Convergence Partners investee company, Dimension Data has been positioned by Gartner, Inc., in the Leaders Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Communications Outsourcing and Professional Services (COPS) report.

Compiled by Gartner analysts, the Magic Quadrant examined 19 vendors of IT services for business communications systems worldwide, employing two main evaluation criteria. These include:

• ability to execute; and
• completeness of vision.

Dimension Data CEO, Brett Dawson said, “Our placement in the Leaders Quadrant is an important milestone for Dimension Data as we believe it illustrates that the market and most importantly our clients recognise the significant progress we’ve made on our journey towards becoming a world leading services led organisation.

Didata Press Release

Convergence Partners Chairman, Andile Ngcaba, was named as TechCentral’s newsmaker of 2011 for his significant impact on South Africa’s technology sector over the past 12 months, topping an impressive list consisting of Pieter Uys, Mamodupi Mohlala, Karel Pienaar, Robert Gumede, Roy Padayachie, Lars Reichelt, Michael Jordaan, Pinky Moholi and Mteto Nyati.

According to TechCentral: “Through his Convergence Partners investment vehicle, Ngcaba launched a US$250m satellite with Intelsat (after a false start) and signed a multibillion-rand deal to build a national fibre network with Cell C and Dimension Data’s Internet Solutions.

“Ngcaba has taken to the business world like a proverbial duck to water. Executive chairman of Dimension Data Middle East and Africa, in which he also holds a sizeable investment through Convergence Partners, Ngcaba is certainly prepared to put his money where his mouth is.”

“Despite his involvement in the launch of the Intelsat New Dawn satellite and FibreCo’s plans to deploy a R5bn national fibre network consisting of up to 14 000km of fibre infrastructure, Ngcaba has stayed largely out of the media spotlight in 2011. But we’ve been tracking his activities closely and we think he’s worthy of the accolade of newsmaker of the year.”

Read more here: http://www.techcentral.co.za/sa-newsmakers-of-the-year-the-top-five/28200/

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.

The initial phase of FibreCo’s development will result in the creation of 2,300 direct and indirect job opportunities. FibreCo will also facilitate the training of at least 100 fibre optic technicians who will be involved during construction and maintenance of the network in all provinces along its route. Furthermore, FibreCo will make heavily subsidized fibre capacity available to academic and research institutions, enabling greater innovation in the use of information and technology.

FibreCo’s total investment will amount to R5 billion.

The Company envisages the development of a national network stretching over 12,000 km. Phase 1 involves linking up Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban as well as the East and West coast submarine cable landing stations.

Andile Ngcaba, Chairman of FibreCo, said: “This landmark investment will provide affordable, reliable and fast Internet access to ordinary South Africans.”

FibreCo proudly announced that they have awarded the contract to ZTE for the network construction and supply of technology equipment. ZTE is China’s largest publicly listed global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions. Work on the initial leg of Phase 1 is already underway, which is a 1,900 km link between Johannesburg and Cape Town via the Free State and Eastern Cape valued at R1 billion.

FibreCo has also signed capacity purchase agreements with its first 3 clients for the Johannesburg-Cape Town route, namely BT, Cell C and Internet Solutions, allowing them ownership of fibre infrastructure and the ability to build bespoke optical transmission networks.

Arif Hussain, CEO of FibreCo, commented: “We are delighted to welcome BT, a client with a truly global brand, to the FibreCo network alongside Cell C and Internet Solutions, who have been valued partners since inception. On the strength of these contracts, coupled with the financial backing of our shareholders, we have secured the necessary funding”.

FibreCo Press Release

Article from ITWeb

Article from MyBroadband

Article from TechCentral

Seacom, a Convergence Partners investee company, has invested R100 million in additional South African infrastructure to meet the continuous high growth in demand for broadband services and applications. The investment includes the purchase of physical optical fibre links from Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) as well as installing the equipment required for Seacom to manage the network linking KwaZulu Natal’s coast where the Seacom marine cable lands to two redundant Points of Presence (PoPs) in Gauteng.

Initially, 100 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) of the fibre will be lit (using current 10 Gb/s technology) and a further 20 waves are expected to be lit within the next 12 months. Ultra-modern transmission technology is being used with 100 Gb/s per wavelength which gives the new link a design capacity of over 8 Terabit per second (Tb/s). This is in line with Seacom’s plans to expand the marine portion of the cable to over 4.8 Tb/s.

This enormous amount of capacity enables Seacom to align current and future customer needs with the explosion in broadband demand driven by a wave of content rich applications such as cloud computing to meet enterprise requirements, HD video streaming and IPTV services. This investment also supports Seacom’s recently launched Internet Protocol (IP) platform that will drive the proliferation of content created in Africa and the regional hosting of international content.

Brian Herlihy, Seacom CEO, said: “South Africa continues to offer tremendous growth opportunities and this investment confirms Seacom’s view that adequate infrastructure  will ensure that the market can absorb new capacity within record time.

“In our continuous quest to improve quality of service, this is one of the many investments that we are making to ensure that we provide our customers with the best possible support  as we continue to build the African Internet based on low-latency, high speed and reliable infrastructure.“

Managed by Seacom and its suppliers, the route is the company’s first co-build of this nature. It will be operated in parallel with Seacom’s existing routes and will provide customers with the benefit of protected services delivered across multiple, physically diverse routes and operated by multiple providers.

Suveer Ramdhani, Seacom’s Head of Product Strategy, said: “This new capacity will benefit the end user by enabling Seacom clients to bring new content rich products to market in a reliable and economical way.

“The scale of the capacity we are making available on the route is yet another first in Africa and you can expect us to continue rolling out more ground-breaking technological developments in the near future.”

Seacom 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

Engineering News

MoneyWeb Article

Dimension Data announced it has won the 2011 Microsoft Systems Management Partner of the Year Award.

The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

“This is the second time in three years that the Group has been awarded Systems Management Partner of the Year. We are seeing significant growth and interest in systems management solutions as clients look to support virtualisation on their journey to cloud computing, with particular emphasis on automation to increase efficiency and improve agility.”

“The award is testament to the investment we’re making in order to help our clients on this journey,” says Peter Menadue, Dimension Data’s Group General Manager for Microsoft Solutions.

The Awards were presented in multiple categories, with winners chosen from a set of more than 3 000 global entrant. Dimension Data was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services in Microsoft Systems Management Partner of the Year.

The Systems Management Partner of the Year Award honors a partner who has delivered solutions to manage physical and virtual infrastructures across datacenters, client computers, and devices.

This award recognizes Dimension Data for enabling customers to reduce costs, improve application availability and enhance service delivery. The successful solution needs to utilize Microsoft’s suite of systems management products, technologies and solution accelerators. This partner has dramatically transformed a customer’s IT infrastructure, resulting in operational efficiencies, reduced IT labor or hardware costs, or automation of management tasks.

“Microsoft is pleased to distinguish Dimension Data as Systems Management Partner of the Year,” says Bob Kelly, Corporate Vice President for Infrastructure and Server Marketing at Microsoft.

“Dimension Data’s system management solutions have enabled users to manage both physical and virtual infrastructures while reducing hardware and IT labor costs. By effectively utilizing Microsoft’s suite of systems management products and technologies, Dimension Data allows customers to simultaneously improve multiple infrastructures for data centers, client computers, and devices,” says Kelly.

The Microsoft Partner Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions over the past year.

Dimension Data Press Release

Article from ItNews Africa

Convergence Wireless Networks (Convergence Wireless), a joint venture between Convergence Partners and Comsol Wireless Solutions (Comsol), today announced that it has acquired a 35% stake in WIA Company Limited (WIA), a Tanzanian wireless connectivity provider focused on the enterprise market segment.

Convergence Wireless will take on an active role in the business by providing high-level support at a strategic and operational level but also facilitate access to resources across the wider Convergence Partners network to accelerate WIA’s evolution into a fully fledged converged communications solutions provider. Comsol will act as WIA’s technology partner bringing significant knowledge and expertise in the deployment of world-class wireless broadband networks.

View the full statement

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Convergence Partners increases exposure in digital media market; takes 25.55% stake in South African online gaming business SkillPod Media

9 September 2008 – Convergence Partners Investments, a Black Economic Empowerment investment company focusing on the Technology, Media and Telecommunications sector, today announced that it had taken a 25.55% stake in SkillPod Media (SkillPod), a pioneering South African online casual gaming company.

Established in 2003 by Mark van Diggelen, SkillPod began developing a dynamic proprietary content management system for online games. Over the past five years, the company entrenched itself as a major player in the South African market whilst concentrating on developing world-class supporting systems. A major differentiator for SkillPod is their ownership of the games’ source code that they purchase thereby allowing them to create a turnkey solution for clients including branding and customisation. This has seen them successfully develop games to support marketing campaigns for a number of well-known brands including OUTsurance, KTV and Golf Digest.

The transaction will see SkillPod issue new shares resulting in Convergence Partners owning 25.55% of SkillPod while the existing shareholders, Mark van Diggelen and Brabys Media Holdings, will jointly own the remaining 74.45%. Brabys is a long-established specialist business directory publisher and owner of brabys.com and Ananzi.com.

View the full Statement

Communication Solutions (Comsol) in partnership with one of its shareholders Convergence Partners is seeking to build a portfolio of wireless broadband data operations across multiple countries in Africa. A new investment company called Convergence Wireless Networks (CWN) has been formed for this purpose.

CWN will investigate opportunities to secure spectrum/licences in high economic growth areas in Africa with a view to participating in the roll-out of networks (as a strategic, minority financial investor) in those markets. “The potential for growth in wireless broadband usage across the continent is massive given the low existing base of penetration,” says Iain Stevenson, CEO of Comsol. Currently the total number of broadband connections in Africa numbers approximately less than 3 million, the majority of which are 3G connections.

Stevenson says that CWN will take up strategic equity interests in and supply value-added services across the entire wireless broadband market in Africa from equipment supply, to network installation, ongoing network maintenance, licensed spectrum acquisition, wholesale network operation and even ultimately to retail network operations. “CWN will work in conjunction with local country partners and existing players either in the technology arena or existing network operators,” says Brandon Doyle MD of Convergence Partners.

View the full Statement

Convergence Partners Investments, a Black Economic Empowerment investment company focusing on the Technology, Media and Telecommunications sector, announced today that it had taken a stake in Integrat, a major South African Wireless Applications Service Provider (WASP) Aggregator with related interests in digital content, online platforms and other ancillary activities.

WASPs are companies that connect to the cellular operators to provide services to the networks’ clients, usually in the form of premium-rated Short Message Services (SMS). As an Aggregator, Integrat supports its WASP customers with best-of-breed, locally developed, solutions offerings to seamlessly connect into SA’s highly regulated mobile networks in a matter of days, rather than months. Integrat’s offerings are globally competitive and have evolved over the years to include various Value Added Services, such as content manager, campaigns manager, mobile payment systems and other mobile handset-focused services. These products allow customers to deliver services within a very short time and without having to take responsibility for any development.

View the full Statement

Dimension Data Holdings PLC has today announced the formation of a new company – Britehouse Group.

In line with the ongoing convergence in the software applications space, Dimension Data in South Africa has consolidated its Microsoft Applications and SAP Application Development Practices into Britehouse Group (Britehouse), a new, black-empowered entity.

In line with the ongoing convergence in the software applications space, Dimension Data in South Africa has consolidated its Microsoft Applications and SAP Application Development Practices into Britehouse Group (Britehouse), a new, black-empowered entity.

A Black Economic Empowerment Consortium consisting of Convergence Partners Investments (Proprietary) Limited (a company headed by Andile Ngcaba) and Safika Holdings (Proprietary) Limited (an empowerment investment holding company) will purchase an effective 30% stake in Britehouse. The remaining shareholding of Britehouse will be held by a wholly owned subsidiary of Dimension Data Holdings PLC (Dimension Data PLC).

Britehouse which comprises a 57,6% stake in 3fifteen and 75% stake in Pebbletree Consulting – has a large concentration of SAP and Microsoft specialist skills. 3fifteen and Pebbletree Consulting were identified and incubated by Dimension Data’s venture capital business, Protocol Venture Capital (Pty) Ltd. The consolidation of these companies into a separate operating entity provides efficiencies, critical mass and autonomy.

3fifteen, a Microsoft Gold Partner, provides specialist Microsoft services including consulting, software application development and deployment. Earlier this year, the company was named as Microsoft’s 2006 Customer Experience Partner of the Year.

Pebbletree Consulting, a SAP Africa Service Partner and an SAP Africa SME Business Partner, provides strategic business consulting services in respect of SAP software, empowering organisations to optimise business performance using SAP as a platform.

Both 3fifteen and Pebbletree will retain their current management structures, operating independence and identities.

Dimension Data South Africa Pty Ltd’s investment in Paracon Holdings Limited has also been transferred to Britehouse. Paracon, a specialist IT contracting company, will provide the new entity with a flexible skills base to ensure an optimal structure.

Dimension Data’s core business is the provision and maintenance of the ICT infrastructure that supports the delivery of software applications to all parts of the enterprise. 3fifteen and Pebbletree excel in the area of software applications, which are network reliant, and thus a natural fit with Dimension Data’s ICT infrastructure expertise.

The consolidated carrying value of Britehouse is R98.9 million. The transaction is subject to various approval including regulatory approvals.

About Dimension Data

Dimension Data plc (LSE:DDT), a specialist IT services and solution provider, helps clients plan, build, support and manage their IT infrastructures. Dimension Data applies its expertise in networking, security, operating environments, storage and contact centre technologies and its unique skills in consulting, integration and managed services to create customised client solutions.