Vodafone ramps up international UCaaS rollout

As of today, the service is already available in 20 markets worldwide, but the UK-based telco, as part of its ongoing plan to rebalance revenue more in favour of enterprise – isn't stopping there.

Voda's UCaaS platform has been developed in collaboration with unified communications specialist RingCentral – the two have a strategic partnership dating back to late 2020. They first launched their cloud-based comms platform in early 2022, in time to help business customers prepare for the sunsetting of their ISDN and PSTN networks in 2025.

Their partnership has since gone global, offering cloud UCaaS solutions that give multinational corporations the ability to connect new locations and employees, and adopt hybrid working models with Vodafone Business as the sole point of contact.

Voda said it expects multinational customers to account for around 35% of new sales for UCaaS. With that in mind, it recently added Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand to its coverage area, as well as new European markets: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland.

They join Voda's current crop of UCaaS markets, comprising Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the UK in Europe, as well as Hong Kong and Singapore.

As for getting to more than 30 markets by early 2025, Vodafone Business has its eye on South America, the Middle East and Africa, and additional EU and Asia Pacific countries.

In addition to global expansion, Voda has also announced plans to add contact centre-as-a-service (CCaaS) solution to its portfolio. It is powered by RingCentral's RingCX, an omnichannel platform that leverages AI to provide call summaries, transcripts, automated scorecards, conversational insights, and coaching.

"Our expanding portfolio of unified communications services is ideal for customers looking to expand geographically whilst maintaining agile and sustainable hybrid working models," said Marika Auramo, who was named as CEO of Vodafone Business in April.

"By switching to the cloud from rigid fixed systems, customers can add services when required, paying only for what they need," she continued. "We estimate this will save many of them up to 30% in operating costs by reducing administrative costs and IT operational expenses whilst boosting productivity and collaboration."

Voda's expansion into new markets is part of its aspiration to become what it calls 'Europe's leading platform for business.'

One of the pillars of CEO Margherita Della Valle's turnaround plan, so far it has seen Voda establish a number of strategic partnerships that bring forth new capabilities and increase its exposure to new segments of the B2B market.

Perhaps the most significant is its 10-year partnership with Microsoft. Worth $1.5 billion, it will see Voda use Azure as its primary cloud platform for enterprise, IoT and SME across Europe and Africa.

That's the big bet, but there are lots of smaller ones that go with it.

It has also partnered with cloud security provider Zscaler to offer managed security services for SMEs keen to safeguard their hosted applications and data. Voda also partnered with Vcita to roll out an SME-centric productivity app across Europe.

The partnering doesn't end there. In the UK, Voda has established a franchise scheme, under which a network of partners will provide local IT support services to SMEs.

The hive of activity does seem to be drumming up sales. In its most recent quarter, organic revenue at Vodafone Business was up 5.4% year-on-year (YoY).

Voda still has a long way to go to complete its turnaround, but at just over a year in, the early signs suggest it's working.