Dimension Data`s services lighten global freight forwarder`s load

The South African subsidiary of a leading global freight forwarder, the Danzas Group, is reaping the benefits of co-sourcing the maintenance and management of its networking infrastructure with Dimension Data.

Through service agreements with Dimension Data, the network at Danzas Southern Africa runs at optimal levels. Further, the company is spared maintenance and management headaches, including the setting up of costly infrastructure, employing skilled people to manage the network, and liaising with Telkom to ensure telephone lines remain operational.

"As we operate in a thin client environment, our data lines are vital to the network and if one of our lines goes down, there simply is no communication," says Brett Turnock, IT manager for Danzas Southern Africa. "The monitoring and maintenance of these lines is mission-critical for us, and it is a major benefit to know that Dimension Data is attending to this on a 7x24x365 basis." The Danzas Group is the world`s leading provider of IT-supported logistics solutions.

It offers worldwide air and ocean freight, global project forwarding, European overland transport, e-business and fourth party logistics. Based in Basel, Switzerland, Danzas belongs to Deutsche Post World Net.

Danzas Southern Africa has opted for Insite, Dimension Data`s online network and systems management service, as well as a maintenance contract. These cover its networking infrastructure, while the maintenance agreement also applies to the company`s Nokia firewall device, installed recently by Dimension Data. The service agreements follow the implementation by Dimension Data of Danzas` new R6.5 million network infrastructure in June last year.

"Before signing the agreements we decided to let the new network settle, giving us the opportunity to fully identify the necessary areas for maintenance," says Turnock. "We had chosen Dimension Data to supply the infrastructure and communications aspects of this network, believing it to be the best performer in these areas, and it was therefore logical to partner with the company for maintenance and management purposes as well."

Turnock says that the benefits of co-sourcing management and maintenance are many.

"The major benefits are cost savings and ease," he says. "However, other significant advantages include proactive and predictive maintenance, load balancing, accurate real-time statistics on bandwidth utilisation and automatic operating system updates on all equipment.

"I can see bandwidth utilisation at a glance, and the system is set up for optimal load balancing. We have triangulation between Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, ensuring that excess traffic is intelligently routed.

"Critically, for us, maintenance provides for fixed cost budgeting in an unpredictable environment," says Turnock.

He says that an additional key benefit of the service agreement is that Danzas Southern Africa is automatically updated with new versions of all software on the network as AELs (annual equipment licences) form part of the maintenance contract deal. From a Danzas viewpoint, upgrading is simple and routine, as version upgrades are installed remotely by Dimension Data.

"Perhaps most importantly though, through this partnership with Dimension Data, our company has access to a team of highly skilled people who know and understand the site," says Turnock.

"Dimension Data`s managed services provide a guaranteed support infrastructure for the customer, while minimising downtime," says Trent Simpson, Insite services specialist at Dimension Data. "This enables customers to concentrate on their core competencies rather than concern themselves with network support."

Minimised network downtime is guaranteed due to the immediate swop-out of faulty equipment covered by the agreement. Fault diagnosis and, where possible, resolution is performed via the Technical Support Centre, which is staffed with highly skilled technical resources.

The Insite management service covers a wide range of technology and business application areas and facilitates the effective control of networked systems and applications environments from a central point.

"This enables real-time, online access to information on the current status of all managed resources and instantaneous reaction to events and alarms detected," says Simpson.

Insite provides for rapid fault identification, diagnosis and resolution. Events are correlated, prioritised and arranged in hierarchy of importance and criticality, according to customer`s predefined business impact. Automated notifications inform customers on the status and progress of alarms detected. All this ensures the mean time to respond to a fault is improved, promoting faster turn-around times.