C O M P A N Y O V E R V I E W
Vodacom Business Africa
Enabling continentwide growth Written by: Sam Jermy Produced by: Kevin Holmes
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VODACOM BUSINESS AFRICA
The ICT subsidiary of Vodacom Group offers an unprecedented scope of enterprise communications services in over 40 African countries
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frica has some of the fastest growing GDP (Gross Domestic Product) rates in the world, with some countries growing between 7-9 percent each year on average. With a population of more than 1 billion people, fast moving businesses are taking advantage of the opportunities on offer and Vodacom Business Africa (VBA) facilitates growth through its ICT services. Vodacom Business Africa prides itself on being able to assist a range of multinational and medium-sized corporations, to expand across the different countries throughout the continent. Companies used to grow in small numbers but have now gained the confidence to expand to more than 10 countries at a time, which is where they are able to assist with connectivity. Douglas Craigie Stevenson, Group Managing Director at Vodacom Business Africa (VBA) says: “We’re a total communications provider for multinationals, and that means we offer the full suite of ICT Services. CIOs (Chief Information Officers) expanding their businesses into Africa are able to get all their enterprise communication needs from VBA as a single service provider.” Network stability and uptime are very important to running operations smoothly. VBA has a 24/7 Customer Service Operations Centre which monitors all aspects of the network. “We can tell you exactly where and when your network has a fault and resolve it. International customers accustomed to world
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Take the weight off with full IT support.
class service, tend to expect the same when expanding into Africa. Our business model is such that we enable business without borders, by offering connectivity across the continent. Where we are unable to lay down infrastructure, we have partnerships that ensure seamless connectivity from one point to the next.� Service Capability As a world-class strategic partner connecting businesses to the African continent, VBA is a key ICT enabler for enterprises across the globe. With points of presence (PoPs) in more than 27 countries across Africa, Europe and Asia, the VBA enterprise communication network connects businesses to more than 42 countries s in Africa.
40 Number of African countries accessible with Vodacom’s MPLS networks
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VODACOM BUSINESS AFRICA
Networking that is geared for growth
“The sheer geographical size of Africa brings its own challenges but we work to mitigate them. I think the whole digital landscape will be vastly different five years from now and so we strive to be ahead of the industry curve.” said Douglas Craigie Stevenson. “We describe ourselves as a pan-African total communications service provider and have on the ground presence, with Operating Companies in 16 countries including Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Ghana and Cameroon amongst others. This is why we believe we can offer our customers whatever they need.” This has proven to be positive for VBA, since it has won 6
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Heart and soul are nothing without eyes and ears.
industry awards for ICT Infrastructure as well as Cloud Service Provider of the year in Nigeria’s Beacon of ICT Awards for the last three years. The company’s unique selling point centres on its heightened ability to offer a value added layer through services such as video conferencing, cloud computing and machine to machine (M2M) technology. Because of its network footprint, VBA offers scalability that many others do not. Continuing growth “Looking at the exponential rate of growth in bandwidth and the way networks are laying down fibre, we decided to invest in more data
“We describe ourselves as a pan-African total communications service provider and have on the ground presence, with Operating Companies in 16 countries including Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Ghana and Cameroon amongst others.” – Douglas CraigieStevenson, Group MD at Vodacom Business Africa
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VODACOM BUSINESS SA
A Ready Business communicates across borders without compromising on quality. Network – Multi-Protocol Label Switching A Ready Business has a competitive edge over rivals with crystal clear voice and video calls. It can really hear what clients are asking for and respond. A Ready Business can feel certain that it’s connected around the world over a single, secure network that delivers data transfer at the speed of light. Our MPLS network supports our enterprise customers with quality, high-speed connections. Are you Ready? vodacom.com/africa
Vodacom
Power to you 8
March 2015
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Douglas Craigie-Stevenson Group MD at Vodacom Business Africa
and customer service centres throughout Nigeria, South Africa and the wider continent.” There is a distinct opportunity that the high consumer population offers to inbound corporates. Data access enables consumers to generate content by telling their own stories which facilitates better customer engagement. Data and digital strategy will enable enterprises to gather enough information about their consumption patterns in order to address customer needs and grow. “To address the high volumes of social media usage by the same population, companies have a greater need for more bandwidth as a means to gather more data in the cloud,” said Craigie Stevenson. “So our ability to be flexible around bespoke solutions for businesses is quite simple for us as we understand how to operate on the
“Looking at the exponential rate of growth for bandwidth and the way networks are laying down fibre, we decided to invest in more data and customer service centres throughout Nigeria, South Africa and the wider continent” – Douglas CraigieStevenson
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VODACOM BUSINESS AFRICA We focus on building, managing and supporting our network, giving you the edge to focus on your core business.
“Our customers push us, and we have to anticipate needs and secure their data. It’s an incredibly exciting industry, and I’m full of optimism about Africa.” – Douglas Craigie-Stevenson
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continent and how to extend the footprint. We offer a capability layer, and can securely host data in the cloud - allowing our customers to be innovators in business,” he added. Strategic partnerships also help Vodacom Business Africa in its digital surge forward. One such partnership is with M2M firm X-Link, which pioneered the use of mobile networks to link card payment machines to banks. Through this partnership, they provide tailored mobile and fixed line machine-to-machine communication solutions, as well as devices and infrastructure for secure data processing and failover. With mobile technology group Mezzanine, VBA offers tailor-made M2M solutions for enterprises in the health, agriculture and education sectors. The convergence with innovative technology is just one example of how Vodacom Business Africa is continuing to bring a fresh, pioneering approach to ICT in Africa. Although Craigie Stevenson acknowledges challenges such as logistics and power outages, he believes these will be resolved. He said: “If you have a big enough problem, there is usually a plan to solve it, which drives innovation. “Our customers push us, and we have to anticipate needs and secure their data. It’s an incredibly exciting industry, and I’m full of optimism about Africa and Vodacom Business Africa as a company.”
Company Information INDUSTRY
ICT HEADQUARTERS
Johannesburg FOUNDED
2008 EMPLOYEES
N/A REVENUE
N/A PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). Virtual Private Network (VPN) network platforms. Bespoke end-to-end ICT service solutions.
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VODACOM BUSINESS SA 3rd Floor 082 Vodacom Boulevard, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 1682, South Africa Tel. +27 11 653 5000 Africa.com@vodacom.co.za www.vodacombusinessafrica.com/african-business