Dimension Data New Zealand’s decision to offer a new single-point service reflects a strategic shift in New Zealand towards the convergence of ICT and telecommunications services. Businesses prefer to deal with one supplier across all services, which are becoming more intertwined and harder to differentiate, says Dimension Data New Zealand’s Shaun Bell. The integration of full telecommunications services was made possible with the locally developed Datagate cloud solution which gives Dimension Data New Zealand the platform required to provision, price, report on, and bill a full range of fixed line calling, MVNO mobile voice and data services. “There has been a strong uptake of these new services by existing clients,” says Shaun Bell. “Clients find it simpler to have one service provider delivering a complete range of ICT, telecommunications and data services.” Dimension Data New Zealand’s clients benefit in a number of ways from having a single service provider. “We can now take full responsibility for our clients’ networks. You can’t do that if you’re just managing telecommunications service providers on behalf of your clients. Datagate also shows us how a client is using, or not using, every phone line and data package. That information enables us to make recommendations that save clients money. Datagate is key to offering a high quality, repeatable, well-priced service.” Having a single ICT provider is also beneficial in natural disasters which may knock out communications networks. Clients only have to deal with a single organization to get things back up and running. Dimension Data New Zealand’s partnership with Datagate gave it the ability to provide mobile and fixed-line services, via Spark Wholesale and Datagate. “We simply buy wholesale data and minutes, sell on an agreed plan and add value for the client.” The new solution also provides detailed reporting, which adds value for clients. Dimension Data New Zealand clients include many Government departments, Councils and large corporates. They require a breakdown of telecommunications and data costs into different cost centers, and analysis of how they are using the services. Datagate manages every aspect of reporting, including taking the bulk wholesale minutes Dimension Data New Zealand buys from Spark Wholesale and apportioning them to the individual Dimension Data New Zealand-branded call plans sold to clients. Datagate also checks and reports on all of the phone lines and usage for each client call plan. Call minutes, data and text message usage can run to thousands of line items. The launch of the new services means Dimension Data New Zealand can now compete for RFPs that require a single provider for all ICT services. The firm is planning to expand its use of Datagate to other services, including giving clients access to their usage information via an online portal.
