Vodafone UK suffers an identity crisis

by: admin Tuesday, November 21st, 2006

Rating: find the emperor some clothes

So far, mobile operators have been rubbish at addressing the needs of enterprises in the 21st century. Vodafone UK now plans to address the demand through,” an exclusive partnership and the acquisition of two companies”, all of which look promising.

The bit that really put the frighteners on gomonews though is Vodafone UK describing its actions “as part of its longer-term plan to evolve from a mobile-focused company to a total communications provider offering seamless communications to its customers, regardless of network or technology.”

Oh boy has someone overdosed on the convergence hallucination pills. Hard to believe that a load of senior execs agreed to this – surely someone had the courage to shout ‘bollix’*? After all, Vodafone is yet to get the hang of running a 3G business, never mind trying to transform itself into something it utterly lacks the expertise, staff and myriad other resources to pull off.

Anyway, for anyone still able to concentrate after their chin has hit the desk at high speed, here are the details of what Vodafone UK has done to accommodate 21st century business practices.

Firstly, it has signed a conditional contract to acquire Aspective Limited, a consultancy and service provider that specialises in mobilising enterprise applications. The operator has also acquired Isis Telecommunications Management Limited, a provider of customer services, fleet management and bespoke managed services to the business market.

In addition, Vodafone UK has signed an exclusive strategic partnership with Fiberlink, a specialist in secure mobile working. It will be the only mobile provider of Fiberlink in the UK and will offer Fiberlink’s platform exclusively for mobile workforce services in the UK. The agreement with Fiberlink is effective from January 1 2007 for three years. Allegedly, Fiberlink’s Extend360 Mobility Platform enables mobile workers to connect quickly, securely and easily to the applications and data they need when working away from the office.

There is, of course, the small matter of ensuring that the mothership makes the most of her new acquisitions and the exclusive deal, which is by no means guaranteed, but in principle this is a positive move. Please just stop taking the pills.

* bollix – (v.t. [vulg] to bungle, confuse according to the Oxford English Dictionary), pronounced bollocks

For more info (it doesn’t help) see http://www.vodafone.com/article_with_thumbnail/0,3038,OPCO%253D40018%2526CATEGORY_ID%253D21416%2526MT_ID%253Dpr%2526LANGUAGE_ID%253D0%2526CONTENT_ID%253D292074,00.html