, Anglo American

TelePresence brings a
stronger ecosystem and
best practice sharing
As another collaborative tool, Anglo
American uses managed BT One Collaborate
video conferencing running over the
BT IP Connect global infrastructure.
Six fully-immersive Cisco TelePresence suites
(two in London, two in Johannesburg and
one each in Rio de Janeiro and Santiago)
are achieving 100 per cent utilisation and
99 per cent customer satisfaction. The CoS
functionality in the BT IP Connect global
infrastructure contributes to that great
satisfaction score by speeding the video
conferencing traffic ahead of less timesensitive data. Globally, some 160 other
video conferencing devices are in use.
David Heppenstall continues: A major
aim is to help find and share best practice
across our businesses wherever it occurs
in the world. For example, if someone in
Chile has found a way of better utilising
our large fleet of haul trucks we need to be
able to share that learning across the globe
as quickly and efficiently as possible.
As part of the BT One Collaborate service,
the BT global video exchange is used to
interconnect video conferences with an
ecosystem of partners and suppliers, while
the BT video bridging service provides
interoperability with legacy video endpoints.
One of our senior executives has installed a
video conferencing suite in his house, says
David Wall. Now he can collaborate with
colleagues anywhere in the world from home
rather than spend his life at 35,000 feet. Our
vision is for people with smartphones, desk
phones, iPads, soft clients, TelePresence,
in the office, at home, on the move, to
connect and share and fully collaborate.

Worldwide mining
innovation master class
BT is also supporting a move to cloud services.
However, with the majority of Anglo American
operations in the southern hemisphere, but
apps like Microsoft Office 365, Box and
Jive hosted in the northern hemisphere,
latency was a potential showstopper.
To overcome the issue, BT designed and
deployed a secure internet gateway in its
Croydon data centre and negotiated peering
arrangements with Microsoft, Amazon and
the rest. Now Anglo American cloud traffic
travels at high speed over the BT IP Connect
global infrastructure, hustled over long
distances by the CoS technology. When it
arrives at Croydon, its a short hop to the
app provider through a lightning-fast BT
Internet Connect service. Problem solved.
The BT secure internet gateway is an
amazing solution and we absolutely love it,
says David Walls. We recently re-routed
our cloud-based internal job posting
and recruitment app through it and the
positive response was overwhelming.

De Beers joins the party for

glittering technology prizes
In 2012, Anglo American increased its
shareholding in De Beers from 45 per cent to
85 per cent (the Government of the Republic
of Botswana holds the remaining 15 per cent).
Like many metals and minerals, diamonds

dont exactly pop up in handy places. De Beers

has brought with it Canadian sites that operate
in extreme conditions in winter months
where supplies need to be driven thousands
of miles across frozen lakes and icy terrains.
Craig Charlton says: With its Anglo
American track record, and working with
other major energy and resources players,
BT has acquired a wealth of knowledge
in dealing with harsh environments.
Were now bringing that experience to
bear for the benefit of De Beers.
For example, long-ago geological shifts have
given the coast of Africa far more than its
fair share of the worlds rough diamonds.
Purpose-built vessels recovering that
wealth from the ocean bed, and permanently
at sea off the coast of Namibia will soon
benefit from BT Connect line-of-sight
microwave bearers. This will enable, for
example, ship-to-shore video conferences
to plan and monitor mining operations.

Flexible contract helps comb

out the networkspaghetti
In many respects De Beers is in the self-same
situation that Anglo American was five
years ago; the one that gave rise to the BT
managed services contract in the first place.
With a mix of service providers around the
world and three separate global backbone
networks, the De Beers infrastructure
lacks flexibility and is expensive to run.

Case study

Anglo American

When I took up the job, getting high-definition

TelePresence operating in Africa and other emerging
regions was regarded as undoable due to bandwidth,
stability and cost constraints. Yet here we are 18-months
later making that happen over a BT infrastructure.
Craig Charlton, Chief Information Officer, De Beers Group of Companies

Plans are afoot to collapse the three De

Beers backbones into one. Serving 70 sites
around the world, connectivity will then
be transitioned to the Anglo American BT
IP Connect global network. The new BT
contract enshrines clauses necessary to
eliminate the need for constant renegotiation,
avoiding effort and delays on all sides.
Such a network migration is something
one doesnt undertake lightly, says Craig
Charlton. Apart from the sheer logistics,
there are darker elements like the possibility
of IP address clashes with the potential
to bring the whole thing crashing down.
BT has an exemplary track record in such
projects and a team of BT Advise experts
is working on the 12-month programme.
When its complete our IT team will have
more time to move up the value chain instead
of constantly fixing the infrastructure.
With data networks in Africa more robust
and reliable than the continents voice
networks, Microsoft Lync has been a preferred
medium for De Beers. Adoption of the BT IP
Connect global network will further improve
communications. At the same time over
10,000 De Beers employees worldwide will
be moved onto the BT One Enterprise voice
platform. Similarly, the new secure remote
access available to 4,500 Anglo American
users will be adopted in De Beers too.

Co-operation and
collaboration come to
thefore
The merger between the two companies
is bringing other benefits. For instance, a
recent supply chain systems issue with its
roots deep in the De Beers infrastructure was
resulting in slow responses, affecting morale
and productivity. With the problem persisting
for two weeks, a BT Advise team was brought
in. Application performance management
probes isolated the problem to the application
layer rather than the network layer. With
that clarity, fast resolution followed.
During 2013, sorting of the more than
30 million carats of diamonds De Beers
produces every year was moved to Botswana
from London. Meanwhile corporate offices
remain in London. The Anglo American BT
Collaborate video conferencing facilities will
soon be ensuring that the necessary close cooperation between the two units continues.

When I took up the job, getting highdefinition TelePresence operating in Africa

and other emerging regions was regarded
as undoable due to bandwidth, stability
and cost constraints, says Craig Charlton.
Yet here we are 18-months later making
that happen over a BT infrastructure.
Thats a clear demonstration of the ability
of BT to work closely with local providers
and deliver cost competitive solutions.
BT Global Customer Service, there to ensure
that stringent SLAs are met and exceeded,
is a final vital piece in the jigsaw. The overall
network is controlled from the BT Network
Operations Centre in Durban for Englishspeaking users and So Paulo for Spanish,
Portuguese and other languages. A BT Global
Service Manager is located in London, running
a team that includes members in every country
in which Anglo American has a presence.

The complexity and culture shock of bringing

the two companies together should not be
underestimated. Says Craig Charlton: The
support of BT in the internal communications
programme has been much appreciated,
while the quality and technical expertise of
its staff have set our peoples minds at rest.

Core services
BT IP Connect global including satellite and microwave technologies
BT Connect Optimisation
BT Internet Connect
BT One Voice
Offices worldwide
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and may be modified from time to time. Services and equipment
are provided subject to the respective British Telecommunications
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formsany part of any contract.

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BT One Collaborate featuring global video exchange and video bridgingservice
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