UC from Dimension Data’s Perspective
UC from Dimension Data’s Perspective by Jon Arnold
As usual, my take on things is a bit different, and that’s the case here with my thoughts on the Dimension Data analyst event. Regular readers will by now know that a few UCStrategies contributors attended their Perspectives 2011 event this month in Boston. If you haven’t read the recaps from colleagues Blair Pleasant and Nancy Jamison, these will provide a good sense as to what has made Dimension Data successful, and where they’re going now that they’ve settled in with NTT.
That ground has been well covered, and I’d like to focus on a less time-sensitive topic, namely where UC fits into their worldview, as I think this speaks to an important link in the value chain. First, I’ll add some context by referring to their “strategic journey” as a business. They have a long term vision about moving up the value curve with their customers from IT infrastructure fulfillment to managed services and outsourced IT. They have read the tea leaves and moved well beyond being a hardware reseller, and today are much more of a services-based business.
I think that sets a pretty firm foundation for their approach to UC, and clearly they see this as part of the bigger shift to the cloud and managed/hosted services. Dimension Data is not a pure play UC provider, as it fits into a broader value proposition with their clients, but it certainly plays an important role. That said, UC is framed differently in their world, and that’s why I’m writing this analysis. Whereas most providers of UC talk about (and sell) a complete offering, Dimension Data takes a more customer-centric approach. I think this is important, in that where UC vendors focus on solutions, their focus is on problems.
At the event, they talked about how UC has been a focus over the last 10 years, but of course nobody was calling it UC way back when. UC as we know it today is simply an evolution of adding other modes to voice, which started for them in 2000 by bridging it to email. This set the stage for various modes of Unified Messaging, and then to UC by adding pieces like video, mobility and higher levels of OCS integration. Dimension Data has a long – and successful - history with both Microsoft and Cisco, so it’s not surprising to hear several nods to both companies in their thinking. As an aside, it will be interesting to see if the MSFT/Skype deal changes how they manage these partnerships.
One of those nods is evident in how Dimension Data positions UC as an offering. Unlike most vendors touting UC solutions, their language is UC&C – Unified Communications and Collaboration. Engineers have never been known for brevity, and while this moniker is a bit clunky, it speaks more to the problems faced by businesses – and more importantly, the opportunities that UC brings to make collaboration work better.
By its nature, the Internet connects people like never before, and Dimension Data is simply responding to two other seismic shifts that are seriously amping up collaboration opportunities – mobility and social media. Not only are they great drivers for collaboration, but they also happen to present some of the most daunting IT challenges. This is true, not just in terms of scale and immediacy of impact, but also because these developments are recent, with no precedent for managing them effectively. While mobility and social media are on their own unstoppable wavelengths for adoption and utility, IT managers are in uncharted waters for issues like security, privacy, bandwidth management, etc.
This sure sounds like a perfect storm that Dimension Data is ideally suited for. During the conference, they talked about how they listen to customers to learn about their needs, challenges, concerns, etc. Key examples include the desire to use more video, uncertainty around supporting social media, the need for more end user training for UC&C, leveraging the cloud for more integrated solutions – and away from silos, and concerns about how to keep the “digital natives” happy and engaged.
I’m sure most businesses would be nodding their heads at this list, and to address the full gamut, you really do need an SI, but also one that truly understands UC. This really seems to be the core of Dimension Data’s value proposition, and it’s hard to see how any single vendor could step in to do all these things. At the heart of the discussion is shifting these functions to the cloud, which is a tacit acknowledgement that IT cannot or wishes not to continue bearing all this responsibility – it’s simply a good business decision to outsource.
On the networking side, Dimension Data is clearly a good choice, and now with UC&C, they are providing an end-to-end solution with all the applications. By taking control of the networking infrastructure, they provide peace of mind, but this also gives them a free hand to create a UC&C solution that works seamlessly over the network and addresses the specific needs of customers. I think this is a great strategy, and is one that builds on a foundation of trust and performance. Once you have that, the task of listening to your customers and building the right UC&C solution is relatively easy. I’m not saying it’s simple, but the networking side of things is more complex, and if you can do that, your odds for success with the rest are pretty good.
In summary, Dimension Data is smart to take this customer-centric approach, and identify the problems first. This ensures a higher value offering, and one that will deliver more value to customers, not just in lowering TCO, but providing those elusive productivity gains that collaboration is supposed to enable. During the presentations, they outlined a comprehensive process for how they approach UC&C, and my sense is that most UC vendors fall well short of this. Of course, there’s a big difference between vendors and SIs, but my view is that Dimension Data is setting the bar pretty high for what UC can really be.