Didata chalks up full-year growth

Network integrator sees 2009 revenues inch up 0.4 per cent as services grow strongly

Dimension Data (Didata) has become one of the few publicly-listed VARs to report growth for its financial year on the back of a surge in managed services sales.

The Johannesburg-listed network integrator has posted revenues of $4bn for its year ended 30 September, down from $4.5bn a year earlier, but up 0.4 per cent on a constant currency basis. Services grew 13 per cent - with managed services up 21 per cent - while product revenues fell 7.5 per cent.

The Cisco Gold partner’s operating profit grew by 25.4 per cent in constant currencies to $194.4m.

Didata launched a services investment strategy five years ago and services now account for 44 per cent of its revenues, up from 38 per cent in 2005.

Chief executive Brett Dawson said he believed Didata had successfully positioned itself in the “sweet spot” of IT and communications spend.

“We have a strong position in the areas of unified communications, collaboration, virtualisation and managed services position us well for medium-term growth,” he added.

“In the longer term, market developments including cloud computing and services based models such as Infrastructure as a service provide the group with additional opportunities for growth.”

Didata said that its European business had logged an “excellent performance” as revenue grew 3.5 per cent and operating profit grew from $21.9m to $31.7m.