ISG: Chapter 9 Vodafone case study

Bharath Brahmachary

9-13. Vodafone underwent a phenomenal growth by operating local companies and

providing its products and services to local markets which contributed for the
decentralization of the organization. Also, most of the subsidiaries operated as
individual companies with their own business processes instead of common practices
which made it hard for the management to operate as a single global firm. Data sharing
amongst the individual operating companies also turned out to be arduous as they
lacked the technology stack needed to handle it.

9-14. Vodafone lacked the resources and the expertise in managing such a complex
project on its own. They spent a year in defining the scope of the project, identifying and
designing new business processes. They had to manage the customer and noncustomer facing processes efficiently in order to carry out the transformation smoothly.
The transformation involved many phases of roll-out which showcased the incremental
development. Tremendous amount of testing, Support from special teams was needed
to make sure the transition had very less impact on the existing system, customers and
the employees.
Later, Vodafone prioritized the change of its information systems and started
creating centralized shared services based on SAP ERP in different countries based on
the size of the company, complexity and willingness to change. Many challenges like
location specific legal requirements, variety of legacy systems used, different of
business processes at each location along with the employee resistance for
implementing new systems and processes further contributed for delaying the
transformation.
Accenture had to deal with the individual organization differently in order to assist
Vodafone with the change management efficiently and they had to take time in learning
how to execute their processes effectively against the local companies. Inspite of all the
care taken by Vodafone in rolling out the changes, it had to deal with the local economic
trends of specific countries to check if they are ready to embrace the change.

ISG: Chapter 9 Vodafone case study

Bharath Brahmachary

9-17. Vodafones business process transformation and ERP have increased the
business efficiency, lowered the TCO and generated annual savings of $719 million.
The organization structure around the whole world was a unified one and helped create
a consistent work environment altogether. The shared service model developed during
the transition produced many non-quantifiable benefits also leading to profitability over
the years.
Establishment of Centralized Procurement System benefited suppliers and also
purchase-to-pay process automated the process of invoice approval. The suppliers had
to deal with a single purchaser instead of many as the system helped them to plan their
sales to Vodafone. The use of mobile apps has provides ease of access to the SAP
systems for employees not engaging with the system directly, thereby making more the
employees interact with the system implicitly and bringing about better return on
investment. The reimbursement system has been automated for approvals upon
uploading a photograph of their receipts through their cell phones and in turn reducing
the file travel expenses. The system also aims at automating the leaves, finance with
the development of mobility portal.