Dimension Data
Company: Dimension Data
Entry Submitted By: Davies Murphy Group
Company Description: Dimension Data, a specialist IT services and solutions provider, helps clients plan, build, support and manage their IT infrastructures. Dimension Data applies its expertise in networking, converged communications, security; data center solutions, Microsoft and contact center technologies, and its unique skills in consulting, integration and managed services to create customized client solutions.
Nomination Category: New Product Awards & Product Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: New Product or Service of the Year - Computer Services
Nomination Title: Dimension Data Adoption Management Program
Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 500 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and sales to date. You may include hyperlinks to product photos and data sheets. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
Unified communications and collaboration (UC&C), such as integrated voice and
video conferencing and telepresence, is one of the most rapidly growing areas of
technology investment for organizations today. In fact, analysts have predicted
that in 2011, UC&C will reach critical mass in the enterprise.
Due to numerous benefits – including replacing costly business travel, enabling
a remote workforce as employees become more geographically dispersed, and
improving business efficiencies – companies are trending toward UC&C solutions
and away from traditional voice, email, and audio-only conferencing.
A global leader in UC&C deployments, Dimension Data began to notice a
commonality across its customer base – a major gap between UC&C investments and
end user / employee adoption. Companies were investing and deploying UC&C
solutions but failing to realize ROI, travel and other cost savings, and
productivity benefits due to their lack of a carefully planned implementation
roadmap, which requires building awareness of the new technologies and providing
the training necessary to empower users to leverage them!
In 2010, Dimension Data conducted a survey of nearly 1,000 IT leaders at
organizations across the U.S., which validated what it was seeing across its
customer base. The research revealed that while 70% of companies had video
conferencing capabilities in place, only 41% actually use the technology and 51%
had no roadmap or strategic plan for video adoption.
Dimension Data saw a unique opportunity to address this problem through its
launch of a User Adoption Management Program (AMP). AMP provides an
implementation and adoption framework for companies to proactively drive
adoption of new technologies such as UC&C, measure the rate of adoption,
increase ROI and realize the technology’s full potential.
AMP leverages best practices from Dimension Data’s UC&C rollout across its own
organization throughout the Americas, spanning 21 locations and 1,000 employees.
By deploying AMP internally, Dimension Data rapidly and dramatically improved
employee communication and collaboration, realizing the following benefits:
• 95% user adoption rate in just two months
• 50% reduction in travel costs
• Savings of $20,000 per executive meeting
The Dimension Data AMP program consists of two options – Self-Service and Full-
Service:
• The AMP Self-Service offering provides enterprises with a complete, electronic
marketing tool kit, personalized with the organization’s logo and a best
practices guide. The tool kit features promotional tools, including teasers, e-
mails, posters, templates, Web banners, an audio message and a chair drop/direct
mail piece; educational tools, including a Flash video, a Webinar with power
users, contest guidelines, user “cheat sheets,” an etiquette document and a
dedicated Web page for the client’s Intranet; and measurement tools, including
end-user adoption and training surveys. Each tool is provided in its native
format so that the organization can edit it, if desired.
• The AMP Full-Service option includes a dedicated marketing professional to
create a unique project plan – and to coordinate and facilitate the rollout of
the entire program. Organizations can opt for either the aforementioned standard
tool kit or a customized theme that best corresponds to their corporate culture.
Following its internal success with AMP, numerous customers, including major
household names Pepsi Beverages Company and McCain Foods, worked with Dimension
Data to implement change management programs to drive the adoption of unified
communications within their organizations.
While technologies like UC&C are poised to reshape the way companies do
business, simply investing in and deploying them isn’t enough to deliver on the
dramatic cost and productivity benefits. Employees need to be aware of them,
understand their significance and be equipped with the information to use them.
Dimension Data’s AMP program is a unique service that fills an existing void in
the UC&C marketplace, helping to overcome barriers to adoption. AMP helps
companies develop a roadmap and strategic adoption plan that is essential to
demonstrating how the technology aligns to corporate goals and that directly
translates to enabling business groups and end users.
List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, product reviews, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
Mar. 29, 2011- Dimension Data UC&C Survey: The Changing Landscape of Business
Communications
http://www.dimensiondata.com/rgn/na/Lists/Downloadable%20Content/TheChangingLandscapeof
BusinessCommunications_129459890104761196.pdf
Mar. 23, 2010 - How to Drive Technology Adoption- CTO Edge
http://www.ctoedge.com/content/how-drive-technology-adoption
Mar. 22, 2010 - Improving Technology Project User Adoption Rates - Channel
Insider
http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/Spotlight/Improving-Technology-Project-User-Adoption-Rates-380750/
Mar. 22, 2010 - Dimension Data Helps Companies Promote Internal Use of UC,
Telepresence - TMCNet
http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/telepresence/articles/79372-dimension-data-helps-companies-promote-internal-use-uc.htm
Mar. 22, 2010 - Dimension Data UC Program Targets End-User Adoption - CRN
http://www.crn.com/news/networking/224000387/voicecon-dimension-data-uc-program-targets-end-
user-adoption.htm;jsessionid=ihBheFcLXVmL-PPqd8Fghw**.ecappj03
Mar. 22, 2010 - Dimension Data Launches Adoption Management Program to Help
Companies Realize ROI on Technology Investments – Press Release
http://www.dimensiondata.com/rgn/na/Lists/Downloadable%20Content/DimensionDataLaunchesAdoptionManagementProgramtoHelpCompaniesRealizeROIonT
echnologyInve_129179640237133750.pdf
Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that developed this nominated product or service:
Mitchell Hershkowitz, national practice manager for converged communications at
Dimension Data, has 15 years of experience in traditional voice and VoIP
solutions. In his role at Dimension Data, Mitchell helped establish the company
as one of the leading integrators of IP solutions. He has designed and deployed
hundreds of advanced IP services such as IP telephony, VoIP, as well as network
security and wireless technology to enterprise clients. Previously, Mitchell
managed the New York sales operation for long distance carrier UniDial.