Britehouse has appointed Paolo Masselli as group CEO, taking over from Scott Gibson, who will remain within the company as group executive of the global digital practice.
Gibson's focus will be building Dimension Data's new globally-focused digital advisory and applications practice.
This follows the company's acquisition of the remaining 60% stake of Britehouse from a consortium made up of Remgro, Convergence Partners, and Britehouse management.
Dimension Data has held 40% equity in Britehouse since 2007 when the company was established.
In a statement, Britehouse says it will retain its operational independence and branding, but will merge its existing structure into Dimension Data's Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and application services practices.
The new entity has a common digital strategy delivering solutions on SAP, Oracle and Microsoft technologies in SA and stretching into Africa, with a staff complement of over 1 400 people, it adds.
Masselli was previously Britehouse's COO. He also founded Combined Design Engineers, was CEO of Comparex Middle East, and founded Pebbletree Consulting as CEO.
His job as Britehouse CEO at a strategic level will be to get all divisions to align under the company's digital strategy, says Masselli. At an operational level, it will be to focus on consolidating all 19 companies and all the management systems under the group and to manage the combined organisation effectively, he adds.
Also, he will collaborate with Dimension Data to cross-sell and up-sell to their combined customer base, says Masselli.
His immediate goal is to get all employees to pull in the same direction, and collaborate internally and with Dimension Data, and maximise sales and operational delivery capabilities.
Masselli's long-term goal is to align the organisation's cloud and support strategy with Dimension Data's cloud and IT-as-a-service strategy, and deploy as many applications, such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and Britehouse's proprietary software applications, as possible onto the Dimension Data managed cloud platform.
"We are already engaging with Dimension Data's African regional managers to identify solutions and services we can easily export and that complement the infrastructure business."
According to Maselli, there are several threats to this market, primarily the economy and political situation in South Africa.
Opportunities are many and varied but depend on the appetite for investment and change, he says.
"The stifled and downward trend to our economy is the primary challenge for organisations and this leads to many other challenges, such as a shortage of skills, labour problems and cost-cutting exercises."
Companies are very cost-conscious and want value with everything they invest in. This seems a natural requirement, but has become far more pronounced in recent times, he adds.
Maselli holds a BSc mechanical engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand and a bachelor of commerce degree from Unisa.
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