When BHP Billiton decided to sell Queensland Nickel, the new stand-alone business was faced with an immovable deadline to be up and running with its own SAP system. Freya Purnell reports.
Background
Queensland Nickel operates the Yabulu Refinery north of Townsville in Queensland, and processes high-quality nickel and cobalt from third party mines in New Caledonia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Previously part of the BHP Billiton group, Queensland Nickel was sold in July 2009 to companies owned by Professor Clive Palmer. Queensland Nickel had operated in an SAP environment for some years, and was moved into the BHP Billiton global SAP environment five years before the sale. The company was effectively stand-alone one month after the transaction date, but as this would not provide enough time to transition the SAP system, Queensland Nickel negotiated a transition agreement enabling them to operate for six months on the BHP system. The deadline for Queensland Nickel to be operating independently was set for 31 December 2009.
Click here to read the full article in the October 2010 edition of Inside SAP.
