Feature

Vodafone Targets BIG Business Users ...

Networks & Network Services
Vodafone UK has made three announcements that mark a step up in its enterprise mobility capability and lay down a market about its intentions.
The company is to acquire Aspective, an IT service provider with core skills in mobilising enterprise applications.

It has also bought Isis Telecommunications Management, a provider of customer services, fleet management and managed services to the enterprise market.

And there’s an exclusive three-year agreement with Fiberlink to provide secure remote access services to mobile workers in the UK.
From the first half of next year, Vodafone will offer secure remote access to the corporate network across any bearer, be it a LAN connection, Vodafone 3G broadband, WLAN, dial up, WiFi hotspot or broadband.

Kyle Whitehill, director of Vodafone UK’s enterprise business unit, said “We are focused on developing our capability in three core areas: applications, access and service. In the next three years Vodafone UK will become much more than a mobile network operator and will play a significant role as an integrator of seamless communications.”

That’s a strategy Vodafone announced earlier this year. As Ovum analyst Pauline Trotter put it: “Enterprises (particularly large ones) have been critical of the mobile service providers’ slowness in responding to their needs and have been demanding much more support

“Vodafone has made more effort than most mobile operators to address these concerns and these announcements reinforce its message that it is serious about the move to drive deeper into enterprises.”