Dimension Data Launches Managed Service for Visual Communications

As more companies begin to
deploy visual communications solutions, the ability to collaborate across a
wide variety of environments is moving from business perk to business need. To
meet that need and help companies overcome the challenges of deployment, $4.7
billion global IT solution provider Dimension
Data launched its Managed Service for Visual Communications Nov. 7.

The Managed
Service for Visual Communications targets midsize through multinational
enterprise customers, and adds to Dimension Data’s portfolio of consulting
services, deployment and integration, maintenance and managed services. It
includes video help desk assistance to ensure employees can use the devices,
point-to-point video conferencing and the ability to join video bridges.

"In the past 18 months,
the interest in video solutions for communication and collaboration has
skyrocketed," Scott Cruikshank, director of converged communications at
Dimension Data, said in a statement.

"Many of Dimension
Data’s clients are reevaluating their video strategies and beginning to plan
and deploy large-scale visual communications solutions. We offer a complete
portfolio of services," he said. "This goes a long way to help drive
usage and adoption, and return on investment for our clients."

According to Cruikshank,
visual communications should be viewed as an integral part of the overall
technology landscape, and one that customers should turn to solution providers
to provide.

According to a survey of 809
U.S.-based respondents that Dimension Data conducted in 2010, two-thirds of
organizations are choosing to manage video on-premise. Nearly half of those
companies (49%), however, had neither a strategic road map nor a framework in
place to drive usage of visual communications solutions.

Respondents said that cost
justification (57%), budget (55.7%) and user adoption (43.5%) were the biggest
challenges they faced in video communications implementation.

"Dimension Data’s
unique insight and experience allows us to align these solutions with our
client’s individual business needs.  Although it is possible for
organizations to handle video in-house, it can be very costly, time-consuming
and extremely burdensome for companies to do so. Our new Managed Service for
Visual Communications provides a solution for clients to not only implement and
manage their technology investment, but to also address the challenges
associated with user adoption," he said.

Dimension Data was acquired
by the Japan-based firm Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in 2010.