REG - Vodafone Group Plc - Vodafone and Microsoft Partnership

VodafoneAnnouncement

16/01/2024 07:00

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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, while 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
(https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vodafone.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cpaul.bodley%40vodafone.com%7Ca182faba58d345053fdf08da90c6e97b%7C68283f3b84874c86adb3a5228f18b893%7C0%7C0%7C637981481308488772%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=UYsKI%2FARIhDvE7mxiL7MbvpuKBLHMqdDHOaUVzwKNJ8%3D&reserved=0)
, follow us on Twitter at @VodafoneGroup or connect with us on LinkedIn
at www.linkedin.com/company/vodafone
(http://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 (mailto: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
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https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts
(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 statements include,
without limitation, statements that typically contain words such as
"estimate", "intend", "plan", "goal", "aim", "will", or other words of similar
meaning. By their nature, 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 in the Information. These expectations or any forward-looking
statements could prove to be incorrect, and outcomes usually cannot be
influenced by Vodafone. It should be kept in mind that actual events or
consequences may differ materially from expectations.

 

Vodafone expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any
updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change
in Vodafone's expectations with regard thereto or any changes in events,
conditions or circumstances on which any forward-looking statements are based.
No representation or warranty is made that any of these forward-looking
statements will come to pass or that any particular result will be achieved.
Undue influence should not be given to, and no reliance should be placed on,
any forward-looking statement.

 

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