BrazilBoliden working with Anderson MacGyver on HR transformation
When Swedish company Boliden was facing an ‘end of life’ milestone for its payroll system, the firm turned to Anderson MacGyver for guidance.
Headquartered in Stockholm, Boliden is a publicly listed metals, mining, and smelting company. The company, founded in 1924, extracts and processes base metals such as zinc, copper, nickel and lead, and precious metals including gold and silver. With revenues of roughly €7.5 billion in its latest fiscal year, Boliden is one of Europe’s larger mining groups.
The company’s payroll system is an integral part of its HR operation. The system ensures that Boliden’s 6.200+ staff located in Sweden and internationally receive their compensation and benefits in timely fashion.
Yet back in early 2021, that system was close to two decades old, and moreover, it was nearing its end of life, meaning that the software vendor would no longer provide upgrades and maintenance support – key aspects for the safe and effective dealings of any system.
Facing the challenge, Boliden’s management team knew the time had come to explore future options. “We needed a partner to understand the needs of the business, what options should be up for consideration, and what solution would be the best fit with our organisation and requirements,” reflected Johan Albinsson, HR & Safety Director Mines at Boliden, on the scenario at the time.
The Swedish team of Anderson MacGyver, a digital strategy consultancy, was tapped for support. Initially, as a partner for the exploration phase, said Patrik Hermansson, Nordics Director at Anderson MacGyver.
“We kicked off by jointly conducting a strategy study on the market for HR and payroll systems,” he said. This was key, because Boliden had all kinds of options on the table. These included simply upgrading to the new system of the same vendor, selecting another vendor and system, or integrating payroll into other IT-packages used within the company through a modular bolt-on.
There were however also more complex decisions to take. “How do we organise our future payroll processes? Should we opt for a standalone, separate solutions or go for a fully integrated approach? And should we conduct the payroll process ourselves or team up with an outsourcing partner?” Albinsson summed up.
For Hermansson, these are all questions that resonate with Anderson MacGyver’s approach to such matters. “Given the costs associated with such decisions and the often long duration of agreements, system replacement moments represent an ideal moment to reflect on the broader picture: what is the digital strategy? And what decisions are best aligned to driving this strategy, while ensuring the most optimal payroll process.”
The strategic study provided the outline for the decision-making process, and following its approval, Anderson MacGyver’s team helped Boliden with next steps including the drafting of requirements, the vendor selection process, and securing the next-generation solution.
By late-2022, “we had established a clear view and common understanding of our HRM domain and the to-be payroll environment, and inked a partnership with the vendor,” said Albinsson.
Boliden and Anderson MacGyver also had concluded the detailed layer beneath, such as the to-be scope, processes and target architecture. Hermansson: “The HRM Canvas is a very powerful visualisation that helped Boliden a lot in facilitating scope discussions, vendor comparisons, as-is and to-be state situations.”
At the beginning of 2023, the implementation phase kicked off in Sweden, with Anderson MacGyver staying on board as the implementation partner.
Boliden strives for harmonisation of the HRM domain across all its international branches. Parallel to its implementation process in Sweden, a strategic study has been launched in Norway for the replacement of the payroll solution.
