DiData lowers its sights

Dimension Data has embarked on a plan to set up two business units targeting the commercial sector with 250 to 1000 seats and SMBs with 100 to 250 seats.

Steve Nola, chief executive at Dimension Data Australia, said Australia would play bellwether in the ambitious plan, which would eventually be rolled out globally.

The integrator was setting up a business unit to target the commercial sector. It had already hired 12 staff and expected to boost the team to 20 in coming months.

Dimension Data had started a second business division aimed at SMB opportunities, also with 12 staff, but would likely add up to 12 more as time went on.

"The SMB market is very different. The approach can't be a one to one relationship," Nola said. "It's about making the procurement of IT products and services very simple."

Network integration bundles would play a leading role in Dimension Data's offering, he said.

Other large IT providers had tried to target smaller companies. However, most had more or less failed by attempting to shoehorn their enterprise go-to-market model into the SMB and commercial spaces, Nola said.

The commercial sector was worth about $5 billion and the SMB market another $5 billion – making for significant opportunities. These smaller markets were new for Dimension Data.

"Most of our revenue has come from the big end of town, and we believe that market today from an ICT perspective is worth around $16 billion to $18 billion," he said. "But we're not taking our eye off the ball in the enterprise."

Enterprise business had not dropped off at all, he maintained. Rather, Dimension Data was "lucky enough" to be in a position to target new markets.

"Our approach is not to break them up by sheer volumes but by how those clients want to be engaged," Nola said. "And we found that one-size-fits-all doesn't work. A lot of businesses have actually got it wrong."

Dimension Data believed that the SMB and commercial spaces could be worth a total $16 billion to $18 billion by 2015, he said.

Brett Dawson, global chief executive at Dimension Data, said the company's first half year results had been good. Dimension Data had grown organically about 34 percent in the first half, in which it had also acquired SecureData Group and Bellerephon.

"We have growth across our business," Dawson said. "Global lines of business we're driving very hard include security, IP telephony, the contact centre space, data centres and storage space, operating environment and messaging."

An interim results booklet released by Dimension Data reported an unaudited operating profit for the group in the six months ended 31 March of US$24.6 million.

Australian revenue increased 11.8 percent. Network integration grew 9.8 percent and solutions 9.7 percent. The company's distributor, Express Data, grew revenue 17.8 percent, the booklet said.