DiData turnaround bears fruit

The difficulties that plagued Dimension Data since 2001 are now behind it, says chairman Jeremy Ord.

Opening the company`s presentation of its financial results, for the year ended 30 September, Ord said he was pleased CEO Brett Dawson would not need to focus on its road to recovery.

Instead, Dawson discussed how the bets the company had made a few years ago were set to pay dividends in the short- and long-term.

"Several years ago, we identified a number of emerging market trends that we believed would be important for our clients and our business. We grouped these under three opportunities: the converged network, the converged client and multisourcing. This strategy is on track to pay for the group," he said.

"Our focus on rounding out our offerings to clients has also paid off. Today, we can offer a solution which deals with the complete technology lifecycle; from planning through to services. Our clients like that about us."

DiData`s workforce continues to feature in its principal risk factors. However, the company says it has implemented several initiatives that will help it to retain and recruit key personnel.

Dawson explained: "Our extremely strong performance in the 2007 financial year is due to our people. We have emerged stronger and improved our competitive position. In Africa, our team, under SA chairman Andile Ngcaba, has made some significant inroads into the public sector. In our services business, our success is directly attributable to our people."

DiData`s employee retention strategy sees the company focus on "promotion and support of career development; a structured approach to employee incentives; discipline and consistency in reward and recognition; and effective communication with employees around strategy execution".

The one area Dawson refused to be drawn on was the prospects for local subsidiary Internet Solutions.

Although the division provided strong growth in the year under review, analysts questioned the capital expenditure that would be required in the coming year.

Dawson explained the company would continue to require capital investment but that this was directly geared towards growth prospects.

"We really can`t say anything until the Independent Communications Authority of SA issues [electronic communication service] licences. We thought this would come through at the end of this month, but now it looks more likely that we will know in the first half of next year. We want to wait for our licence before we say any more."

Although DiData is not ruling out growth through extending its footprint into new geographies, or making acquisitions, the focus for the coming year is on organic growth.

The company already has operations in North and South America, Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

"Growth in the coming year is going to overwhelmingly favour organic growth. We have a lot of opportunities available to us in our current regions and I doubt we will see any noticeable expansions into new geographies," says Dawson.