Case Study

Developing one of the world's largest mineral sands deposits, the Thunderbird Project

Sheffield Resources is an ASX-listed mineral sands-focused company currently developing the Thunderbird Project, one of the largest zircon-rich mineral sand deposits in the world located in northern Western Australia.

Business Objectives

• Improve business flexibility
• Improve team collaboration
• Reduce business IT expenses

Executive Summary

Sheffield Resources goes full remote with Microsoft 365 and OSIT.

The team at Sheffield Resources felt the need to be able to work remotely and their existing IT environment ties them to an office setting. They had an on-premises server environment that was excessive for what they required and prevented them from operating remotely.

With the critical need to be able to work 100% remotely, Sheffield Resources CFO and Company Secretary, Mark Di Silvio, engaged Office Solutions IT for outsourced IT services. The challenge was to transform their current IT solution into something flexible, proactive, and budget-friendly."

So, they booked a meeting with an OSIT Partner to explore their options.

The Challenges

Hosted environment was no longer fit-for-purpose.

Sheffield Resources’ existing IT was mostly tied to their on-premises server. Although they had a Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online environment, they only used it for email and data sharing. So, they still store all their data on the server. This set-up no longer supported Sheffield's business goals.

The team was not seeing the value of their money with this initial solution. So, they met up with an OSIT partner to design a new Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online environment that is tailored to their current business operations and goals.

The Solution

Redesign existing Microsoft 365 environment to fit business goals.

Sheffield Resources were provided with a plan to redesign their existing Microsoft 365 environment that would enable them to eliminate their need for a physical office and collaborate with team members anytime, anywhere.

OSIT also migrated their on-premise and existing SharePoint Online data (including their archival file system) into a new and more efficient data structure to make remote working and data management easier.

The Results

Sheffield Resources can now operate 100% remote.

Mark and the rest of the team at Sheffield Resources can now operate the business from home without having to leave the house to do their work responsibilities. The Microsoft 365 migration also improved the team’s collaboration with the help of Teams. They can also share and manage content securely with SharePoint Online.

Since they eliminated their need for a physical office and an on-premises server, they have streamlined their data with the help of the Microsoft 365 system, which significantly reduced their IT expenditures.