The world is currently experiencing levels of change and disruption never seen before. With a strong belief that technology can help people stay ahead and do great things, Dimension Data is helping organizations deliver better business outcomes and accelerate their ambitions.
Founded 34 years ago, Dimension Data is a globally-recognized brand with annual revenues of USD 7.4 billion. Their more than 6,000 clients include 75 percent of the Fortune 100 and seven of the top 10 Fortune 500. In 2010, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), one of the world’s largest ICT companies, acquired 100 percent of Dimension Data Plc, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NTT Group.
Recently named by research firm Frost & Sullivan as the Systems Integration (SI) Company of the Year for 2017, Dimension Data’s success as a world-class global SI is tied to its technical expertise and deep understanding of the changing market dynamics for their enterprise clients. One of the biggest challenges these organisations face is with services integration. As organizations combine Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) with their legacy infrastructure and investments, they can find themselves faced with interoperability complexities of hybrid IT — an environment in which a technology service can be deployed on-premise, in a public, private or hybrid cloud, or any combination of these deployment models. Dimension Data leverages the collective expertise of its people, processes and platforms to help organizations successfully navigate their digital journeys.
Creating Efficiencies and Optimizing IT for Better Business Outcomes
Forward-thinking organizations are pursuing a digital strategy today, whether simply to improve operational efficiency or to completely transform their business models. By bringing together consulting, technical support, managed services and the cloud, Dimension Data’s services-led approach is helping clients maximize the return on their legacy investments while exploiting the opportunities presented by newer digital technologies. It’s a powerful mix, and the world’s largest enterprises rely on Dimension Data as a strategic, trusted partner to manage their hybrid IT environments.
Dimension Data has the capabilities and expertise to maximize the value of technology by:
- Designing, implementing, supporting and managing multivendor solutions.
- Providing technical expertise in all relevant technologies: data centers, networking, cloud and cybersecurity.
- Operating to consistent ITIL processes around the world with advanced levels of automation and service integration.
- Building services from scratch, optimizing and supporting existing investments, or taking over the management of technology and applications – or any combination in between.
- Covering the full range of hybrid IT: on-premise, hosted, and cloud services across any device from desktops to the emerging devices of the Internet of Things (IoT).
Jason Goodall: An Intuitive and Inventive Technology Leader for the Digital Age
“Technology used to be about improving efficiency. Now it’s become the main driver of strategic competitive advantage,” according to Goodall, whose career with Dimension Data started in 1998 when he was appointed Chief Financial Officer at OmniLink, a Dimension Data subsidiary which was later merged with Internet Solutions.
Goodall believes that technology today plays a much more powerful role in business than it used to. Traditionally, technology used to be about keeping the lights on, making things better or improving efficiency. Now, technology is how Dimension Data and its clients create value, and for a true digital business, where the whole business model is built on information technology, it’s the heart of strategic business value.
From 2001 to 2003, Goodall held the position of Chief Operating Officer at Internet Solutions, instrumental in building the company into a highly profitable and successful business. He then became Dimension Data South Africa’s head of the Converged Infrastructure business. Soon thereafter, he became the Managing Director of Dimension Data Middle East & Africa. In 2016, Goodall was appointed Dimension Data’s Group Chief Executive Officer, tightly focused on fulfilling its clients’ expectations around the world and ensuring that the company delivers the business outcomes its clients are asking for.
Accelerating Ambitions by Being Perceptive about Client’s Requirements
Dimension Data puts its clients’ business ambitions at the heart of its services-led approach and technology. Its consulting services team takes the time to fully understand its clients’ business, collaborating to develop a digital strategy that will deliver the desired outcomes. This strategic, consulting-led approach helps Dimension Data’s clients envisage their digital future using technologies that ideally suit their business requirements.
Dimension Data’s services organization also provides advisory services, specialist transformation services and a wide range of architecture consulting that covers next-generation data center services, hybrid cloud, networking, cybersecurity, collaboration, business resilience, IoT, and business analytics. In addition, it offers all the necessary project and program management services to keep delivery on track.
Revolutionizing the Viewing Experience of the Tour de France
Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.), organizers of the Tour de France, and Dimension Data, the Official Technology Partner of the Tour de France, are working together to transform the viewing experience of cycling fans around the world.
Hosted in their cloud, Dimension Data’s data analytics platform — developed in partnership with A.S.O. — combines historical data with live-tracking to give an unprecedented level of insight to fans as the race unfolded across France. At the core of the live tracking and data analytics solution are GPS transponders installed under the “saddles,” or seats, of each bicycle. The data collected from these transponders is combined with external data about the course gradient along with prevailing weather conditions to generate insights such as live speed and the location of individual riders, distance between riders, and composition of groups within the race. This year the solution created and analyzed more than three billion data points during the 21 stages of the Tour, a significant increase from last year’s 128 million data points. Fans also benefitted from deeper insights into rider profiles, gaining a better understanding about environments and circumstances in which they performed best. 198 riders in 22 teams generated over 150 million geospatial and environmental data readings along the 3,540km route.
Connected Inventory for Excellent Patient Care
Dimension Data is at the forefront of assisting clients to utilize IoT-as-a-platform. An example of the company assisting a client is a public health organization in Belgium, where Dimension Data integrated IT, unified the hospital’s communications and operational technologies to create a higher-performing hospital environment.
Intercommunale de Santé Publique du Pays de Charleroi (ISPPC) is adding intelligence to the systems that control nurses’ calls, building operations and safety, as well as refrigeration units that store organs and blood. The hospital’s first big win has come from monitoring temperatures of refrigeration units: over 700 fixed refrigerators and freezers that store critical supplies such as grafting organs, medicines, blood products and laboratory reagents. If a temperature threshold is exceeded, an alarm is triggered with a notification sent via buzzer, email or voice message – or all three depending on the equipment. In the three years the application has been in use, none of these supplies have been lost.
In the future, ISPPC will add more direct customer engagement elements to its IoT program, such as using digital signage to direct patients to the right department inside the hospital based on location data from their mobile device or hospital bracelet. Creating greater efficiency and effectiveness today is the foundation layer to creating an improved patient experience overall.
A Hyper-connected Safe Haven for Rhinos
Rhino poaching statistics in South Africa are staggering: 1,215 rhinos were killed in 2014. To help address the poaching problem, Dimension Data, in collaboration with Cisco, has created a Connected Conservation program that’s been implemented at a private game reserve in South Africa. The solution uses digital technologies to provide real-time intelligence to enable preventative action against rhino poachers. CCTV, biometric scans, seismic sensors and thermal imaging on the main perimeter help track people entering the reserve and alert rangers via multiscreen communications.
Using the power of IoT combined with real-time data and analytics, Dimension Data aims for zero rhino kills. According to Anton Jooste, Dimension Data’s Senior Vice President who leads the company’s IoT practice, they’ve made great strides, as evidenced in the 96% reduction in the number of rhinos poached in the reserve since the Connected Conservation program was implemented in November 2015
Optimizing the Digital Journey Through a Secure and Interactive Infrastructure
The Internet of Things helps blend the digital and physical worlds. While there’s much to be gained from using IoT to deliver operational efficiencies, perhaps the greater value is using it to provide key insights to decision makers and create exceptional experiences for end customers. Dimension Data provides the platforms, networks and infrastructure to enable this new way of operating, while testing and learning from proof-of-concept projects with clients.
Organizations must also focus more on cybersecurity and networking as part of their overall IoT play. Dimension Data’s “The Executive’s Guide to the 2017 Global Threat Intelligence Report” stated that 77% of all ransomware are detected in four industries: business and professional services, government, health care and retail. Subsequently, businesses need to heighten their focus more on cybersecurity. Dimension Data meets this need through its enterprise-grade security expertise.
On the networking front, the proliferation of IoT is helping to drive innovation across enterprise networks. Dimension Data reported that, in 2016, the percentage of ageing and obsolete devices in networks fell from 53% last year to 42%. Since 2010, networks had been ageing, but the company’s “2016 Network Barometer Report” revealed that this trend reversed. This can be attributed to companies replacing ageing and obsolete equipment with the new generation of programmable infrastructure, particularly in data centre networks.