BHP secures print, phone services in Perth

BHP Billiton will introduce swipe-card printing and an existing enterprise-wide call routing system to its new Perth offices, an internal document has revealed.

The mining giant has advised staff of a "new and improved printing process" that requires users to swipe a security card against the printer in order to complete a print job.

One of the key reasons for the system - called 'follow-me printing' - is that "it avoids confidential documents sitting in printer trays", BHPB said in a workspace FAQ obtained by the Australian Financial Review (pdf).

In addition, it will enable staff to print from any networked printer and help cut paper wastage.

Employees at the new offices will also be brought onto BHP's 1Voice system - one of a number of systems being rolled out under BHP Billiton's Enterprise Program of work.

One of the key advantages of 1Voice is single number reach, which enables phones to ring in multiple locations using a single phone number.

The call routing system has previously been used by BHP employees that travel frequently between offices and remote mine sites. It also opens up the possibility of hot-desking.

"The advantage of 1Voice is that it enables flexibility of where we work from as we can log into any phone and our extension and voicemail follows us," BHP reinforced in the FAQ document.

The call routing functionality also provides some assurance to employees that wish to take confidential or sensitive calls away from their open-plan desktop environment.

BHP said it will supply "cordless headsets [that] provide the flexibility to answer or disconnect a call from the headset and ... move to a more private environment to continue or hold a sensitive discussion".

1Voice is one of a number of 1-prefixed enterprise IT projects in various stages of rollout globally for BHP Billiton. 1Voice covers industrial communications and VoIP technologies.

Other '1' projects include 1SAP, 1Desktop (consisting Windows 7 and Office 2010) and 1Fileserver.

The Australian Financial Review also reported on restrictions on food items that can be consumed and personal items that can be stored on the desktop.