Mobile network operatorVodafoneis to introduce unlimited-use
fixed-price three-year contracts from today as part of a shift to
providingunified
communications servicesfor business
customers.
The new programme, Vodafone One, is the result of a change in
the way Vodafone values business customers. The mobile network
operator is moving away from measuring its
average revenue per
user to using the
total lifetime value.
Unveiling the new direction yesterday, Peter Kelly, who heads
Vodafone's enterprise business group, said the company was using
the new valuation system because of a raised awareness of the cost
of churn, the industry's term for the regular loss and acquisition
of customers.
He declined to say what it cost Vodafone to acquire a customer
compared to what it cost to keep one. "That's information O2 and
Orange would kill for," he said. But a study of the numbers meant
that the company was "going to get better at looking after existing
customers," Kelly said.
The Vodafone One package was Vodafone's response to growing
customer demand to increase the amount of mobility in corporate
communications, Kelly said. At present the company is targeting
large (more than 500 staff) UK firms and the public sector.
Vodafone One presently allowed a company to provide each staff
member with a single contact number. Calls to that number would
ring simultaneously on all the devices (any GSM mobile handset, IP
desk phone or voice-enabled PC) that the individual used.
The user could also pick up voice mail from any device too, and
setting up conference calls was a matter of dragging and dropping
the participants into a desktop window.
Kelly said every enterprise had different communications
patterns and strategies. This would make every Vodafone One
contract unique. But he aimed to save enterprises at least 20% of
their communications costs.
Kelly said the intention was to sell "all you can eat"
three-year fixed price contracts. This would allow firms to budget
accurately, without fear of "bill shock", especially for
cross-border roaming calls.
He said Vodafone would discuss usage patterns up-front to
determine the contract price, and monitor them for abuses. These
would be discussed with the client. But until a new deal was
negotiated, Vodafone would pick up the (hidden) costs of varying
call rates across the world.
Kelly said data traffic was already 25% of the business, and he
wanted to increase it. It was not Vodafone's primary aim to replace
firms' existing in-house or outsourced multiprotocol networks. "But
we will partner with others to add mobility to those networks," he
said.
He said Vodfone was already working with Microsoft, Cisco,
Nortel, Avaya and others, and had already bought companies that
added skills and expertise in integrating and delivering fixed-wire
unified communications systems.
Kelly said he had segmented the business market into four; sole
traders and home workers; SMEs, large national firms and public
sector bodies, and global enterprises. The company would develop
Vodafone One packages and appropriate distribution channels for
each segment.
"SMEs like to buy from other SMEs," he said, "but direct is good
too."