Forrester recognizes CloudBlue as a leader in the New Wave: Marketplace Development Platforms report Download the report

Customer Success Story

Growing value in your SME customer base with Vodafone New Zealand

Industry: Telecommunications, mobile, ISP

Operating Countries: Part of Vodafone Group Plc’s Partner Markets division, with partners in over 40+ countries worldwide

Web: www.vodafone.co.nz

“The power of CloudBlue isn’t just the platform, it’s also the Go-To-Market team”

Brian Moore
Chapter lead – Release and Optimization, Vodafone New Zealand

How did Vodafone New Zealand grow value in their SME customer base with a Digital Dragon strategy?

Vodafone New Zealand wanted to build an efficient, scalable marketplace for SMEs. To achieve this, it knew it needed to become a leaner operation. That would mean consolidating its different groups, eliminating technical debt, and integrating multiple platforms. To be able to do this, it decided to partner with CloudBlue to launch its Business Marketplace, based out of CloudBlue’s Commerce and Connect platforms.

Vodafone New Zealand launched its Business Marketplace in September 2021, initially including three SaaS solutions (Microsoft 365, Acronis, and Hostopia) with a focus on SMBs. Its broader strategy included the expansion of the Business Marketplace into enterprise customers as well as into further SaaS and IaaS solutions.

Sales

In week one, Vodafone New Zealand sold 171 licenses to 3 customers

Conversions

In quarter one, Vodafone New Zealand’s conversion results were 43% Vs their original target of 15%

New Licenses

In their first year with CloudBlue, Vodafone New Zealand gained a total of 4000+ new licenses and change orders

ARPU

Through Cloudblue, Vodafone New Zealand now has the ability to bundle existing mobile, fixed and ICT services with SaaS vendors, enabling it to sell richer offerings to existing customers

Solution

Early in the pre-sales conversations with CloudBlue, Vodafone New Zealand realized that they would face challenges upskilling and reassigning its existing sales and post-sales teams. This was a crucial step to manage well, in order to keep the pace of the expansion plans for the Business Marketplace.

It chose to adopt CloudBlue’s Acceleration Services, including a dedicated team of two sales experts, as well as a pool of technical support agents covering onboarding, welcome to service, migration, and break-fix support – 24/7/365. Acceleration Services were managed by a delivery partner through CloudBlue, from December 2021.

Results

Since joining forces with a delivery partner through CloudBlue’s Acceleration Services in Dec 2021, Vodafone New Zealand has had access to the team of platform-ready salespeople it needed in order to sell their new solution/services. The impact on sales and growth went far beyond what was originally targeted:

Week 1: 207 licenses sold to 3 customers
Quarter 1: Sales conversion results 50% vs 15% target
Year 1: Total number of new licenses + change orders 4K+

Vodafone New Zealand is now ready to execute on its broader strategy of future expansion into the enterprise segment and going further into security SaaS IaaS solutions.

Small core team

By partnering with CloudBlue, Vodafone New Zealand was able to manage the digital transformation with a small core team of 5 people. This kept resource requirements low and more efficient.

Self-service portal

By building a self-service portal through the CloudBlue platform, Vodafone New Zealand has been able to offer SMEs a great digital experience while maintaining a low touchpoint.

Scale through Acceleration Services

With the support of CloudBlue’s Acceleration Services, Vodafone New Zealand was able to go to market faster, and scale more easily.

Downloads

Download the full customer success story or the single page executive summary. Discover what it means to power your business with CloudBlue.

Customer Success Story (4 Pages)

Executive Summary (1 Page)

We’re here to help.

Talk to a CloudBlue expert today.