Afrocentric is a JSE listed majority black
owned diversified healthcare group.
Our core business is to reduce the cost of health care services
to the patients and the citizens of the country.
So prior to the pandemic we had Polycom VC's installed in all our
boardrooms. We also had the Polycom client on our
mobile users notebooks which we use
for video conferencing,
so meeting with our offsite clients
as well as internal clients.
We also use Skype for business for instant
chat as well as short video calls and then
also Microsoft OCS which we used
for our work from home users.
At that point in time we've had many
people working in the offices
and of course when the Pandemic hit we had
to actually move everybody to work
from home and it means that we have
to implement a lot of technologies
from Security, from virtual conversation
technologies including
the Microsoft Teams,
and make sure that people can still
provide the quality
of services to our clients.
Microsoft Teams is a communication & collaboration platform
That has been extensively used and in this case
with Afrocentric we had to optimize
the usage of teams because the customer
had already started using hybrid meetings,
teams, rooms and whiteboarding.
So the relationship between Dimension Data
and Afrocentric spans for more than ten
years when Dimension Data was
still in the networking business.
So Dimension Data provided the networking
component for Afrocentric.
We did the network for them.
They were then called Helios IT Solutions.
We have since evolved as an organization
and so has Afrocentric
evolved as an organization.
We received excellent support
from Microsoft in country as well as our
support partner of Dimension Data
in getting the solution deployed.
This was a solution that was deployed
in a very short period of time,
but fortunately we had a lot
of the building blocks in place already.
As Dimension Data,
we've seen great success in helping our
clients adjust their workplace strategies.
This involves working with them really
closely to design, configure as well as
manage their environments in a way
that truly enables post
Pandemic hybrid workplace.
How do we interact with our customers?
How do our customers interact
with us on a day to day basis?
Everything is digitalized.
Every person is walking around
with a smartphone or smart device.
They need to be able at any point at any
time get the necessary information
for health care that they require.
The issue around around cyber security had to be taken very seriously
Because Cyber security is no more enough.
We had to get to a level of confidence
in terms of making sure that we
reach cyber resilience.
It's up to us leaders to make sure that we
can be able to confidently respond
to those attacks and make sure
that the customers can be able to know
that their data is secured and is private.
I would say that the biggest game changer
of the Microsoft Office 365 suite will be
the Microsoft Azure self service password
reset and I'm saying that because we had
a lot of calls that are coming to our
service desk where the users want to reset
their password or their password
have expired and therefore.
What we did was to implement this self
service password reset through
Microsoft because of Afrocentric business
services that they offer to their medical
aid members,
they continue to be intentional in terms
of their digital transformation trajectory
from automation to robotics
to their project.
In terms of online dispensary,
they have actually showed
how they embrace technology.
We are very excited and we feel honored
to be entrusted with that partnership.
That Afrocentric has given us to be
a partner of choice as
their technology adviser.
Pandemic has actually accelerated
the implementation of our
group digital strategy.
Microsoft has really enabled us to make
sure that our users out there have
the right tools and can service our
customers excellently as well as
keeping our users safe and making sure
that they have a secure
environment to work in.