Dimension Data, the global network integration and e-business enabler, has launched a package of enterprise management services analysts say will give the group a competitive-edge.
Dimension Data says the Global Services offerings enable its customers to take their front office online. "The minute that happens, you have a real-time company," says Ettienne Reinecke, Dimension Data`s executive director of global services and technology.
Key to the offerings are the Global Services Operating Architecture, a Web services portal, and Global Services Operations Centres which operate around the clock.
Reinecke says these enable the group to discard traditional field engineering and helpdesk reactive services in favour of real-time, online and proactive options.
"Our customers are online. The only way we can meet their requirements is online," he says.
"As companies move from traditional business models to become e-businesses operating in a world of digital commerce - estimated to be worth $3.2 trillion by 2003 - their need for technology assistance and network services will grow."
The Global Services Operating Architecture is a complex system consisting of commercial, industry standard-service tools, in-house software and application-to-application integration modules allowing the system components to interact as a single system.
The system has been deployed in the group`s operations centres worldwide. Since the centres are linked, a customer on one continent can have its network monitored or repaired by a specialist engineer on another continent.
A portal allows the customers to view relevant information and interact with engineers and also provides a real-time overview of the health of the company`s communications systems as well as a tool to check whether service level agreements have been met.
Reinecke stresses that although the portal is accessed via an Internet browser, it is not a Web site. "These are all live feeds going into the portal," he says. "There are 12 to 15 systems interacting to provide the service portal.
"It took about eight months to develop the current version of the Global Services Operating Architecture. Our engineers no longer receive a trouble ticket saying the network is slow, but get a trouble ticket saying 'Go fix this buffer on this server`."
Global Services executive Dwaine van Vuuren says customers have dedicated links to the portal, which provides, among other things, graphics and information on the network`s health. Automatic notification has also been built in.
Reinecke adds that the system saves customers money as it would cost a company $10 million to develop. Since it automates repetitive tasks, there is also no need to source the staff to carry those out.
"We are very excited about this development," says Dimension Data executive chairman Jeremy Ord. "This is the first global product that we`ve seen from Dimension Data. It was developed not in SA, not in Australia, but around the world."
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