Dimension Data is top empowered company in ICT

Dimension Data, the US$4 billion specialist IT services and solution provider, was recognised as the Top Empowered Company in ICT at the 9th annual Metropolitan Oliver Empowerment Awards, held at the Sandton Convention Centre on Thursday evening, 26 March 2010. The company was also among the finalists for the Top Overall Empowered Company in South Africa award.

Attended this year by some 500 businesspeople and government officials, the Metropolitan Oliver Empowerment Awards acknowledge the efforts made by local companies of all sizes, as well as those of government departments, towards the development and promotion of employment equity. There is a particular emphasis on organisations that proactively drive broad-based economic empowerment in every sphere of South African life.

Speaking at the awards, leader of the panel of judges, director-general of the Department of Labour, and president of the Black Management Forum, Jimmy Manyi, said that the 2010 judging process had been especially rigorous, with organisations being recognised only if their achievements in transformation stood head and shoulders above that of their peers.

Zandile Mbele, Dimension Data executive director of transformation, said in accepting the award, the company would continue to champion transformation in South Africa, using its exceptional skills in and understanding of technology to enable sustainable growth.

“This award is dedicated to our executive chairman, Andile Ngcaba, who has been at the forefront of our transformation agenda. For us, transformation is not something we do in addition to everything else in our working day. It is the entire focus of what Dimension Data is about. At a commercial level, our products and services transform organisations in an ongoing process of innovation from a state of less capability to ever better performance.

“We apply those tools and that commitment to continuous improvement to our corporate citizenship, to ensure that people at every level of our society have the capabilities and capacity to exploit opportunities.”

Dimension Data is a level 3 BBEEE contributor and value adding supplier. Clients can therefore claim 137.5% of their expenditure with Dimension Data as BEE procurement. The company increased its own BEE procurement as a percentage of its overall procurement spend from 50% in 2008 to 66.5% in 2009, thereby supporting the development of small, micro, and medium enterprises.

Dimension Data's highly successful E-learning and Saturday School programmes (the latter run by employee volunteers for previously disadvantaged students) have enabled more than 10 600 Grade 12 students reach their full academic potential. The Saturday School has delivered more than 80 matric distinctions in the past three years alone - and a 100% matric pass rate for the past 15 years. In 2009, a Saturday School graduate was chosen on academic excellence to participate in the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program held at the Institute of International Education (IIE) in New York. Fifty-eight of the IIE's grantees, trustees, and alumni have been awarded Nobel Prizes.

Dimension Data also partners with government to improve the quality of education by using technology - becoming, for example, a strategic partner in the Teacher Laptop Initiative.