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DVT introduces enterprise data services offering


Johannesburg, 20 Jun 2012

Software development company DVT has added enterprise data services to its portfolio of solutions to enable clients to proactively leverage their informational assets.

The emergence of the cloud and social media tools have arguably had the biggest disruptive influence when it comes to traditional data architectures, putting the spotlight firmly back on data, not just in IT departments, but in the boardroom. Data, and the ability to exploit and act on it effectively, will ultimately be the key ingredient in ensuring business sustainability.

“It is safe to say that data has always been the golden thread running through our business," says Chris Visser, Head of Enterprise Analysis Consulting at DVT. "Combining this data experience with our deep domain experience amassed in the financial services, telecoms and media industries, DVT is able to present a compelling proposition to an increasingly competitive marketplace, where time to market is often the deal clincher. Furthermore, through a combination of key partnerships and strategic investment, DVT has access to intellectual property and products to guide clients of all sizes in selecting and implementing best-of-breed solutions to optimally address the specific and often unique data challenges that they face.”

DVT has aligned its enterprise data services with its customers' specific data challenges, and is currently providing the following services:

* Data architecture consulting services;
* Data migration;
* Master data management services;
* BI architecture consulting, and performance optimisation; and
* Data mining services.

DVT's data services integrate seamlessly into the broader DVT business model, and will further augment the company's increasingly popular internship programme, offering yet another exciting career development path for budding technologists.

Visser says the data landscape is changing rapidly, with a few key factors propelling it toward a new paradigm:

* The cost of data storage continues to plummet while portable devices capable of storing data have become more pervasive. It is staggering how much data can be persisted on a mobile phone, for example.

* The cloud has made off-site data persistence commercially viable in the retail consumer space, enabling the user to synchronise content across multiple devices independent of physical location and operating platform, and so also contributing to the increased mobility of the global workforce.

* Greater access to cheaper and more reliable bandwidth has seen an exponential increase in data generation, placing immense stress on traditional application and data architectures. The adoption of social media tools has changed online behaviour, with consumers more readily willing to part with personal information about their lives and product preferences, with most of these consumer interactions on the Web resulting in a mineable data footprint embedded in social media sites.

Access to data is no longer a competitive edge. Rather, it is the ability to mine data intelligently on a near real-time basis and to identify opportunities for innovation, combined with the ability to respond to those opportunities (some of which may present only a limited window for exploitation), which should be a strategic focus of businesses today.

“We anticipate a move from traditional in-house data architectures to an increasing focus on the interrogation of external heterogeneous data stores,” says Visser. “The big data discussion will further evolve, and data mining will continue to become an increasingly sought-after skill, as will the ability to identify correlations between data sets and harness their predictive power.”

As examples, Visser cites the retail and healthcare industries. “Retailers need to predict spending behaviour to ensure business growth. In healthcare, near real-time data will enable the industry to isolate trigger events that precede epidemics, and it will also allow for individuals to be monitored for early signs of conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes, before these become full-blown illnesses. The potential for saving in the health insurance business is enormous. There are many other applications in the financial services industry too.”

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DVT

DVT provides tailor-made and packaged software solutions, and related services, to clients throughout South Africa. DVT's practical business offerings include .Net and Java software development, Scrum and Agile teams, Mendix software solutions, enterprise mobile solutions, business analysis, project management, business process analysis, quality assurance and testing, systems integration and data management, integrated Internet solutions, practice management products, contractual resourcing and provisioning and professional services consulting. For more information, visit www.dvt.co.za.

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