With many years of success under your belt it can be easy to stop taking chances or to ease up on the difficult job of innovation. Thankfully some people, and the companies they head, simply do not operate on that mindset. 

One of the companies in this category is Digital Generation (DG), an ICT solutions provider that we introduced you to recently. In that article we promised you more from the pioneering people inside of the company who make it tick, and today we’re making good on that promise.

We chatted to Phiwe Bacela – Sales and Marketing Manager at Digital Generation and she provided valuable insight into how the company is working with HP to deliver relevant computing solutions to all South African customers.  She cited as an example, the HP 400 and 600 Series laptops which already successfully power countless people and companies in the country and across the world. 

Our first question in our interview with Bacela was how the ICT world has changed in the last few years as the world of technology and what she believed were the main drivers for this change. 

“I think in the past few years a lot of businesses have really focused on data security. This was obviously driven by the macro environmental factors which include the rapid growth in the development of AI as one of the key factors. I think we also cannot avoid the impact of COVID-19 and how businesses have needed to shift from a normal ‘day to day, going to the office’ model to a more hybrid approach with a mobile workforce. So I would say that from a data security standpoint those are the key things that I feel businesses have tried to mitigate in terms of cybersecurity and ensuring that data is protected, not only obviously company data, but also personal data that would be on employee PCs as well,” Bacela says.

“So I think that’s been the greatest impact and changes that I’ve seen and particularly with HP, I think they’ve tried to really mitigate theses threats with advanced technology to meet those criteria and, from a business to business (B2B) perspective, this aligns quite well with Digital Generation considering that we are also a B2B focused company where we offer customised solutions to our clients,” she adds.

HP’s keystone products in the cybersecurity field are HP Wolf Security and the fact that HP 400 and 600 Series laptops ship with Windows 11 with the latest OS-wide protections against bad actors. Even other HP services offerings, such as HP Managed Print Services, contribute to the overall safety of your business.

Bacela explains to us that even seemingly innocuous activities such as hybrid workers printing from outside the office could be an avenue for attack, if not for HP’s safeguards.

Through HP Managed Print Services you can see exactly who has access to the printing infrastructure to not only stop attacks, but also create a record of who prints what and when. This cuts down on waste and improper use on top of being another way that HP offers flexible, hybrid work without skimping on security.

The future and Device 360

An important topic we discussed in our interview was the current economic climate and the fact that it’s not just individuals tightening their belts, but businesses too. With IT representing an expensive investment for any company, how is Digital Generation helping its customers remain successful even with smaller budgets?

“Digital Generation is introducing what we call Device 360 which is a financial solution that assists businesses with keeping abreast of their IT life cycle management. From a financing perspective, depending on how many computers, printers, peripherals or other devices you need, we will quote you and agree an affordable amount to pay over a period of about three years or a period that suits you. This touches on the customization part of our services where we look at what you can afford and how we can assist you within your budget. This financing solution doesn’t just take into account the purchasing of technology, and ensuring that a business has current technology to operate its business, but even looks at what happens after it has served its purpose – you also need to think about how to get rid of devices when they are no longer viable,” Bacela tells us.

“We also take care of that and which aligns very well with the HP Amplify Impact sustainability programme. I know I’m bragging a bit here, but we hold a five star certification from HP for this. We basically take care of you from an end to end user experience ” she continues.

Device 360 is really shaping up to be a holistic approach to ICT which doesn’t just consider the price of creating an ICT environment, but also what needs to go into maintenance and eventual retirement of that infrastructure. It’s this catered A to Z approach that Digital Generation provides and which HP helps to deliver to any client, no matter the size. The exciting Device 360 programme is in the works and will be available to Digital Generation customers soon. To be one of those customers get in contact with Digital Generation today and use the simple three-step client onboarding process to engage with an expert consultant who will craft the perfect ICT solution for you.