Dimension Data, a Convergence Partners investee, received the 2011 South African Excellence in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) Strategy Award from Frost & Sullivan.

Dimension Data, according to a recent Frost & Sullivan analysis conducted on the IT services market, have met a number of measurement performance criteria, pertinent to achieving a certain level of excellence, when compared to that of key competitors within the IT industry.

Brent Flint, services executive: Dimension Data Middle East & Africa, describes the award as a significant confirmation that Dimension Data is well positioned to provide its clients with services that help them at each step in their journey toward cloud architectures.

“For the last few years, we have been building cloud-related skills and capabilities in areas such as virtualisation, data centre and storage, managed services and hosting, and IT outsourcing – critical to enabling cloud architectures for our clients. Our experience with complex, multi-national systems integration projects coupled with its managed services expertise are critical to making cloud a reality for clients.”

The company’s acquisitions and investments in cloud assets such as Australian-based, Blue Fire, Internet Solutions, as well as the OneCloud initiative between their Asian subsidiary and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) was succeeded by the OpSource deal.

“The acquisition of OpSource in June 2011 marks the culmination of Dimension Data’s strategy to ensure the company accelerates the provision of its cloud offerings, and remains at the forefront of global networking and communications technology,” says Frost & Sullivan’s ICT industry analyst Ishe Zingoni. “Whereas Dimension Data is an end-to-end IT solutions provider in the South African market, the acquisition brings with it special expertise around cloud and managed hosting solutions that enable businesses to grow and scale operations, while controlling costs.”

Over the past few years, the company has been developing cloud-related skills and capabilities in the areas of virtualisation, data centre and storage, managed services and hosting, and IT outsourcing – all critical to enabling cloud architectures for clients. At the same time, Dimension Data has been educating its clients on the service possibilities of implementing cloud computing and virtualisation. Such initiatives have laid the groundwork for Dimension Data’s cloud strategy.

“The acquisition of OpSource contributes a rich set of services, a sound cloud architecture, and extensive experience in cloud services that will meet immediate client needs,” remarks Zingoni. “This is in addition to a cloud infrastructure with a proprietary integrated orchestration system that supports growth, development and globally consistent operations.”

OpSource also brings an attractive client base in the Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Service Providers (SPs) to complement Dimension Data’s strong enterprise footprint.

Dimension Data has realised that, in order to develop its cloud-based architecture, it is essential to understand the integration of IT systems across disparate multi-technology, multi-geography IT environments. Its acquisition of OpSource represents a key element in achieving this goal.

“OpSource is better positioned to exploit its cloud architecture and orchestration capabilities, maximising on the global cloud opportunity as part of a globally diversified group, rather than on its own,” explains Zingoni. “Geographical expansion is, therefore, one of the key operational synergies that will be facilitated by this deal.”

To aid in seamless post-merger integration, Dimension Data has created a centralised stand-alone division – Dimension Data Cloud Solutions Business Unit, which falls directly under the scope of the CEO. This business model aims to eliminate duplication of costs, as well as to provide for a consistent global client experience.

“As a business entity, OpSource will operate as part of this unit, nevertheless retaining its name and brand identity,” says Zingoni. “The advantage of this strategy is to preserve brand recognition and customer loyalty in highly competitive markets.”

The Excellence in M&A Strategy Award is presented to the company that has excelled in the following criteria: synergies of acquisitions, expansion of customer base, enabling geographic expansion and strategy for post-merger integration.

Article from IT Online

The Computer Society of South Africa (CSSA), in partnership with leading IT publishers, academic and research institutions, every year recognises outstanding talent, leadership, vision and commitment of individuals and organisations within the ICT industry. Convergence Partners is proud to note that Mayan Mathen, Dimension Data CTO, has been nominated for the CSSA Visionary CIO 2011 award.

The 2011 winners of the IT industry’s most prestigious awards will be announced at the CSSA President’s Awards event – a business breakfast organised in association with ITWeb on 10 November at the Hilton Sandton Hotel.

The four awards being presented are the IT Personality of the Year, the Visionary CIO of the Year, Distinguished Service in ICT and IT Leading Employer. This year’s finalists for the IT Personality award are Asher Bohbot, CEO of EOH, Darlene Menzies, managing owner of The Development House, Greg Reis, CEO of Business Systems Group, Mteto Nyati, MD of Microsoft and Sean O’Connell, CEO of Airborne.

The top five finalists for the Visionary CIO award are Andrew Brauer, CIO/CTO of Business Connexion, Bradley Coward, group CIO of Sappi, Mayan Mathen, CTO of Dimension Data MEA, Rubens da Silva, CIO of Johannesburg Water and Sandi Macfie, CIO of Southern Sun Hotels.

Article from BizCommunity

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.

An industry veteran with more than 25 years’ experience in the telecommunications industry, Mark Simpson has held a number of senior international executive positions during his career, most recently as President and CEO of Pacific Crossing, a company operating a trans-Pacific cable system between the United States and Japan. He was also Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Asia Netcom (now Pacnet) and CEO of C2C Pte Ltd, Asia’s then largest cable system.

Commenting on his appointment, Mark Simpson said: “The SEACOM system has changed the African ICT landscape and I am pleased to be joining a market shaping company with a firm plan to evolve its core infrastructure and lead Africa into the next stage of ICT growth.

“It is a great opportunity to come to a company with a great team that has accomplished so much already and set out a clear strategic plan going forward. I look forward to working cooperatively with Brian, who has meant so much to SEACOM.”

Simpson will be responsible for leading SEACOM into a new era of data-based projects and growth assisted by Herlihy. In addition he will bring to bear his operational know-how in developing and running a best-in-class quality of service international network and ensuring that SEACOM’s customers are well served by its network, products and services.

In his new capacity as Executive Director, Brian Herlihy will retain a key role in the strategic direction of the company focusing on maximizing development opportunities and network deployment.

“I am delighted to welcome Mark on board. His experience will contribute considerably to securing SEACOM’s efforts to consistently improve network operations while maintaining our position of being first to market with new products.

“Mark’s extended experience ensures that SEACOM can leapfrog technology evolutions and develop a best-in-class pan-African solution.

“I am confident that our cooperation will provide me the capacity to pursue the correct partnerships necessary for SEACOM’s vision to truly lead the development of the African Internet,” concluded Brian Herlihy.

SEACOM Press Release

Read more here!

Article from Engineering News

Article from TechCentral

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.

Formalising Dimension Data’s status as a Global Systems Integration Partner builds upon existing regional relationships, and makes Dimension Data one of a handful of the most strategic Citrix partners. With over 200 clients and 150 Citrix certified consultants holding more than 700 Citrix certifications, Dimension Data and Citrix have a long history of success.

About Dimension Data

Founded in 1983, Dimension Data plc is an ICT services and solutions provider that uses its technology expertise, global service delivery capability, and entrepreneurial spirit to accelerate the business ambitions of its clients. Dimension Data is a member of the NTT Group. www.dimensiondata.com

About Citrix

Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a leading provider of virtual computing solutions that help companies deliver IT as an on-demand service. Founded in 1989, Citrix combines virtualization, networking, and cloud computing technologies into a full portfolio of products that enable virtual workstyles for users and virtual datacentres for IT. More than 230,000 organisations worldwide rely on Citrix to help them build simpler and more cost-effective IT environments. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies in more than 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2010 was $1.87 billion.

DD PRESS RELEASE

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Dimension Data, the 74.9% holding company of Convergence Partners investee company Dimension Data Middle East and Africa (DDMEA), announced that it has acquired OpSource, an enterprise cloud company, in a deal that will see Dimension Data (itself a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Holdings) accelerate its cloud computing services offerings.  At the same time, Dimension Data, a US $4.7 billion ICT services and solutions provider has created a centralised Cloud Solutions Business Unit which will report directly into Dimension Data’s CEO, Brett Dawson.  OpSource will become part of the Dimension Data Cloud Solutions Business Unit.

OpSource employs 150 staff and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California with operations in Virginia, United Kingdom, Ireland and India.  Over 600 enterprises, service providers and Software-as-a-Service Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) employ OpSource’s expertise, experience and cloud automation technology to operate high-availability, business-critical cloud computing and hosting environments.

Brett Dawson, Dimension Data CEO said, “Market readiness for cloud services is being enabled by technology maturation, along with clients’ needs for more flexible services-centric, IT sourcing options.  Our decision to accelerate our focus on cloud services aligns to our long-standing strategy to become a services-led business.  Over the past few years, Dimension Data has been building cloud-related skills and capabilities in the areas of virtualization, data center and storage, managed services and hosting, and IT outsourcing – all critical to enabling cloud architectures for our clients.

“OpSource brings a rich set of services, a sound cloud architecture, and extensive experience in cloud services that will meet immediate client needs – in addition to a cloud infrastructure which supports development and growth in this space. We believe OpSource provides us with an accelerated time-to-market as their infrastructure and services are well-established and tested.  Dimension Data is now well-positioned to provide our clients with services that help them at each step in their journey toward cloud architectures,” Dawson explained.

Dimension Data’s competencies and capabilities in IT integration are a strategic differentiator and critical to helping organizations effectively adopt a cloud architecture. The Group’s experience with complex multi-national systems integration projects, coupled with its managed services, data center and storage, and security expertise are critical to accelerating the transition to cloud computing for clients across all regions.

According to Treb Ryan, OpSource CEO and co-founder, mapping a migration path and architectural design for cloud is complex and requires in-depth understanding of an organisation’s entire IT infrastructure, architecture, and relative interdependencies and risks.  “An understanding of IT integration across disparate multi-technology, multi-geography, IT environments is critical to evolving toward cloud-based architectures.  We believe that as part of Dimension Data, OpSource will be better able to capitalize on the global cloud computing market opportunity.  We’re thrilled to be a part of the Dimension Data family.”

Press Release

Article from TechCentral

In a large and complex project that included moving one of the country’s largest MS SQL Database (housing 7.5 terabytes of data) to a Data Centre – and new hardware – as well as upgrading a highly customised SAP 4.7 version to ECCC6, Convergence Partners’ investee company, Britehouse successfully brought this important public sector project, the City of Tshwane, in on time and budget with no disruption to users.

Although the City’s SAP solution was ageing out of support, the City’s primary objectives for the upgrade were to deploy new functionality and more effectively integrate existing SAP functionality to better support business processes. The City’s intention is to offer improved services to its residents based on international best practice and proven solutions.

“SAP has done a lot of development in the public services market to align its solution offering with the South African environment and requirements,” says City of Tshwane director of ICT Governance, Norms & Standards Management, Henk Brink. “We wanted, therefore, to be able to exploit SAP solutions for strategic public sector objectives such as e-Services, CRM and Service Management, and Web enabled offerings – to provide citizens with the means to, for instance, perform self service through the Web from the comfort of their homes. Our goal always is to eliminate frustration for the citizen while continuously speeding up service”.

“In that context, the upgrade project was also aimed at enabling the City to expand on its Business Intelligence (BI) goals through the deployment of SAP BI products – providing management and other decision makers with relevant information faster.”

The project would not be just another upgrade, however, because, over the years, the City has incorporated a number of additional municipalities into the Metro and has customised its original SAP implementation extensively. The City is also growing extremely rapidly.

“At 7.5 terabytes, the City’s database is the biggest I’ve worked on in fifteen years of experience of large enterprises,” says Britehouse Operations Executive, Henk Jordaan. “So, moving the existing system onto new hardware the City had acquired, but also moved the hardware to new premises in Centurion, should have been a daunting challenge”.

“Britehouse has proved its upgrade methodology across many implementations and many industry sectors, and it worked just as effectively for the City.”

Britehouse’s first step was to analyse the City’s existing SAP landscape and ensure that both the standard and customised elements of the system were fully understood and mapped before they were moved, and that the full scope of the project was known and effectively planned in detail beforehand.

“Britehouse used a tool from our partners, Panaya, to identify SAP Programs and specialized developments that would be problematic when migrating to the new environment. This created a solid platform for the project team to plan and address these problematic areas. ,” says Britehouse project manager, Deon du Preez.

“Panaya is a control mechanism that is used throughout the lifecycle of the project, identifying potential problematic programs and providing code fixes for these programs. This process reduced process and project risk by dictating and managing test cycles, cutting the need for internal resources by up to 35%, and creating an ideal knowledge transfer vehicle”.

“Using solid Database and SAP Basis skills Britehouse reconnected some 4 500 users over the weekend of the data centre move, re-established data recoveries in the process, and switched Users back onto the system on Monday morning, without any problems.”

The data centre was moved on 18th February 2011, the upgrade was completed and the system was live on 24th March, again without any user disruption.

“The City of Tshwane chose Britehouse as its upgrade partner following a rigorous tender process that focused on pricing and capability, but their real value to us proved to be the extremely strong skills in the SAP technical environment. This was also evident in the areas of Project Management and functional consulting, where clear guidance to the City, backed up by extensive planning ensured that our environment was properly prepared for the upgrade” says Brink.

The 40-strong project team included members of the City of Tshwane’s Centre of Excellence, ensuring full continuity of knowledge of the new system once Britehouse had handed the operational system back to the City.

Britehouse pdf Article

Less than two years after completing the undersea portion of the first system to connect Southern and Eastern Africa to the rest of the world via India and Europe, Convergence Partners’ investee company SEACOM continues to drive the growth of the African Internet by rolling-out an Internet Protocol, IP, Platform into its international core network.

The IP Platform project involves the design, deployment and operation of nine land-based Internet access points that will store popular web content closer to where the Internet is accessed, thereby enabling a richer and faster Internet browsing experience for end users. Six of these IP network nodes are already live including Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Maputo, Marseille, Mombasa and Mtunzini.

SEACOM’s IP platform will allow direct routing between African countries through a single seamless network. As a result, customers are able to reach multiple countries using the shortest path to final destination without Internet traffic being transferred via Europe. Local continuity through direct routing combined with increased resilience through SEACOM’s recent acquisition of east and west coast submarine cable capacity greatly reduces the exposure to data losses in the event of outages elsewhere on the network.

Brian Herlihy, SEACOM CEO, said: “Today, the majority of Internet content consumed in Africa is non-African, flowing from Europe and North America into Africa. We believe that the growth of the African ICT market, including mobile penetration and the eager adoption of social networking, coupled with the development of cloud services will result in a rapid increase in content on African soil.

“In the near future, the rest of the world will be viewing media generated in and stored on the African continent and SEACOM will remain at the forefront of developing the African Internet to support this trend.”

CISCO, Dimension Data and Interoute were closely involved in the design, procurement, logistics and deployment of the SEACOM IP network. This approach of partnering with established players to provide broadband services will continue as SEACOM develops its products and services based on resiliency, service quality and flexibility in line with customers’ evolving needs.

SEACOM truly believes in a world where the African Internet experience is characterised by abundant local content, minimal latency, fast download and streaming speeds, and interconnected African markets. Today, over a dozen countries across the African continent have access to SEACOM’s low cost products and services via its extended network.

SEACOM Press Release

On Friday 25 February 2011, Communications Minister Roy Padayachie met with the leaders of 30 of SA’s top ICT players to discuss cooperation between government and private sector in order to create jobs and enhance growth. Chairman of Convergence Partners and Dimension Data, Andile Ngcaba, attended the roundtable discussions, which were aimed at developing a 2020 vision for the South African ICT sector.  Andile noted that applications and software are central to the ICT ecosystem and that opportunities exist for innovation and development in these fields. The potential for job creation opportunities would also arise from the production of new set top boxes, required for migration to digital television signal distribution in South Africa.

Andile Ngcaba said: “The conversation that has been started between the Ministry and the ICT industry is encouraging and key in building a strong ICT industry in South Africa.  Out of this dialogue, it became clear that in order for South Africa to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by the emergence of the new ICT ecosystem, it would be critical to have in place pervasive and accessible broadband infrastructure and undertake a concerted effort to up skill our human resources to ensure sustainable and quality job creation in South Africa.”

Vacancies to be filled in six months

Who attend Padayachie Roundtable

ICT panel to tackle jobs

The R250bn pot

Tax incentives, a job-creation fund and digital TV migration are heralding a golden opportunity for the South African information, communications and technology (ICT) industry, according to the Chairman of Convergence Partners and Executive Chairman of Dimension Data Middle East and Africa.

Speaking after President Jacob Zuma delivered his State of the Nation address to Parliament on Thursday, Ngcaba said the measures announced meant that companies could confidently roll out infrastructure such as fibre-optic cables to improve connectivity in the country.

“The country needs thousands of kilometres of cable in order to improve connectivity as more and more undersea cables land,” he said.

Zuma announced three measures that would help create five million jobs over the next 10 years. These were: the R9-billion job-creation scheme, R20 billion in incentives and tax breaks aimed mainly at manufacturing; and R10 billion from the Industrial Development Corporation.

“Then the President also announced that the country would go ahead with digital TV migration that is a wonderful opportunity for the sector,” Ngcaba said.

SA is converting its national broadcast system from an aged analogue service to digital.

“This means that set-top boxes will have to be made here and there is a whole manufacturing plan,” Ngcaba said.

He said at least R10million households would have to have these devices installed. I-Net Bridge.

See attached article

Dimension Data shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone’s (NTT’s) £2.1 billion offer, with shareholders owning 93.42% of DiData shares accepting the deal. With the approval phase of the transaction now complete, Convergence Partners looks forward to an exciting new era for Dimension Data, especially in the fast growing African market.

Dimension Data said in mid-July that it had received a R24.2 billion buyout offer from NTT. Shareholders had until the close of trade [PUT IN DATE] to indicate whether they would accept the bid. The merger will create one of the world’s largest integrated telecoms and technology groups, speed up DiData’s growth strategies, and give NTT a platform to expand into markets outside of the Far East, including Africa and the Middle East.

“By leveraging the complementary strengths of both companies and by leveraging our synergies, we will provide global, high quality, end-to-end ICT services across the services lifecycle,” says NTT president and CEO Satoshi Miura. “Also, we strongly believe we will accelerate the execution of our strategies to achieve our shared vision.”

DiData chairman Jeremy Ord adds that the “acquisition process proceeded smoothly and we are excited to start charting the journey ahead”. CEO Brett Dawson is “eager to work closely with NTT to begin providing a mutual value proposition to our clients and developing new value that helps solve our clients’ IT and business challenges”.

NTT will now request DiData to proceed with cancelling its listings on both the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges.

See attached press release

Article in ITWeb