Rio Tinto bets on cloud to make IT count, ropes in Accenture

Global mining major Rio Tinto today said it will move its core IT systems to cloud computing to cut costs as well as enable innovation, and has roped in consultancy firm Accenture for this purpose.
The exercise will help in mordenising Rio Tinto's existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and information management (IM) platforms, it said in a statement.
The new model will migrate core enterprise IS&T systems to an "As-a-Service" solution based on cloud. It will also incorporate consumption-based pricing to ensure costs are fully flexible and in line with business demand.
The deal size was not disclosed.
Rio Tinto Group CIO Simon Benney said: "The company is on an ambitious journey to a world-class information systems and technology (IS&T) delivery model that is innovative, adaptable and cost-effective, fully supporting our business priorities and group operating model."

Accenture will also manage the maintenance and upgrade of this application landscape and related infrastructure and transform the global service desk and site support functions.
Accenture CEO Pierre Nanterme said: "This solution will allow Rio Tinto to smartly connect its infrastructure, software applications, data and operations capabilities in order to become an agile, intelligent, digital business that can better navigate the commodities cycles."
In India, Rio Tinto will be investing USD 2 billion to set up an iron ore project in Odisha and another USD 500 million in a diamond mine in Madhya Pradesh and is waiting for government approvals.