DiData layoffs reflect low demand

South African system integrator Dimension Data has laid off 25 Australia-based employees due to low demand for its entry-level deployment services.

Merle Singer, national marketing manager for Dimension Data here, said the cuts - some four percent of the integrator's 600 Australian staff - were only in Australia. Eighteen were retrenched from Sydney and the rest from Melbourne.

Singer would not say how the company's entry-level deployment services had been performing, but confirmed that the staff cuts reflected 'the requirements of the market'.

'We are now correctly resourced in our enterprise systems ... The growth is in the review, assess and design areas within the enterprise systems space,' she said.

It has been reported that Dimension Data customers' entry-level deployment needs are increasingly fulfilled internally or by other third-party consultants.

'The tightening of IT budgets has resulted in some services being taken in-house, some contracting services being engaged and the continued review of service sourcing options,' Singer said.

Singer suggested that growth was still possible at the other end of the market.

She confirmed that the integrator's high-end engineering and consulting staff numbers had not been capped, with the company still seeking 'outstanding candidates' in review, assess and design areas.

'The controlled growth of our Review and Assess service team has taken us to 15 [staff] over the past year and our approach has always been to hire the right person rather than a predetermined number.'

It has been reported that Dimension Data is doing less work with certain Microsoft and Novell products in integration and standard operating system environment implementations in the enterprise space.

However, Singer would not say which products from these vendors were experiencing lower demand, nor how much demand had slowed. Dimension Data had worked with Novell for years and was a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Premier Support Partner, Metadirectory accredited services partner and ran the 'leading' Microsoft Certified Technical Education Centre in Australia, Singer said.