The new phase follows the announcement of a strategic partnership with Accenture last autumn
Gary Adey has been promoted to CEO of Vodafone’s commercial shared operations, the horribly named _VOIS, for Vodafone Intelligence Services, as it gears up for a new phase from 1 April. Its purpose it to drive Vodafone’s digital agenda and it accounts for around 25% of Vodafone’s workforce, employing about 30,000 people.
Adey has been a director at VOIS for more than four years and writes in a post on LinkedIn, “I’ve witnessed the huge potential and possibility in what we have built, and the mandate to now fully commercialise our shared operations reflects the trust that we have created with our internal Vodafone partners, and within the industry.”
Enter Accenture
The new phase follows the announcement last November that Accenture would become a strategic partner. The aim of the partnership is “to commercialize Vodafone’s shared operations to accelerate growth, enhance customer service and drive significant efficiencies for Vodafone’s operating companies and partner markets, as well as create new career opportunities for its people.
“The strategic partnership will build on Vodafone’s market leading shared services unit, Vodafone Intelligent Solutions (_VOIS), to create a scaled, commercially driven and more efficient organization with high quality services and enhanced speed to market for its portfolio of offerings. Under this new model for the industry, Vodafone will retain majority interest, management control and sourcing decisions.”
Accenture is to invest €150 million for an unspecified minority stake in the partnership. At the time of the announcement, it was expected the partnership would be in place by spring 2024, committed “to deliver best in class service levels and innovation to Vodafone Group through a long-term agreement, demonstrating the deep partnership commitment between Accenture and Vodafone and the comprehensive services portfolio that the new organization will be able to offer.”
What is_VOIS?
Given its scale and scope, –VOIS has a low profile. It surfaced in 2020 when work practices the world over were forced to change due to lockdowns. It was the evolution of Vodafone Shared Services. It is set up to be a techco, not an offshoot of a telco, and at one step remove from the main corporation. Its website says, “_VOIS is the Group’s partner for talent, technology and transformation, offering the best portfolio of services” across those three areas:
Hence its remit covers the obvious Group shared functions like HR, finance and legal, but it also is responsible for customer experience for consumers and businesses. The digital practice develops management of programmes and projects, plus software development and testing, and cybersecurity. _VOIS engineers work in the group’s network operations centres.
It sells these services to divisions within Vodafone group. The idea is it can offer better alternatives than outsourcing or DIY because it is part of the same culture in the first instance and has the scale and resources in the second.
_VOIS has operations in 28 countries, as shown below, and has eight operations centres.
