An organization is as good as its people and its systems,
and at Golden Star, we take both seriously in advancing our business to achieve
our vision;
To be a sustainable diversified gold mining company, which
our stakeholders are proud to be associated with
The Golden Star Way, and our values of caring, fairness,
honesty, collaboration and respect, will enable us achieve the culture we need
to deliver our vision – and the systems we design and implement will deliver
the consistent and sustained performance over time.
As a key to unlocking these system enhancements, our
Business Systems Transformation (BST) project aims to support more efficient
business functions, to enhance productivity, minimize costs and position us for
future growth and success. This project is a critical part of our business
improvement and has recently gone ‘live’ following lots of work and
collaboration across business functions over almost three years.
For thorough roll out and understanding, the project is
being executed in phases. The current phase involved the upgrade and
introduction of new software tools to manage day-to-day business activities in
finance, supply chain, maintenance and human resource management.
Here are some examples of the improvements the BST will bring:
Payroll
Our new payroll system is SAGE 300 will:
- Allow us to print historical payslips and other payroll reports (which was not the case in the past).
- Enable employees to access their pay slips online and any time.
- Allow employees to make various HR applications online, such as leave.
- Streamline internal reporting
Purchase and Service Orders
The new Pronto warehousing and maintenance functions will
allow:
- Employees requests for service/purchase orders and store items to be automatically routed to their leader for approval. – saving time, paper and effort!
- Mapping inventory items to their appropriate cost category to eliminate wrong coding
- Maintenance Work Orders for raising all requisitions for equipment, allowing proper accounting of equipment maintenance cost.
Application for Capital Expenditure
New applications for capital requests will provide:
- An easy to follow Flowcentric software to raise ‘Authorizations for Expenditure’ (AFE).
- Automated approval and email reminders to reduce delays in the process
The benefits of our Business System Transformation project include
- Defined workflows so that the right people review and approve transactions in the business.
- Time saving - as workflows will occur automatically, reducing printing, bypassing people without authority and avoiding manual authorization processes.
- Reduction in errors – as data will now be entered once for many work streams, not so many errors will creep in!
- Transparency – applications / requests for approval and transactions can no longer become ‘lost’ in the process!
As the system allows for integration across business
functions, it promotes the quality and consistency of data. In addition, processes become more
transparent with status updates to all involved in a particular transaction.
These benefits enables us to accomplish more as a business in less time and
reduces our risks and costs.
Currently, employees are undergoing a training series on the systems and the new upgrades as applies to them. Big congratulations to everyone who was directly involved in bringing the project to life, and to everyone else for undergoing training in order to use the tools. Let us hear from the lead consultant and some of our colleagues on how the system upgrade is improving their work.
|
Stephen Kirk |
As we complete first phase of the BST project which involves the introduction of new and upgraded software, as well as key process transformations to enhance Golden Star business, I say a very big congratulations to the Golden Star Team for a job well done!
Having worked with many mining and technology companies across the globe – large, small and everything in between – l must tip my hat to the amazing group of people that worked tirelessly together “arm-in-arm” to make this achievement possible. Their combined energy, enthusiasm, commitment and hard work have resulted in this moment, even in the face of many challenges, competing priorities and COVID-19 restrictions, not to mention maintaining their normal day jobs.
While it’s early in the launch and bedding down process, the new and upgraded systems are working as intended thus far and we anticipate a smooth transition to normal operations as these new software “tools” are adopted by Golden Star and put to work in everyday practice.
Lastly, I am truly grateful to have been a part of this transformation journey and hope that I’ve been able to help a little along the way. It’s been a great pleasure and we at SolutionBridge look forward to partnering with Golden Star again for the second phase of the project.
 |
| Boatemaa Hammond Corporate Affairs Superintendent |
Being at the corporate office in Accra we are not super users of many of the software at site, especially regarding placing and receiving items from stores. For such requests, we were heavily reliant on colleagues at site, where we had little or no oversight of the process. With this upgrade, we will be able to make our requests from the Accra office and monitor their status up until the point when requests are completed. So far training on the software upgrade has been excellent, with easy to follow steps as well as training materials. Looking forward to full use of the systems.
 |
| Michael Ephraim Group HR Manager |
The ‘Sage 300 People’, under the Business Systems Transformation project will now replace traditional files, with an easy-to-use, always available electronic file to which documents can be attached. All employees can have access to their personal information, request and make changes to personal data and make expense claims in real-time. Furthermore, managers can access employee records, conduct performance reviews and print HR reports without having to walk to the HR office. Sage 300 has also systemized HR and payroll linkage improving payroll processing, reducing errors, and producing pay slips.
The next phase of the project for HR will involve
implementing Employee Self Service (ESS), Performance management, Recruitment
as well as Learning and Development.
 |
| Eric Bondzie Finance Manager |
The Business System Transformation (BST) Project is one of
the major projects undertaken by Golden Star this year. This project has been in the pipeline since
2019. It was put on hold due to COVID 19 and kick started in 2020. As the site
Project Owner, I am very proud of the progress we have made so far, especially
regarding Sage 300 Payroll, Upgrade of Pronto to v760, New Chart of Account and
User Acceptance Training and Testing (UAT), which ensured that all users were
confident in the use of the new and upgraded systems.
Special thanks goes to the Project Sponsor, the Project Manager, the Managing Director and the Focal Teams (Finance, Supply Chain, Maintenance, HR and IT) for their immense contribution towards this phase of the project. Your input into the project has been great. Well done.
