Client Reference Vodafone New Service GTM Model

As the communications market moves towards 'Quad-Play' services (Integrated Voice, Data, Video and Mobile), Vodafone needed to discover if its traditional sales model was still appropriate, especially for the SMB market.

Using extensive research and benchmarking, bChannels helped them define and size the best GoToMarket model for their new integrated services and then devise a channel model to support these new partners.

bChannels services for Vodafone

The Challenge

The world's largest mobile carrier, Vodafone has long dominated the Business mobile voice market through its highly effective direct sales operation. But the new services of integrated data, fixed-mobile convergence and hosted applications require an entirely new sales skill and operational support infrastructure.

So, their question was whether they should retool their existing operation or collaborate with partners that could already provide the support that customers required.

bChannels Services to Vodafone

Building on its experience working with other companies that have faced the same dilemma, bChannels followed its structured process to help answer the question and model the implications.

We initially created a straw man Go To Market model, benchmarking how similar solutions at the same stage of adoption were commonly sold and supported, the expected roles of vendors and partners, the channel capacity, etc.

We then tested this through extensive interviews with likely partners in the key Vodafone geographies.

From this we built a step-by-step operating manual to identify for the Vodafone companies exactly what support they would need to put in place to successfully launch the services and what return they could expect from this investment.

Why this matters to Vodafone

To fail to plan is to plan to fail. Many IT companies, though deeply knowledgeable about their core market and channels, need outside help to accurately quantify the investment needed to move into adjacent markets.

This project gave Vodafone all the information it needed to neither over- nor under-invest in their new services.