Vodacom
1
VODACOM Helping Africa to communicate for the past two decades
V
odacom Group (Pty) Limited (Vodacom) is a leadingAfrican mobile communication company providing a wide range of communication services.
Established in South Africa in 1994, the company has grown its mobile network business to include operations in Tanzania, DRC, Mozambique and Lesotho. The mobile networks cover a total population of approximately 200 million people. Vodacom generates revenue by providing communications services over mobile and fixed line networks. These services include voice, messaging, data and more recently, enterprise, content and mobile financial services.
CONTINENTAL OPERATIONS Vodacom is majority owned by Vodafone (65% holding) one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies by revenue. The company is listed on the JSE with its head office in Midrand, South Africa. Vodacom has more than 57.5 million customers including enterprise customers, which include large corporates, small and medium enterprises and public entities. Through its subsidiary, Vodacom Business Africa (VBA), the company also offers business managed services to enterprises in over 40 countries across the continent. VBA’s pan-African multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network
allows enterprise clients to operate dedicated networks across multiple countries.
Vodacom reaches customers and delivers services to them through distribution channels, building and maintain mutually beneficial, longstanding relationships based on ethical business principles, with wholesale distributors, retailers and franchise store business partners.
A HISTORY OF SUCCESS Since its inception, Vodacom has been at the forefront of developments and innovations in the mobile network industry - from launching the world’s first prepaid service on Intelligent Network platforms in 1996 to becoming the first operator to launch LTE (or 4G) services in South Africa two years ago. Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Maya Makanjee, says key to this is continual investment. “Our role in democratising access to voice and data has been underpinned by consistent investment in our networks – to the tune of around R30 billion over the last three years – which we plan to accelerate over the next three years,” states Makanjee.
“This investment has been focused not only on extending our network infrastructure but also on keeping up with the latest technologies. Together these enable us to increase capacity and lower prices while simultaneously improving quality, and to provide the services that make a real difference in the lives of our customers.”
IMPROVING NETWORKS Vodacom is focused on this continual investment despite the tough economic and competitive environment. Total expenditure for the last financial year was over R10 billion.
“In South Africa, we spent R6.9 billion on our network, directed mostly at expanding our 3G coverage. We added more than 1,000 new 3G sites, and our 3G network now covers 91.9% of the population. We also continued our LTE roll out in South Africa to just short of 1,000 sites,” adds Makanjee. “Similarly, in our International operations we continued to expand the coverage and capacity of our voice and data networks. Network investment is the foundation of our strategy, enabling us to differentiate the customer experience and reduce the cost to communicate. “At the same time, we’re building network capacity and flexibility for the future, in the face of the tremendous growth in data and an ever-changing telecommunications environment.” The company has managed to inject this level of investment despite the tough economic climate, which is “We strive to build and maintain high-quality networks in all our operations, as the foundation for reliable voice and data services,” Maya Makanjee, Chief Corporate Affairs OfficeR
testament to its unwavering objective to deliver quality services across all markets. “We strive to build and maintain highquality networks in all our operations, as the foundation for reliable voice and data services. Ongoing investment in broadening our reach and in maintaining and improving our networks is critical to our viability and competitiveness,” says Makanjee.
SOCIAL AGENDA Throughout its 20 year history, Vodacom has been committed to enriching and funding social schemes.
In the last three years alone, Vodacom has contributed R338 million in community programmes that include education, health, security and women’s empowerment, underlining its focus on improving the lives of Africa’s people. In South Africa, the company has built 893 fully connected school computer centres which incorporate connectivity as well as computers and tablets, and maintenance to help ensure the next generation’s education can benefit from modern technology. In addition, it also has 40 ICT centres across the country managed in partnership with the Department of Basic Education that assist teachers to improve the standard of education. “Our health projects, particularly in our International markets, are revolutionary and are enabling better health outcomes especially in rural areas. Similarly in safety, our Alert Rouge programme for the victims of war in the east of the DRC is making
All the power of a PC All the flexibility of Android CloudGate is a palm-sized computer, running Google’s Android operating system, that has changed the way desktop computing works. It costs just R 1,999 — but plug it into any HD monitor or TV screen, add a keyboard and mouse, provide a basic Internet connection and you have a powerful system for work, home or play. Run anything Android, Access anything Windows, all from a single device.
Get yours online from takealot.com or visit www.cloudgate.co.za for more information.
a difference to people’s lives in this very difficult part of the world,” says Makanjee.
INVESTMENT IN PEOPLE Vodacom employs 7,225 members of staff and is acutely aware that the success of the company is down to the hard work and talent of its employees. That’s why Vodacom does its upmost to attract and retain talented people, with reward and benefits schemes for current employees such as pension funds,health schemes and opportunities for growth.
“We work on attracting new skills, especially in areas that are key to future sustainability of our business such as financial services and data,” says Makanjee. “Recently, we have recruited leading specialists in the areas of fast-moving
consumer goods, financial services, e-Commerce and business managed services, which is enabling us to be more proactive in identifying new opportunities for customer acquisition.
“One of the most important ways in which we invest in our people is through our talent programmes. We manage talent through our Performance Dialogue programme, which involves monitoring performance against yearly goals and setting training and development objectives.”
GLOBAL EXPERIENCE There are currently five Vodacom employees on assignment at Vodafone in the Netherlands, Ireland, Albania and the UK. Allowing staff the opportunity to learn about international markets is important to the company.
“We also use shorter exchange programmes (up to three months)
to increase international exposure, particularly for middle management, with a particular focus on women,” comments Makanjee.
reduce carbon emissions across the company. This is an improvement on its 2012 score of 88%.”
“We also focus on building our talent pipeline. We recruited 30 new participants for our 2014 external bursary scheme primarily in the fields of electronic engineering (50%), IT (40%) and commerce (10%), which is aligned to our future business needs. We have 110 bursary students at various stages of their studies on the scheme at a cost of R10.2 million.”
“As an operator and investor in Africa, we have embraced the responsibility to contribute to the socioeconomic development of the communities that have contributed to our success.
“This year we sent eight candidates to the following countries: South Africa, Lesotho, Nigeria, Tanzania, DRC and the UK. We aim to send out 24 in the 2015 financial year.
SUSTAINABILITY PLANNING
&
Looking forward, Vodacom’s principles will remain the same and the company will continue to invest in technology and people to ensure it is delivering the very best services to its hundreds of millions of customer.
“We will continue to work on increasing access to communications and through this bring people into the mainstream of the economy,” adds Makanjee.
FUTURE
Vodacom has an environmental strategy that helps it achieve its core environmental objectives by focusing on five priority areas: leadership and culture; waste; carbon footprint; fuel management; and bio-diversity. The company has continued to ensure compliance with the ISO 14001 system, on which it successfully obtained recertification during the year.
Vodacom Group was also included in the Global 500 report for the second time in two years. “We are the top performing telecoms company in the South African CDP in the four years of its participation,” Makanjee says.
ELECTROWAVE Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Established in 1985, Electrowave provides highest quality telecommunica�ons infrastructure solu�ons. Our exper�se puts us at the forefront of technological advancement of mobile and broadband industry.
48V DC GENERATOR KEY FEATURES Power Output: 5KW, 7kW and 12kW Op�ons Produces -48V DC Output Automated Charging System Remote Monitoring System Reduces Opera�ng Costs by 80% Asset Tracking System - GPS Extremely Quiet Suitable for Residen�al Areas Security Alarms for Generator Access Control Euro Stage IV & EPA Tier Emissions Compliant
KEY PERFORMANCE
Also including but not limited to:
Power Output – 5KW, 7kW and 12 kW Silent Generator : <50 dB Charges for 12 - 18 Hours Discharges for 24 - 36 hours �ow Fuel Consump�on
-RF Installa�on & Faults -Site infrastructure Builds -Maintenance Solu�ons -Project Management -BTS installa�ons & commissioning
KEY SAVINGS Average Fuel Consump�on reduced to 0.3-0.4 l/h Maintenance every 1000 running hours. Site visits are also reduced due to the remote management system giving live feedback
Site Telemetry
“In 2013 we scored 94% for the strategies that it implemented to
Site Name
690:03:06 Yes
VDC Test DG004
08 Satellites
Connected
GOOD
37
0 Hrs 0 Mins
32
402 Hrs 50 Mins 0.0 52 44.5
Closed
45.1 54.1
Contact +27 (0)31 206 0910 recep�on�electrowavesa.com
www.electrowavesa.com
81 Closed
2407
1395 60.0
31
36
57.0
13.6
38 54.0 Engin Running
0.0 Off
0.7
96.0
200 Litres On
Off
188.1 ltr (99.0%) 402:50 1.37 l/h
Oliver Moy Publisher
For enquiries email okm@aubusinesscoverage.com
African Business Coverage Issue 9