Executive Summary Advancements in information systems, diffusion of ICT and overwhelming adoption of internet have transformed the business processes completely, where all the different business divisions have been exposed to an electronic phase and business entities are increasingly realising the importance and requisite of e-business and information systems to thrive in the digital era. What is E-Business? Li (2007) states that e-business is not just related to Internet buying and selling, but it is a much broader concept involving redesigning and integrating organisation’s internal processes and external relations to enable more efficient operations, better communication and productive solutions. Xu and Quaddus (2013) agree and further provide that electronic business involves deployment of information communication and technology (ICT) for development of information systems (ERP, eSCM, CRM, BI, etc.) and reinvent the business model to enhance organisation’s productivity and efficiency. Issa-Salwe et al. (2010) stated that it is very important to identify and understand how the E-Business strategies and implementation process align with business objectives. Therefore, the focus of this report is to identify and analyse the E-Business initiatives adopted by Vodafone UK – a subsidiary of Vodafone Group. The report starts with providing information about Vodafone to discover the background, main business partners, product and services of the company. Thereafter, the market analysis and strategic context will highlight the strategies and market positioning of Vodafone. Finally, the report identifies and analyses the E-Business initiatives implemented by Vodafone. Keywords: information systems, strategy, Vodafone, E-business, business transformation, enterprise resource planning, mobility, procurement

 

 

Vodafone – Power to you Vodafone is a British multinational telecommunications and Internet service provider, operating in 30 countries and has collaborative networks in over 0 additional countries as shown in Figure 1 (Mintel, 2014). After making the first-ever mobile call in United Kingdom in 1985, today Vodafone is the 2nd largest mobile telecommunications company in the world by subscribers and revenue, headquartered in London and with its business office in Newbury (Gillet, 2013; Vodafone, 2014). The Vodafone Business division provides IT support, telecommunications and Internet services to corporate clients in more than 65 countries.

Figure 1: Vodafone Markets

Source: Vodafone 2014b

Vodafone employs about 90,000 people all over the world, of which 12000 employees in United Kingdom handles over 19 million customers, making 5.2 Billion GBP annually (Vodafone, 2014b). Vodafone claims that over 77% of the United Kingdom emergency services including ambulance, fire and police uses Vodafone services to communicate and deliver the services to millions (Vodafone, 2014c). Apart from telecommunications, Vodafone has introduced money transfer services using mobile device, business services for small and medium enterprises, cloud computing solutions, etc. Additionally Vodafone has also been involved in a project with TFL to make the Internet available at more than 100 underground London Tube stations.

 

 

Vodafone business is supported by great experience of its business partners and advisors. The corporate brokers of Vodafone, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan monitor the finance and investment division, while PWC replaced Deloitte as Vodafone’s official auditor (Financial Times, 2014). Moreover, Vodafone has formed five-year strategic partnership with BAE Systems to enhance cloud based mobile security system for safeguarding against malicious attacks (BAE Systems, 2013). For e-business initiatives, Vodafone collaborated with different companies to automate its business processes. For instance, Vodafone appointed Accenture for the planning and execution of global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system; adopted Orcale 10g Siebel CRM databsae for managing the customer relations and introduced SAP Hana platform to secure the accurate and faster month-end financial reporting. The commencement and application of e-business initiatives are discussed later in this report.

Vodafone – Market Analysis & Strategic Context To ensure maintenance of electronic communications infrastructure, the United Kingdom government established the Electronic Communications Resilience & Response Group (EC-RRG). According to EC-RRG (2011), telecommunications is a vital component of UK’s annual GDP and Critical National Infrastructure (CNF). The U.K. telecommunications industry contributes GBP 38.6 billion annually and Statista (2014) reveals that Vodafone is most valuable telecommunications brand in United Kingdom. It is very important to analyse the market positioning of Vodafone to understand strategic context and need for E-Business initiatives. This report does not discuss PESTLE approach in detail, as political and economical situation is considerably stable while social life and technology is rapidly changing and adapting to each other and industry policies are in line with European telecommunications laws. Johnston (2008) and EY (2012) agree that the United Kingdom’s political situation is stable and economic situation is improving in every phase. Dalken (2014) conducted a critical research to investigate if Porters Five Forces (1980) is still applicable to analyse the market positioning and strategies of a firm in the digitalised economy. The research concluded that despite the regeneration of business models due to information technology, the Porter’s Five Forces model is still valid because every business operation still revolves around buyers, suppliers, competitors, substitutes and new entrants. Therefore the five forces model will determine the market positioning of Vodafone competition in the telecommunications industry (Appendix 1).