Could you elaborate on the strategy that Expedio is pursuing to develop and differentiate its data management solutions from those of its competitors in the mining industry?

Our primary goal is to establish ourselves as a well-known and trusted brand in the market, and to become the top choice for data management solutions. This is no easy feat, given that we have several competitors that are much larger than us, some of which have been in business for over two decades. Our challenge is to carve out a niche for ourselves within this specialized and tight market, and we believe that our OCRIS software solutions give us an edge in terms of flexibility and streamlined workflows. Unlike some of our competitors whose fixed model products have been around for a while, OCRIS can be used for collecting environmental data, water management, or process management. Our advanced functionality and features also deliver significant operational cost savings to our clients’ data handling procedures.

How does the cyclical nature of the mining industry impact Expedio as a service provider, and what trends have you observed recently in terms of demand for your products?

As with most service providers, we were adversely affected by the last downturn in the industry, particularly as many of our clients were exploring for iron ore. We lost clients who became inactive or entered administration, but we are slowly rebuilding our client base. We are heartened to see that some of our existing clients are now actively exploring again. In the past 12 months, however, we have observed increased activity in the gold exploration sector, which has contributed to the growth of our client base. Our data management solutions have proved particularly popular with gold miners and explorers who are better able to raise capital on the market.

What are the advantages of the data management solutions that Expedio offers, and how do they meet the increasingly stringent reporting standards for data management compliance in Australia and other countries?

Accurate and reliable resource data is critical for every resource company’s project development. At Expedio, we offer interactive daily dashboards that can be accessed from any mobile device. Our dashboards provide a common reporting format that spans multiple projects, data models, and products. This feature has been very popular with our clients, and we have received enquiries from the majors about using our interactive reports as an overriding corporate reporting tool. We believe that our solutions offer flexibility and advanced functionality, which can be tailored to meet the specific needs of each client. Compliance with reporting standards for data management is becoming increasingly important in the mining industry, particularly at the resource estimate stage or if a client is looking to present their projects for mergers or joint venture agreements. Our compliant data gives technical users, managers, and financiers confidence to make pivotal decisions at every stage of the exploration and mining cycle. For clients that experience a total changeover of staff, our data management solutions provide a consistent and reliable source of knowledge for understanding the data that they have collected over the years and how it is managed.

How does Expedio navigate the challenges of dealing with big data, and how does it optimize innovations in Internet-based storage opportunities?

Dealing with big data can be a real challenge, particularly when clients provide us with hard drives containing hundreds of gigabytes of historic data. However, we have a number of search and software tools at our disposal to help us sift through the data and find what we need. Experience is also key in recognizing what is useful and what is not. As we host data on behalf of our clients using our own IT infrastructure, security is a significant issue and very important for all of us. To optimize innovations in internet-based storage opportunities, we increasingly utilize cloud services. Some of our clients are now operating entirely within the cloud, and we are investigating how big data analytic products can be made applicable to the mining industry.