Johannesburg, 17 Nov 2015
The acquisition by Dimension Data of the remaining 60% of shares in its applications specialist subsidiary, Britehouse, and the resulting merging into Britehouse of Dimension Data Application Services puts a rare SAP solutions and services resource at the disposal of customers.
"The enlarged SAP-focused division of Britehouse is not only one of the largest SAP practices in South Africa, it has global reach and impact," says Christo Pieters, Britehouse group executive, Solutions and Services for SAP. "It makes available to our customers options that they've not had before and that are almost impossible to access outside of the Britehouse offering.
"For instance, the fact that we have access to Dimension Data's global data centre capabilities alongside its managed cloud platform, and through Dimension Data to all the specialisations of the global NTT group, has caused SAP to sign us up as one of only three HANA Enterprise cloud providers in the world.
"As a result, we can much more effectively align customers with the SAP cloud strategy, empowering them to more fully exploit their SAP investment.
"Also, the skill and technology critical mass we now have as the applications arm of Dimension Data gives us the strategic significance to co-innovate with SAP, globally.
"The benefits that will accrue to our customers in relation to our ability to help them sharpen their competitive edge are huge."
Donovan Lawrence, former head of Dimension Data Application Services and now COO of Britehouse, says the Britehouse Business Control Centre (BCC) and Britehouse Mobility will enrich value for customers still further.
"The BCC, which is built on SAP Solution Manager, enables us to pre-emptively and proactively monitor customer technology landscapes so as to continuously improve their business processes and, therefore, their business performance. Our ATAJO mobility platform enables us to mobilise customer businesses quickly, at least cost.
"In addition, by merging the two applications businesses, we've not simply gained more of the same high skills. We've added complementary expertise in areas in which each company had not worked before. If you add together our expanded technological and human resources, you get the most comprehensive services and solutions capability available in the market."
Both the Britehouse and Dimension Data SAP teams were working at full capacity. So, the merger will not lead to rationalisation of staff. "It does enable us, however, to aggregate our various product sets, operational focus, and IP," says newly appointed Britehouse CTO Rogan Moore. "This positions us to target value for our customers much more efficiently and effectively, improving time to benefit for our customers and for us."
A deliberate decision was made during the merger discussions to retain the Britehouse brand for what is, essentially, the applications arm of Dimension Data. One of the reasons was Britehouse's well established brand equity in the local market.
"Also, the Britehouse personality and ethos are entrepreneurial to the core," Pieters says. "Dimension Data, by virtue of its size and its original focus on networks and data centres, which need to be standardised and generic, is more corporate.
"We wanted to retain the conceptual agility that has always enabled us to address each customer's individual needs in fresh ways. In modern business, it's the application that makes the difference. The infrastructure on which it runs must, of course, be superb - and Dimension Data excels in infrastructure and related services. But, customers should be able to take that excellence for granted. What they need most is exceptional, differentiating applications. That's what we provide - better than anyone else."
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