Vodacom Business
Connecting people for good
Vodacom Business KZN visits Zululand to show what Vodacom can do for you
Long gone are the days that Vodacom merely sells airtime and data – the brand now offers a whole range of smart solutions for business, organisations and individuals across the board.
From big corporations contending with loadshedding, to the child who has to home school during lockdown, or a farmer who needs to keep track of his herd – Vodacom has a tailor-made business solution to make your life easier. This is the message that representatives of Vodacom KZN shared during their two-day visit to Zululand.
Hosting two breakfast meetings in Empangeni and Richards Bay, respectively, as well as a dinner for its most valued clients, Vodacom used the opportunity to engage with local businesses, SMMEs, government representatives and organisations, and to educate attendees on their latest state-of-the-art offerings. ‘What we do as Vodacom business? We connect for good. Every single day, from the moment we wake up until the time we go to sleep, we connect people, businesses, organisations and children to things and to people,’ said Eleni Kwinana, Executive Head: Vodacom Business KZN.
Kwinana spoke about ‘Kwa-silience’, and the fact that KZN has been through a lot these past three years with challenges like Covid, looting, loadshedding and flooding.
‘The question is: how do you remain resilient and relevant as a business? Vodacom is here to help.
She related how Vodacom assisted many businesses to back up their crucial information in 2021 when the riots broke out. This cloud service saved many local businesses from losing everything and helped them bounce back.
This is just one of the many ways in which Vodacom can practically assist you or your company. Some of the other services highlighted during the two-day campaign included:
- In addition to providing their own data-centre solutions, Vodacom works with partners like Microsoft, AWS and Google to help you take advantage of cloud scalability and agility, to make your business more flexible and responsive to customer demands.
- Vodacom’s Internet of Things (IoT) solutions assist in the digitisation of your daily processes. Insights extracted from the data allow automation of process, management of risk, lowered operating costs and increased revenue.
- Vodacom’s host of collaboration and productivity tools are available to support your new way of working, ensuring your workforce stays engaged and connected.
Vodacom is also very passionate about digital transformation and helping ordinary citizens to become technologically savvy in order to remain relevant in an ever changing world.
One of their flagship projects is the Code Like A Girl campaign, in which girls from rural areas, who previously had very little knowledge of smart devices, are taught how to code and create their own websites. According to Imran Khan, Managing Executive Vodacom KZN, this campaign has the potential to catapult this country into its rightful place in the digital space.
‘A child in living Nongoma or anywhere in rural Zululand should be no different to a child living in California. They should have the same opportunities, the same access to information and the same curriculum opportunities. Just them the right digital inclusion!’
Investing millions in KZN
Vodacom KZN will spend over R1-billion on the mobile network this year. This is to improve regional coverage reach, capacity and network resilience, and accelerate access to connectivity throughout the province, particularly in deep rural areas and townships.
Imran Khan, Managing Executive Vodacom KZN said much of the connectivity and network problems experienced by Vodacom users can be attributed to vandalism and theft of tower batteries and generators. Hence, Vodacom plans to invest R2-billion on batteries this year.
He explained that loadshedding and prolonged power outages necessitates the batteries and generators in order to keep their customers connected.
In addition, Vodacom will endeavour to build 43 new sites in deep rural KZN this year.
“This significant investment into the region’s mobile network drives our goal of building an inclusive, digital society. By increasing access to reliable, quality connectivity, as well as connecting to deliver exceptional network experience to our customers, we can help to ensure the benefits of digitisation are within the reach of all communities we serve.”
