Vodafone: 'We are becoming one of the largest software companies in Europe'
Interview with Ben Connolly, Global Head of Cloud Engineering at Vodafone UK
Vodafone UK is part of Vodafone Group Plc, the world's second-largest mobile phone company. Vodafone is the third-largest mobile network operator in the United Kingdom, with 17.2 million subscribers as of May 2021.
Together with Accenture UK, Vodafone Digital UK is shortlisted for the Security Innovation of the Year and Business IT Innovation of the Year at this year's UK IT Awards, to be held on Wednesday. Computing spoke to Ben Connolly, Global Head of Cloud Engineering at Vodafone.
Computing: What makes Vodafone different from other technology companies?
Ben Connolly We started in 1981 and made the first ever cellular telephone call in the United Kingdom on 1 January 1985, from St Katharine Docks to Newbury, and launched the UK's first cellular network later that year. Since then, we have been constantly reinventing ourselves to be at the forefront of technology and deliver the best service for our customers.
We are a global company with local roots and offer a vast range of communication services for our customers globally.
What one company achievement in the last 12 months are you most proud of?
Releasing our Evo proposition, "now you can get the phone you want, at the price you choose", offering our customer much greater flexibility. We provide a breakdown of costs to the customer, separate the handset value from the contract, and enable the customer to choose financing options independent of the contract itself.
For the architecture team it's conceiving and building DX IDM to enable improved SSO deep linking between channels (which also improves customer satisfaction), as well as enabling multiple customer segments from different IT stacks to access the same digital channel (e.g. VBP for Apollo proposition - enabling revenue increase).
What are you working on this year
We are becoming one of the largest software companies in Europe, connecting 12 markets across Europe to become a true competitor and leader in the tech industry. We will be hiring over 7,000 software engineers in the next three years to build out our capabilities and combine our strengths as one European tech team! Super exciting stuff really.
Why are events like the UK IT Industry Awards important to the IT industry?
They are a great way of connecting with other companies and understanding the great work others are doing and for cross-company and personal networking. They're also a great way to celebrate all the amazing work our industry has achieved, and to spread innovation, best practice and knowledge sharing between companies.