FibreCo Telecommunications (“FibreCo”), a joint venture between Cell C, Convergence Partners and Internet Solutions, announced the awarding of a contract for construction of its nation-wide open-access fibre optic network. FibreCo’s objective is to facilitate affordable and reliable high-speed Internet access for South African citizens and businesses.
Convergence Partners’ investee company, Internet Solutions, is making moves towards an enhanced sustainable data centre model, with the development of its new Tier3 facility in Johannesburg, scheduled for completion in Q4 of 2011. This is the first African facility of its kind to be designed and equipped with the world-class KyotoCooling technology solution for efficient and reliable autonomous cooling for data centres.
Convergence Partners’ investee companies FibreCo and Seacom have provided support to the South African SKA Team (working under the guidance of the National Research Foundation and the Department of Science & Technology) in its bid for South African to host the SKA. The SKA team prepared and submitted their final bid on 15 September 2011. Convergence Partners extends its congratulations to these parties on achieving this milestone and hopes for a successful outcome to this project of significant national importance for South Africa and indeed the whole Southern African region. A bid decision is expected to be taken at the end of the first quarter of 2012.
The Internet Solutions (IS) Global Service Centre (GSC) was recognised as a top industry performer at the recent Business Process enabling South Africa (BPeSA) awards ceremony, receiving the award for the Best SA Customer Service Centre in Gauteng.
The GSC is a dynamic and interactive contact centre located at The Campus, in Johannesburg, which serves all South African and African IS clients. Operating 24 hours a day, the GSC aims to attend to all IS client needs with the most efficient and effective level of service. The GSC fields 17 000 inbound telephone calls, 40 000 service requests and averages 15 000 successful network generated events on a monthly basis.
SEACOM, the pan-African ICT enabler, announced the appointment of Mark Simpson as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with effect 5 September 2011. Brian Herlihy, the current CEO, will remain with the company as a member of the Board and take on the new role of Executive Director where he will focus on strategic projects essential for SEACOM’s continued success.
Dimension Data recently released its quarterly results, reflecting strong revenue growth of 4.7%, to $1.46 billion, in the quarter to June 2011.
So far, for the first nine months of the year, group revenue is up 13.4% in constant currency to $4.2 billion. Product sales improved by 13.1% and services grew 13.6% year-on-year. Dimension Data explains growth would have been higher in reported US currency due to the dollar’s relative weakness during the first nine months of the year. Overall, group operating profit for the nine months improved 14.2%, to $203.7 million.
In a first for South African SAP environments and for the steel industry globally, Britehouse, Dimension Data’s specialist SAP practice, has completed the consolidation of five different SAP systems into a single master system at ArcelorMittal South Africa, Africa’s largest steel producer.
In a project that took 11 months and involved taking millions of records from the previous 10 years of the standalone systems, the consolidated system went live in April 2011 – with subsequent month-ends running as normal.
Seacom, a Convergence Partners investee company, has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Square Kilometre Array (SKA) South Africa to provide support for the country’s €1.5-billion SKA radio telescope project.
SKA South Africa site bid manager Dr. Bruce Wallace said in placing the SKA data transport capacity requirement in perspective, the SKA network is estimated to be 100 to 150 times larger than the current World Wide Web network.
Convergence Partners Foundation is a strategic partner and benefactor of the Foundation for a Safer South Africa (FSSA) and its YouthZone project. In the context of this special relationship, Convergence employees hosted members of the Siyabuswa YouthZone on 23 July 2011, in a follow-up to Convergence’s earlier visit to the YouthZone in Mpumalanga.
Convergence Partners’ investee company, Dimension Data, the $4.7 billion global ICT services and solutions provider, has become a Global Systems Integrator Partner for Citrix. The programme places Dimension Data at the highest partnering level in the 49 countries on five continents that it has a direct presence.
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