acQuire Technology Solutions: Developing the Single Source of Truth for Geoscientific Data

Data is the oil that fuels the 21st century—is not just a phrase, but the reality that dictates modern businesses. This oil powers the engines of organizations globally and propels them toward greater revenue and enhanced efficiency. The fact needs no iteration that today big data is the buzzword for every industry including mining. A recent survey published in the Mining Journal, that covered 10 out of the top 20 global mining companies, noted that big data analytics would spur the next wave of efficiency gains in ore extraction, analysis, transportation, and processing by enabling faster and better-informed decisions at all levels. There, however, remains one challenge that needs to be addressed. While data’s importance continues to grow incessantly, unlocking new possibilities, one still needs the right people with the right set of skills to harness it. This is where acQuire Technology Solutions steps in. Founded in 1996, acQuire develops geoscientific information management (GIM) software solutions for the natural resources industry, focusing on exploration, resource development, and mining assets. “acQuire’s products have a place in an organization’s big data initiative by being a source of geoscientific data,” states Alison Atkins, Managing Director, acQuire.

The organization develops solutions which provide customers with a single source of truth for their geoscientific data to improve decision making throughout the mining value chain. The company’s GIM Suite is one of the leading software for natural resources organizations that enables capture, management and delivery of geoscientific observations, and measurement of data.

Automation in acQuire’s software not only improves time management by reducing manually-run tasks but also provides a robust and seamless process. The result—greater team productivity by allowing companies more timely access to data for confident decision making. Such capabilities make GIM Suite the preferred technology amongst some of the world’s most prestigious mining companies such as Rio Tinto, Barrick, and Anglo American.

In one instance, acQuire assisted Anglo American’s Metallurgical Coal division with an effective solution for managing geoscientific data. acQuire implemented a GIM Solution to standardize the way geoscientific information was previously stored across the sites and created a single source of data with standardized workflows and procedures for managing the data. “Anglo also started witnessing significant business insight into the total cost of each borehole due to combined financial and geosciences data storage,” mentions Atkins.

The GIM Suite learning platform is engineered to provide a flexible training approach, designed to improve the GIM Suite skills of their wider user base. The platform is designed to adapt to both face-to-face as well as virtual classrooms which enable users to access video tutorials from anywhere and at anytime they prefer. Furthermore, acQuire’s latest software release, GIM Suite 3, adds to their array of capabilities by creating an even more robust and secure system to manage geoscientific data assets.

With an unwavering commitment toward offering top notch solutions, acQuire has more than 25 active technology partnerships with leading technology providers that cater to the natural resources industry. Since 2009, acQuire has invested considerable resources into refactoring of its software code, ensuring the sustainability and future-readiness of the platform that the GIM Suite is based upon. This has resulted in many successful customer co-collaboration projects and pilots during this time. “The majority of the refactoring project is almost completed, and learnings have been continuously built into the existing product improvements,” concludes Alison.