Wheaton Precious Metals

Wheaton Precious Metals is the largest silver and gold streaming company in the world. It’s no surprise, then, that any meaningful systemic change to such a large organization would have far-reaching business implications. Such a meaningful change, though, was precisely what was needed – and precisely the type of project that Mindfield strives to tackle.

Streaming precious metals from more than 20 mines spanning three continents, it’s no exaggeration to suggest that accurately revising Wheaton Precious Metals’ trading system would demand a remarkable rate of accuracy and an ability to see the big picture. That’s why clients like Wheaton trust Mindfield: for our delight in details and our acute understanding of how to simplify complex processes.

For Wheaton Precious Metals, the challenge was obvious: a lack of consistency in the company’s trading processes had made it more difficult and more costly to track trades. The goal, then, was to implement a unified and standardized method of trading company-wide. The lack of a standardized and centralized place to track all trades was becoming increasingly problematic, with users independently updating copies of a master document and struggling to deal with the logistical challenges of trading in such a way.

Using an excel-based system for tracking trades and recording open positions, closed positions and seeking opportunities, Wheaton’s employees were frustrated by the program’s lack of collaborative features. Likewise, with spreadsheets collecting greater and greater amounts of data, the systems in place began to struggle under the load and compromise the most critical element of the spreadsheets: the accuracy of the data.

Following one-on-one consultations and a rapid assessment of the Wheaton’s trading system, Mindfield proposed the implementation of new software that would allow users to seamlessly and collaboratively tracks all of their positions, highlights opportunities to open positions, close positions, and manage assets.

The results were immediate: with a unified system serving as a hub for all trades, transparency and communication among employees increased, while calculation anomalies and technical faults were eliminated.

Using an agile approach, Mindfield developed a web-based trading desk-style system using standard design patterns to ensure the tool’s long-term sustainability.