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Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Dimension Data: Workspaces of the Future!

By Bill Moran and Rich Ptak


Dimension Data has been a successful international presence for a number of years. They have less visibility in the US and North American markets. Founded in South Africa in 1983, NTT acquired them in 2010. Their current revenue exceeds $7.5 billion, demonstrating strong, consistent growth that continues after joining NTT.

We focus on their end user solutions covered in our briefing with them. We do encourage you to visit their website[1] to view their full range of offerings. This Wikipedia article details their history[2]

First, we must compliment the quality of Dimension Data’s marketing and advertising. Normally, we don’t comment on this aspect of operations. However, we found their recent advertisements in The Economist magazine to be noteworthy, and so include one here. Such creativity will help them capture the attention of the US and North American markets.
For several years’ post- acquisition, NTT wisely kept the management team in place. This, combined with the financial strength and presence resulting from the association with NTT, facilitated expanding their marketplace positioning. As part of a larger entity, Dimension Data got more exposure, as well as added to existing proven customer confidence in their ability to deliver.

The Dimension Data Advantage

Dimension Data recently briefed us on their End–user Computing (EUC) strategy and offerings. To fully understand their offerings requires knowledge of their vision of how Digital transformation is changing companies, and its effect on various company stakeholders. So, we will first examine some of the relevant trends and resulting pressures.

Organizations are under significant pressure to cut costs. In response, some are reducing office space use by individual employees. In many US companies, this trend is implemented by encouraging employee home offices. This significantly affects the infrastructure and technology needed by the company. In other cases, companies are implementing changes to the working environment to attract and retain the best talent and remain competitive. Again, these changes will impact workspace design, communications, digital infrastructure, cloud (especially hybrid), data and information storage, (cyber)security and accessibility.  

Accompanying these macro trends are others specifically related to transformations that accompany the move to an increasingly Digital world. Some well-known, some not. Dimension Data has identified a number of these, which include:
  • Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
  • Internet of things
  • Virtual and Augmented Reality
  • Robotics
  • Digital Technology Platforms
  • Cloud, specifically hybrid Cloud
  • Big Data & the tools to analyze it


For many customers simply identifying and installing the correct technology is insufficient. Some are ill-equipped to cope with the new trends. Many risk being overwhelmed by the challenges facing them in the new digital environment. Others are incapable or uninterested in managing the operating technology.
                   Figure 1 Workspace for Tomorrow
That is precisely the entry-point identified by Dimension Data that provides as the opportunity for them to stand-out and outshine the competition. Dimension Data steps in with the ability to deliver a consultative workshop engagement specifically designed to help clients to develop a plan to smoothly move their workspaces to the next level.
Dimension Data is able to provide both an overall architecture, and a framework adaptable to fit the specific needs of any organization. Dimension Data is focused on enabling “Workspaces for Tomorrow” (Figure 1 – at right). This provides the basis for implementation and delivery of a comprehensive suite of workspace services to design, implement, maintain and even manage workspaces. 
Dimension Data has a unique offering which consists of a complete set of managed services to help customers designing “digital workspaces to embrace the way employees live, work, and collaborate.” Further, they “help organisations seamlessly unify the physical and virtual world into a digital experience.”
Let’s look specifically at Microsoft technology services. Dimension Data builds its expertise in this area on recently acquired Canada-based Ceryx. Ceryx specialized in assisting customers install and manage email services. Under Dimension Data’s auspices, they are broadening their offerings to provide ‘Managed Cloud Services for Microsoft’, which include all of Office 365, Skype for Business and Microsoft Cloud, as well as other Microsoft products. As a North American company, Ceryx additionally benefits Dimension Data with increased visibility in Canadian and US markets. The End-user Computing suite of Workspace services includes Workspace Mobility, Workspace Productivity Consulting Services and Software Services.

The Final Word

End-user Computing spearheads the “Workspaces for Tomorrow” effort within Dimension Data. Existing business units in networking, security, datacenter, collaboration, customer experience and service support cross-selling. With strategic partnerships with both Microsoft and VMware and the support of the NTT Group, Dimension Data is the engagement leader for outcome based services to enable “Workspaces for Tomorrow”. All this combines to provide an impressive array of experience, expertise and product.
Dimension Data has an impressive reference list of worldwide customers for end user computing, including well known banks, oil & gas companies, automotive manufacturers, etc. We believe that a significant opportunity for growth exists for them in the US and North American markets. We highly recommend investigating what they have to offer. We think that there is a very good chance that they just might turn out to be your best partner for your modernization efforts.


2 comments:

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