Vodafone calls in new channel

Vodafone has launched a new business channel in a bid to capture a greater share of SMB telecommunications spend.

The move has seen the appointment of handset retailer chains Mobiletronics and Digicall sister-company Red Mercury as the first two Platinum Business Partners.

These business channel partners will now have access to the telco’s Business Caps voice bundles, BlackBerry handsets and Vodafone Mobile Connect with 3G/GPRS mobile broadband cards.

The initial partners will have dedicated mobile sales teams designed to service business customers on their own premises.

A second phase of partners is also planned. These dealers would act as dedicated business solution retail outlets and would offer Vodafone plans and hardware, small business IT hardware and software and potentially land line voice services.

The fledgling business channel adds to Vodafone’s direct sales team, 150-200 core mobile outlets and 150 IT and mass merchant partners handled under primary distributor Ingram Micro.

Head of Vodafone Australia small business channel, Declan O’Callaghan, said the initiative would reassert the company’s business market credentials.

“We are the number one supplier [of mobile voice and data] to businesses globally and have a significant track record for servicing SOHO and SME,” he said.

“In Australia we are firmly focused on the consumer so now we are taking that experience and implementing it for SOHO and SME.”

O’Callaghan said Vodafone had made a strong impact in the fixed-line business market over the last four years with its capped plans and would now seek to dominate the business mobile market with similar offers.

“Overseas, business spending on mobiles in some countries has overtaken fixed line but in Australia it is only about 30 percent,” he said. “So there is still a significant growth opportunity.”