Dimension Data, the global specialist IT solutions and services provider, has been positioned by BMI-TechKnowledge as the largest provider of IT services to the South African market.

“In its latest IT services market sizing and forecast of 2010-2015 report published in December 2011, BMI-T recognised that Dimension Data was still the largest provider of IT services in South Africa in 2010, accounting for 15.4% of the total IT services market, up from 14.8% in 2009,” the company said on Tuesday.

According to BMI-T, the South African IT services market was valued at R33.8 billion in 2010, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 8.5%. The market was expected to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 9.5% over the five-year forecast period, reaching a total of R53.3 billion by 2015.

“The reason we have grown is because of the quality of our people and their desire to deliver exceptional services to our clients,” Brent Flint, services executive for Dimension Data Middle East and Africa said.

BMI-T reported that the maintenance, support and upgrade service segment was expected to account for the largest portion of the total IT services market, while hosting was expected to reflect the fastest growth rate over the five-year forecast period, with a CAGR of 18.1%.

Managed services were also expected to reflect a significant growth over the forecast period, with a CAGR of 14.6%.

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Article from Business Live

Howard Earley, COO of Plessey, a Convergence Partners investee says that Plessey has identified the opportunities that exist and need for a next-generation service provider with the ability to build the infrastructure required by the fast growing communications industry.

He says that Plessey is well positioned to fulfill this role due it being able to:

• provide a comprehensive, solution themselves, thereby providing a broad, modular range of telecommunications solutions that keep pace with and can be very precisely mapped to the new opportunities opening up to customers;  and
• call, where relevant, on the global consulting and solutions design experience and capability of their parent company, Dimension Data, and also on the carrier, connectivity, and communications specialisations within Internet Solutions

The result of this unique positioning is that Plessey and Dimension Data are being commissioned to, respectively, project-manage the laying of fibre and provide the equipment to light up the fibre.

Article from ITWeb

Convergence Partners investee, Dimension Data, which was delisted about a year ago, after being bought out by Japan-based NTT in a R24.2 billion deal, reported double-digit top line growth for the year to September.

The company says revenue grew 14.8%, to $5.79 billion, from $4.74 billion for the 2010 financial year. It also reported double-digit operating profit growth of 10.8%.

Dimension Data’s system’s integration business, which makes up 78% of total revenue, grew 12.8% year-on-year, to $4.5 billion, and operating profit was 7% higher, at $202.7 million.

By region, Europe, Asia and Australia delivered good growth, while Middle East and Africa was steady, says Dimension Data. In the Americas, Canada, Mexico and Chile recorded “excellent growth”, but operating profit in the US was flat, it adds.

Internet Solutions grew revenue 6.9%; Plessey lifted revenue 22.9%; and Express Data’s revenue expanded by 24.3%. Merchants and Learning Solutions delivered “strong contributions”, the company says.

Internet Solutions grew operating profit 9.1% at an operating margin of 12.6%. However, operating profit in Express Data declined 5.6% for the year due to product margin pressures.

Dimension Data says Plessey’s operating profit improved “substantially” off a low base in the 2010 financial year.

CEO Brett Dawson says “this year’s double-digit growth is an outstanding performance”, considering the current volatile global economy and tough trading conditions.

In the next 12 months, the group will focus on building its cloud solutions and services portfolio, and global cloud infrastructure and platform.

“The group’s acquisition of OpSource in July, and the formation of our cloud business unit were critical steps in accelerating our cloud computing strategy,” says Dawson. He adds the company is on track to go to market with its cloud value proposition.

Press Release

Article from ITWeb

Article from Business Day

Howard Early, COO of Plessey, explains the growing need for specialist infrastructure management in the fast-changing telco world.

In the early days of telecoms, it was taken for granted that the telco would build, operate and maintain its own infrastructure. Now, while many telcos do still operate their own infrastructure, fewer actually build it, and many outsource the maintenance of it.

In the new world of converged communications, where telcos and service providers have their hands full creating, marketing and delivering products and services to their customers, building, operating and maintaining infrastructure is even less core to their business.

Read more here! Itweb.co.za

Convergence Partners successfully participated as a sponsor and exhibitor at the 14^th annual AfricaCom Conference, held in Cape Town on 9 and 10 November 2011.  AfricaCom is the largest communications conference and exhibition on the Continent, gathering together more than 5,000 telecoms decision-makers. This is the second year that Convergence Partners has exhibited at the conference.

Exhibiting on the Convergence Partners’ stand was Comsol, FibreCo, Plessey and SEACOM with each of the companies presenting their offerings in the communications infrastructure space.

Andile Ngcaba, Chairman of Convergence Partners, presented a keynote address titled: “The political economy – where fibre optic meets spectrum” which focused on the need for innovative and visionary regulation of the radio spectrum.

The Convergence Partners’ group was also represented by Craig Wilson, CEO of Convergence Wireless Networks, as a panelist at the WiMAX South Africa conference held alongside AfricaCom.  Arif Hussain, CEO of FibreCo presented at the Master Class as well as on a panel discussions in the Capacity and Networks stream on fibre capacity in Africa.

Although, the Convergence Partners stand focused on showcasing our infrastructure portfolio assets a number of other companies participated in the conference including, Gemalto, Intelsat New Dawn and Dimension Data.

A highlight of the conference was SEACOM in partnership with Main ONE winning the award for most innovative infrastructure project of 2011 at the AfricaCom Awards.

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.

Since the company was delisted from both the JSE and London Stock Exchange towards the end of last year, it is no longer required to publish financial information.

CEO Brett Dawson says the “group achieved an excellent nine months of trading compared to the results of the IT industry in general, and the business continues to show growth from a revenue and profitability point of view over the 2010 financial year”.

Dimension Data’s systems integration unit reported revenue 17.7% higher for the first nine months of the year, while operating profit grew 13.3% at an operating margin of 4.3%.

Internet Solutions’ revenue increased 6.9%, with operating profit up 3.3%, and Plessey grew “strongly at both the revenue and operating profit level off a very low base in the prior year,” says Dimension Data.

However, Dawson says revenue growth slowed in the third quarter after a strong first half. “Close attention to margins and the cost base has driven the improvement of operating profit up 14.7% in the quarter,” he adds.

In the three months to June, Dimension Data says its services unit grew 10.9%, while product sales were mostly flat, gaining 0.2%. Its gross margin improved 1.4 percentage points to 21.5%.

Gross profit gained 12%, and the company’s operating profit – 14.7% higher year-on-year, reached $74 million.

“We are investing aggressively in expanding the scope of our service offerings – both organically and through acquisitions,” Dawson adds.

During the quarter, Dimension Data bought OpSource to accelerate its cloud strategy. “Our focus on cloud services aligns to our longstanding strategy to become a services-led business,” says Dawson.

DD Press Release

Article in ITWeb

Howard Earley has been appointed as Chief Operating officer for Plessey Group, a company in which Convergence Partners is invested. Howard has been with Plessey for 14 years in various capacities including chief financial officer and acting CEO.  In this new role, he will be responsible for driving programmes to improve the company’s overall operations, including the execution of a strategy to more effectively position Plessey’s offerings and capabilities.

After being listed on the JSE for the past 23 years, today marked the final day of trading of Dimension Data shares.  However, Didata exited on a high note with it reporting strong full year results for 2010.

The Dimension Data group, which is being acquired by Japan’s Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corp, reported a 9,9% increase in sales in constant currency terms in the 2010 financial year to September. The company reported revenue growth of 19,4% to US$4,74bn, due in part to currency gains.

In the financial year, Didata recorded an 8,2% increase in operating profits, bringing it to $237,8m, with operating margins having reached 5%, from 4,9% the previous year.

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The Group recorded a sound trading performance for the quarter ended 31 December 2009. Reported turnover reflected an approximately 6% increase in relation to the three months to 31 December 2008.

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The first in a series of regular articles to introduce certain key executives from across the Convergence Partners investment portfolio. Richard is the chief sales, solutions and marketing officer at Plessey and tells us a little about himself and shares some of his views on the ICT landscape in South Africa.

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