Businesses are evolving and becoming more effective in their traditional operations by opting out of the technology race. Outsourcing technology, particularly elements of network management and operation, has become an area of focus for many organisations that want to take advantage of new-generation technology, but do not have the internal skills or resources to optimise it. An example of this trend is provided by the Consumer Credit Corporation (Pty) Limited. The organisation has appointed DNS (KwaZulu-Natal) to upgrade local area network (LAN) systems at its 11 branches nation wide and link them via leased lines to its Durban-based head office. This entire wide area network (WAN) infrastructure will be administered, remotely monitored and supported by DNS through its Remote Management Centre (RMC) in Johannesburg. The move, says Consumer Credit Corporation deputy MD John Aitken, has come about because the organisation is looking to minimise the risk associated with leading-edge technology purchases and the accelerated obsolescence allied to modern IT solutions. "It will isolate us from the marketplace dynamics of the IT industry," says Aitken. "The onus has shifted to DNS to invest in the latest, standards-compliant, technology that will give us the broadest range of services and resources." Consumer Credit Corporation is one of the fastest growing short to medium term finance houses in South Africa. Established in 1979, the company`s focus is on the "C and D" category of consumer and operates in partnership with more than 10 000 independent retailers throughout the country. According to Aitken, the company prides itself on being able to process a new credit application within 30 minutes and one from an existing customer within two minutes. "By outsourcing our network support and monitoring we are able to realise these business objectives and derive significant spin-off advantages in terms of increased flexibility for business changes and expansion," says Aitken. Finance and IT director, Manley Soobramoney, says the DNS service allows Consumer Credit to focus on its core business, while ensuring a modern network infrastructure that is central to the nature of the credit application services provided by our company. A strong emphasis is placed on network uptime, reliability and performance. Key benefits of the new infrastructure, which runs in-house developed, credit application software, include increased capacity and speed. "These features have opened up a number of marketing opportunities to us, including an ability to process applications faster and more accurately. We also have a platform for future expansion of our branch network and dealer base." he says. Soobramoney highlights an important future advantage of the network - its ability to include voice communications over the data lines on the WAN to facilitate easier, more cost effective interaction between branches.
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