The Vodacom brand name carries significant reputation and notions of reliability across SA. The establishment and expansion into African borders was a “next best action” and a necessity that lay squarely within the pillars of the brand- To enable digital transformation and inclusion for nations, business landscape and customers alike.
In Lesotho, Vodacom was the first operator to introduce mobile broadband services. We later launched commercial services based on LTE technology in 2014. Likewise, in Mozambique, a mobile broadband operating license was awarded to the organization in 2018; where we launched the country’s first LTE service soon afterwards. Through Vodacom Business Africa, we have served and enabled enterprises across 47 markets on the continent, in verticals ranging from finance, insurance and energy services, to mining and construction and other professional services enterprises.
Beyond the 12 years of VBA operations, as businesses across the globe find themselves under immense strain and uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Coupled with resulting heightened risks placed on ways of doing business, it is the most opportune time for Vodacom to further solidify the support and endurance of our network infrastructure and connectivity capability to businesses.
Vodacom Business Africa- Continued support of connected businesses across nations
Economies must recoup and slowly galvanise into the new normal: a new normal of implementing rapid innovation while retaining business continuity. Regulations around social distancing, employees working remotely from their homes and businesses having to make tough calls on protecting the lives of employees and job security, while balancing revenue expectations against growth targets have also meant that many had to rapidly digitise processes that were previously manual.
In the context of the African business environment, an existent hindrance to growth and opportunity for many businesses is the lack of legacy infrastructure, ubiquitous internet connectivity access and poor enterprise applications latency. Additionally, the mobile market in Africa is almost entirely prepaid. Businesses operating in those markets and looking to upsell/cross-sell to customers must ensure that they have adequate connectivity and enabling technology solutions to enable them to serve said audiences, once the uplift in customer spending habits return.
Guy Clarke, MD for Vodacom Business International said, “To maintain a competitive advantage and remain relevant to customer’s fast-changing needs, organizations are digitally transforming their DNA’s across all customer touchpoints. Therefore, having a network that is not only extensive but also flexible and scalable to changing demands, has become an imperative CTO’s consider when choosing how best to connect their geographically dispersed operations in Africa.” For Vodacom Business Africa, that mandate has not only remained constant, but we have also further engraved it into the business’ objectives and how we continually service our African customers.
Our expanded investments and partnerships for submarine cable networks and cloud hyperscalers provide increased opportunity to meet the needs of African businesses, beyond just mobile and with future-readiness in mind. Furthermore, investments into data centres, colocation provision and cloud services reinforce Vodacom Business Africa’s capability to move into the plain of a technology partner to business, offering them true transformation and digital independence to realise the levels of efficiency needed to prosper.
African economies still hold untapped potential. Businesses that view this pandemic phase as an opportunity to assess and realign their business models to the new value hotspots, instead of as a negative growth climate, will come out top, post-Covid and thrive to newer heights. Much like the businesses we have empowered across our 47 markets, solutions like VPN, Cloud Connect and SD-WAN can do the same for yours.
Vodacom Business
By connecting people, places and things, Vodacom Business helps organisations succeed in a digital world. With our expertise in connectivity, our leading IoT platform and our global scale, we can deliver the results you need to progress and thrive. Find out how we’re helping businesses of all sizes and sectors connect for a better future.
