The Impact of Information Technology in the Vodafone Group Organization - Research Paper Example

The Impact of Information Technology in the Vodafone Group Organization Executive Summary Vodafone Group was founded in 1982 as a joint venture between Hambros Technology Trust, Millicom and the subsidiary of Racal Electronics PLC’s strategic Radio Ltd. Of present, the Group has its main office in London, with a registered office in Newburry Berkshire (Hitt 46). The company has had many changes in its Business Organization Structure since its formation. Currently, the operating companies for the group are under two operating regions reflecting the different geographies or different nature of assets, as well as to reflect the differences in development of the sector considering various economies. These included Europe which comprise all existing controlled business located in Europe, in addition to Turkey, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Hungary. The company heavily relies on IT and it has incorporated IT in its Market structure as a tool for successful implementation of it programs. This paper discusses and describes the Vodafone Group business Organization structure with a focus on the role of IT in its business Organization structure. Vodafone Company History Vodafone Group is a multinational British telecommunication company, whose main office is in London, with a registered office in Newburry Berkshire (Saylor 46). Vodafone company started as a joint venture between Hambros Technology Trust , Millicom and the subsidiary of Racal Electronics PLC’s strategic Radio Ltd in 1982 with its name being derived from a company’s goal of establishing data services and voice services over mobile telephone networks. Hence its network was called Racal Vodafone (Saylor 56). The company was renamed Recal Telecom in 1988. In 1991, Racal Telecom became demerged from the Racal Electronics there is when the mobile telephony giant came into existence. In 1996, the company bought people phone and acquired 80% of the Astec Communication, a move that so it increase its shares of UK mobile customers (Read 46). In 2000, the Group reverted its former name Vodafone Group PLC selling most of the manufacturing related operations. It made the first 3G Voice Call in 2001 om the Uk’s Vodafone 3G network. The company signed a partner agreement with the Mobikom Australia, and became introduced in the icelandic market. In 2004, it went into an agreement with Luxembourg’s LuxGSM. The Group increased its participation in the Connex of Romania and purchased Czech mobile operator. The period between 2004 to date has seen the company expand through entering into partnership with various communication Companies worldwide (Read 57). Measured by 2011 revenues, as well as the number of its subscribers, it is rated as the second largest mobile telecommunication company in the world after China mobile (Cane 36). Of December 2011, it had about 439 subscribers worldwide. The company owns and operates networks in more than 30 countries with partner networks in more than 40 other countries. Most notable is the fact that it is fully owned Vodafone Global Enterprise division is responsible for providing IT services and telecommunication services to its corporate clients in more than 65 countries. It also owns 45 per cent of Verizon Wireless, which is the mobile telecommunication company in the US (Thomson 54). Having a listing on the London Stock Exchange, and on FTSE 100 Index, the Vodafone market capitalization is approximately 89.1 billion pounds by July sixth 2012 (Thomson 43). Vodafone Business Organization Structure Since 9th December 2010, the key elements of the Vodafone Organizational structure are as described. The operating companies for the group are under two operating regions reflecting the different geographies or different nature of assets, as well as to reflect the differences in development of the sector considering various economies. These included Europe which comprise all existing controlled business located in Europe, in addition to Turkey, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Hungary. At the helm, as the regional CEO, Michel Combel is in charge of the Europe Region. For the business located in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, Fiji, Australia plus New Zealand, Nick Read, is at the top as the Regional CEO and he in charge of the Region. As concerns, the Group CFO, CEO and Strategy and Business Development Director, they are charged with the responsibility of effecting strategies for maximization of the shareholder value from the investments of Vodafone including Bharti Holding, Verizon Wireless, and SFR, which are no longer held within regional structures. For the case of Group Marketing, Partner Markets, Vodafone Global Enterprise, and Vodafone Business Services alongside other commercial units that constitute the Vodafone Company, they are responsible for commercial activities of the company. This unit is under Morten Lundal, who is a Group Commercial Officer who reports to the CEO of the Group. The Group technology is responsible for all Technology Functions thus, the Technology functions for Vodafone operating companies do report into this technology Group. Steve Pusey, who is the Group CTO, reports directly to the Group CEO. In regard to the main financial priorities, as well as the commercial priorities, the company focuses on leadership in data, brand advocacy, customer and commercial strength, shareholder returns, the cost efficiency, and the organization of the Group, through reduction of layers, and simplifying its managerial governance (Thomson 20). The Organization structure of Vodafone group is shown fig 02 Fig 02: Vodafone Organization structure. In the current competitive business world, impressing IT in the business structure of any organization is no doubt a major boost for that organization. Certainly, effective network management has increasingly become significant and complex (Saylor 28). Despite there being the power, as well as the sophistication of the most current generation management environments, it is surprising how, in certain situations, there remains an opportunity for relatively simple, but focused monitoring tools. Management of the Vodafone Group data centre operation is such a good example. Being the leading mobile telecommunication company in the world, it is not surprising to learn that the data management operation for Vodafone Company is not just large but also quite complex. The Servicing Vodafone Group global data storage and system needs, the operation are an enormous one. It involves dataflow consisting of Bytes and millions of servers (Saylor 34). By any standards, it is a sophisticated system. Certainly, it requires a somewhat sophisticated management solution. It is operated and managed by the Vodafone Information Services responsible for supplying IT services to the Vodafone Group. Vodafone Group is a solution- based company based on IBM’s TIVOLI environment (Saylor 37). It offers a variety of effective and powerful management tools, which are designed for large-scale networks. Noting that Information Technology plays a significant role as a corner stone of all successful operation, the Vodafone Group relies heavily on IT. With an aim to build a competitive advantage, the Top Line Vodafone Group has taken an advantage of understanding the strategic values of Information Technology in helping maintain, as well as gain the competitive accrued advantages basing on the viewpoint of both bottom line and top line improvements. In order to realize improvement top line, the general telecommunication operators in company consider using IT as a key source of differentiated and innovative services and products they come up with launching them globally in a somewhat timely manner. Unlike other competitors, the Vodafone Group has not considered using cheaper prices in order to attract its new customer, as well as maintain its existing customer in making sure it remains the second largest mobile operator in the market but rather, the company has focused on launching and creating value-added services that attract new customers. According to Arun Sarin, who was a Vodafone Group former CEO, Vodafone rededicated its efforts towards delighting its customers following their believe that it is the foundation upon which their continued success is based (Hitt, Ireland & Hosksson 340). According to him, the company recognizes that each customer interaction do provide an extra opportunity warranty winning a loyalty that makes the Group to always raise its standards concerning the quality of the customer case in its call centers alongside its stores and the high quality of its networks. Moreover, the Group delights its customer through delivering superior data and voice services basing on the demands of its customers. The group is also keen at choosing the right Information Technology to suite the market. Making the right choice concerning the IT they use is helps the Group in driving the current, as well as the future returns alongside the intellectual capital, which articulate and structures the stakeholders. With its three main strategic IT initiatives, the Group has managed have a competitive advantage that has seen it improve to top line. The Group’s agility to adapt advanced technologies has greatly impacted its innovation, as well as its differentiated services and products, which include converged services of the network data, customer data, service data, available in helping improve on the customer experience in respect to the ever changing market environment and customer demands. According to Saxtoft (2008), In the future converging communication industry, the competitive advantages would be based upon an organization’s ability of the providers of communication services to make use of specific network data mix, customer data, as well as service data available to every player in the market. Likewise, the ability of Vodafone Group to adapt new IT has continuously ensured its customer stay connects to the information, as well as people who deem to be plays a central role in their lives. These include services such as text, e-mail, news, voice, instant messaging, communities, music and applications both work related and social Read, 2009, p. 12). With increased bandwidth needs alongside a data dominated traffic mix, the Group’s ability to optimize the network capacity in line with the differentiated services and products, has caused the improvement of the quality of services it provides to its customer. Work Cited Cane, Aftre. Companies and Finance: UK: Vodafone acquires Talkland in Pounds 60m deal". Financial Times: 199, p. 22. Reguly, E.,1996., Vodafone pockets Peoples Phone". The Times (Times Newspapers). Hitt, Mason & Hoskisson, Ricky. Strategic management: Competitiveness ad Globalization. Florence, KY: Cengage. 2008. Read, ToJr. The IT value Network: From Investment to Stakeholder Value. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. 2009. Saxtoft, Colorado. Convergence: user Expectations, Communications Enablers and Bussiness Opportunity. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. 2008. Saylor, Marth. The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything. Perseus Books/Vanguard Press. 2012. Thomson, Agrey. Verizon Wireless Said to Start Offering IPhone in January". Bloomberg L.P.. 2010.Retrieved on 24th Oct 2012 from http://www Read More