Vodafone NZ completes ‘on-shoring’ of major IT systems

Vodafone New Zealand has completed an upgrade and onshoring of its major IT systems away from its former global parent Vodafone Group, giving it much more control over its staff and customer facing IT systems, and enabling much greater flexibility to support customers.

The full IT programme of work has taken three years and has run across multiple systems, including a successful Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) migration which is now becoming a global case study. Other systems that have been separated from Group include security, identity and all modern workplace Office IT systems.

Jason Paris, Vodafone New Zealand CEO, says the completed IT programme is just one critical part of the first phase of Vodafone’s transformation strategy. “Three years ago, we moved from global to local ownership to focus 100% on New Zealand, and since then we have been laying the foundations to serve Aotearoa for the next 30 years.

“Over the last three years we have invested almost a billion dollars to dramatically improve our Smart Network. This includes being the first New Zealand telco to launch a 5G network (after being first to deliver 3G and 4G) and rolling this out to more than nine cities and regions around Aotearoa, plus investing heavily in upgrading our wireless broadband and HFC services. All of this hard work and investment is paying off as we were recently recognised as the best mobile network across Aotearoa New Zealand by independent global leader in mobile testing, Umlaut.

“On customer service, we have been overhauling the way we sell and serve, bringing most of our call-centres back home to New Zealand and forming teams of experts, and bringing all our retail stores under full ownership, as well as upgrading our legacy tech to make it easier for our teams to help customers. And while our customer experience is better than it has ever been, we are on a mission to be world-famous for our service, so you will continue to progressively see more on-shore and local people, providing great service where and when you need it; in-store, on-call or on-line.

“To help small and large businesses achieve their dreams, we have focused on partnering with the best tech companies in the world, such as Palo Alto, AWS, and Microsoft, and we have invested in best-in-class New Zealand security company DEFEND, to make sure our New Zealand business and Government customers get the best and most secure Enterprise and ICT solutions from us.

“Our commitment to Aotearoa has always been long-term. We recently celebrated the 20-year anniversary of Te Rou Rou, The Vodafone Foundation, which has now invested over $47 million in a better future, and we believe this represents the biggest corporate philanthropy in New Zealand’s history. We’ve been supporting the Vodafone Warriors through thick and thin for nearly a quarter of a century now, one of the longest running sporting sponsorships in the world. We’re committed to supporting Te Ao Māori and normalising the use of te reo. We also support numerous digital equity and youth programmes and recently installed a 5G Lab at Auckland University to help foster innovation in students. We do all these things because our customers and our people expect us to help advocate for a better future.

“I’m incredibly proud of the progress we have made, and that progress is being reflected in improved financial performance, but I also know we have a lot more to do for our customers. We are now moving into the next phase of the Vodafone transformation strategy, which is all about building on these foundations, differentiating even further on customer experience, partnering with even more great tech companies in the world, and earning the right to play a greater role in the lives of New Zealanders.