As companies move to the new world of e-business, so the need for a secure e-business portal becomes critical to ensure the Internet really works for them.
"The basic problem is retaining the operational characteristics of enterprise class systems, like security, reliability and manageability, while taking advantage of the unique opportunities the Internet offers for one-to-one, real-time e-business relationships," says Mark Danton, managing director of Dimension Data Security.
"In South Africa, everybody is talking about e-business, but too few are considering security in this brave new world."
Now, for the first time in South Africa, there is a solution that enables the rapid deployment of secure e-business portals.
Dimension Data Security has announced a strategic partnership with EnCommerce, a US-based company whose web access management solution accelerates the deployment of secure e-business portals.
The solution, getAccess, enables enterprises to manage trusted business relationships with individualised access to applications and services aggregated at the e-business portal.
Deployment of secure e-business portals is accelerated by providing plug-in authentication, authorisation and administration services. These dramatically reduce the time and cost of deploying secure content on the Web for customers, suppliers, partners and employees.
"In partnership with EnCommerce, we will be able to expedite the successful deployment of global enterprise and consumer portals," says Danton. "EnCommerce`s existing Global 2000 customers include industry leaders like AT&T, Mitsubishi Corporation, Prudential Insurance, 3Com Corporation, UPS, and VISA International.
"What makes this partnership even more beneficial for South African companies is that EnCommerce has teamed up with another of our security principals, RSA Security, to help speed and secure the deployment of e-business portals," says Danton. "RSA Keon digital certificates are used to authenticate users. Through Dimension Data Security, we`ll be able to ensure the benefits of this alliance are rapidly enjoyed by our customers."
The major benefits of the EnCommerce solution are that it enables enterprises to set up e-business portals, that can scale to millions of users, easily and quickly. And, most importantly, it does this securely.
"The software revolves around security," explains Danton. "It authenticates people connecting to the portal, allocating different roles and responsibilities to them, and presenting different information to different users, depending on their roles. Customers, suppliers, employees and partners all connect to the same Web site, but the information they see is very different."
IT analyst firm Open Systems Advisors, Inc. recently awarded the EnCommerce getAccess software its Crossroads 2000 A-List Award in the category of Comprehensive Security for Personalization and Access Management for Global E-Business Portals.
"We are delighted that EnCommerce has chosen Dimension Data Security as its exclusive Southern African partner," says Danton.
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Dimension Data Holdings
Dimension Data Holdings Limited is a global Information Technology Integration corporation based in Sandton, South Africa. The company which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, has a turnover of approximately US$1.5 billion. The Group has representation on five continents and operates out of 36 countries. The Group has achieved a compound annual growth rate of 98% in turnover and 57% in headline earnings per share over the past 5 years.
The Group is focussed on communications/ networking infrastructure and electronic commerce software applications, two of the highest growth sectors of the information economy.
Dimension Data Security
Dimension Data Security, a division of Dimension Data Communication Services, is the leading supplier of security solutions to the local market.
Dimension Data Security was chosen as the most admired IT company in the security category for the second consecutive year at the 2000 FNB Most Admired IT Company Awards.
The company adds real value to customers because of the combination of best practices learnt from Dimension Data Group companies operating in Europe, Australia and Asia, with an excellent understanding of the local marketplace and strong partnerships with global leaders in the security industry.