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RNS Number : 7642Z
Vodafone Group Plc
16 January 2024
16 January 2024
Vodafone and Microsoft sign 10-year strategic partnership to
bring generative AI, digital services and the cloud to more than
300 million businesses and consumers
-- Vodafone and Microsoft to transform the customer experience using Microsoft's generative AI.
-- Vodafone to scale its new standalone IoT business with Microsoft.
-- Partnership will expand M-Pesa to improve financial inclusion across Africa.
-- Vodafone to grow enterprise business with new Microsoft
services for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).
-- Vodafone to accelerate digital transformation and operational
efficiencies in virtual data centre migration to Microsoft
Azure.
LONDON and REDMOND, Wash. - Jan. 16, 2024 - Vodafone and
Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced a new, far-reaching 10-year
strategic partnership that leverages their respective strengths in
offering scaled digital platforms to more than 300 million
businesses, public sector organisations, and consumers across
Europe and Africa.
Through the partnership, the companies will collaborate to
transform Vodafone's customer experience using Microsoft's
generative AI, hyperscale Vodafone's leading managed IoT
connectivity platform, develop new digital and financial services
for businesses, particularly SMEs across Europe and Africa, and
overhaul its global data centre cloud strategy.
Vodafone will invest $1.5 billion over the next 10 years in
cloud and customer-focused AI services developed in conjunction
with Microsoft. Additionally, Microsoft will use Vodafone's fixed
and mobile connectivity services.
Microsoft also intends to invest in Vodafone's managed IoT
connectivity platform, which will become a separate, standalone
business by April 2024. The new company will attract new partners
and customers, driving growth in applications and expanding the
platform to connect more devices, vehicles, and machines.
The digital services generated by the new partnership will use
the latest generative AI technology to provide a highly
personalised and differentiated customer experience across multiple
channels. They will be built on unbiased and ethical privacy and
security policies under Vodafone's established framework for
responsible AI.
Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group chief executive, said:
"Today, Vodafone has made a bold commitment to the digital future
of Europe and Africa. This unique strategic partnership with
Microsoft will accelerate the digital transformation of our
business customers, particularly small and medium-sized companies,
and step up the quality of customer experience for consumers."
"This new generation of AI will unlock massive new opportunities
for every organisation and every industry around the world," said
Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. "We are delighted that
together with Vodafone we will apply the latest cloud and AI
technology to enhance the customer experience of hundreds of
millions of people and businesses across Africa and Europe, build
new products and services, and accelerate the company's transition
to the cloud."
The companies have identified five key areas of
collaboration:
-- Generative AI: To increase customer satisfaction, the
companies will apply the power of Microsoft Azure OpenAI to deliver
frictionless, real-time, proactive, and hyper-personalised
experiences across all Vodafone customer touchpoints, including its
digital assistant TOBi (available in 13 countries). Vodafone
employees will also be able to leverage the AI capabilities of
Microsoft Copilot to transform working practices, boost
productivity and improve digital efficiency.
-- Scaling IoT: Microsoft intends to invest in Vodafone's new,
standalone global Internet of Things (IoT)-managed connectivity
platform, which connects 175 million devices and platforms
worldwide. Vodafone also plans to become part of the Azure
ecosystem making the IoT platform available to a vast developer and
third-party community using open APIs.
-- Africa digital acceleration: Microsoft intends to help
further scale M-Pesa, already the largest financial technology
platform in Africa, by housing it on Azure and enabling the launch
of new cloud-native applications. The companies are also launching
a purpose-led program that seeks to enrich the lives of 100 million
consumers and 1 million SMEs across the African continent. The goal
is to enhance digital literacy, skilling and youth outreach
programs, as well as offer digital services to the underserved SME
market. The partnership aims to boost financial services
innovation, building a community of certified developers.
-- Enterprise growth: Vodafone will extend its commitment to
distributing Microsoft services, including Microsoft Azure,
security solutions and modern work offerings such as Microsoft
Teams Phone Mobile, as part of its strategy to become Europe's
leading platform for business. This enables business customers to
deploy Microsoft's cloud-based services at pace with low adoption
and running costs, as well as support the estimated 24 million SMEs
across Europe through the provision of a managed platform that
grows with their business.
-- Cloud transformation: Vodafone will accelerate its cloud
transformation by modernising its data centres on Microsoft Azure.
This will improve its responsiveness to customers, whil e
simplifying and reducing the operational costs of its IT estate. As
a result, Vodafone will be able to replace multiple physical data
centres with virtual ones across Europe, simplifying and reducing
the operational costs of its IT estate, as well as reducing energy
requirements and helping deliver against its sustainable business
strategy.
About Vodafone
For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com , follow us
on Twitter at @VodafoneGroup or connect with us on LinkedIn at
www.linkedin.com/company/vodafone .
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital
transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an
intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every
organisation on the planet to achieve more.
For more information, press only:
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft,
(425) 638-7777,
rapidresponse@we-worldwide.com
Investor Relations Media Relations
Investors.vodafone.com Vodafone.com/media/contact
ir@vodafone.co.uk GroupMedia@vodafone.com
Registered Office: Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury,
Berkshire RG14 2FN, England. Registered in England No. 1833679
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives
from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Centre at
http://news.microsoft.com . Web links, telephone numbers and titles
were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For
additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact
Microsoft's Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts
listed at
https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts
.
Forward-looking statements
The information in this announcement (the "Information") may
constitute or include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking
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forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because
they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may
not occur in the future. Vodafone cautions you that forward-looking
statements are not guarantees of the occurrence of such future
events or of future performance and that in particular, the
development of the strategic partnership between Vodafone and
Microsoft and its outcome or impact on Vodafone, its business,
results of operations and financial condition may differ materially
from what is suggested by the forward-looking statements contained
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