Telecom Expense Management

Dimension Data (News - Alert) recently announced that it has acquired Xigo, a company that offers telecommunications expense management (TEM) solutions in the U.S. With this addition, Dimension Data will now be able to offer greater value across the enterprise by providing customers with an integrated cost optimization solution for spend analysis, sourcing, provisioning and invoice processing.

In a release, Steve Joubert, group executive of global solutions at Dimension Data, said, “Companies turn to Dimension Data because we are able to support their entire IT infrastructure and ensure the best utilization of their investments. The acquisition of Xigo is a perfect complement, as it extends this capability beyond integration and management of technology. Telecom expense management has grown to encompass the entire lifecycle of telecommunication services, including inventory and asset management, ordering and provisioning.”

He added, “As clients evolve their networks to address globalization, mobile device proliferation, virtualization and the cloud, Xigo will be instrumental to helping them implement the most cost-effective roadmaps and architectures for both internal and external communications.”

Dimension Data’s immediate goal will be to increase Xigo's U.S. market share and meeting the TEM needs of multinational organizations. In the coming years, Dimension Data will look to roll out these services to other countries that are present in the group. Dave Spofford (News - Alert), the current CEO of Xigo, will continue to lead the Xigo team and will report to Dimension Data's Americas CEO, Jere Brown on all operational issues and will report to Steve Joubert with matters relating to strategy.

Spofford said, “Today, the center of business sits at the edge of the network, and companies need a firm grasp on their mobile and fixed network costs to operate in an increasingly global economy. The combination of Dimension Data's global footprint and Xigo's unique cloud-delivered services creates a tremendous opportunity for organizations to manage their voice and data networks more cost-efficiently with a complete lifecycle of services. In addition, Xigo clients with operations outside of North America will benefit from Dimension Data's global footprint in 51 countries along with its deep experience in planning, building and operating IT infrastructures for multinational corporations.”

In other news, Dimension Data recently announced that it has become the first company in the world to be awarded TelePresence Video Master Global Authorized Technology Provider (ATP (News - Alert)) status from Cisco. This new accolade means Dimension Data has been certified to sell Cisco TelePresence visual solutions to its local, multinational, and global clients across over 49 countries in Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and the US.