O2 has today announced that it has won a coveted contract with Network Rail, which owns and operates Britain's rail infrastructure, to provide voice, BlackBerry and other mobile data services. The deal is O2's largest corporate customer win and one of the UK's largest ever port of numbers with 23,000 connections transferring from Vodafone to O2. The win overturns industry-wide perceptions that large corporates see the risk of changing suppliers as too daunting.
Network Rail was looking for a step change in the delivery of its mobile services and saw O2 as a great cultural fit, providing fresh thinking and the opportunity for true partnership. Key to O2's selection were its dynamism, best of breed solutions and differentiating brand.
Working closely with Network Rail, O2 will be developing and streamlining mobile solutions to help Network Rail maintain, renew and enhance the railway. O2 will help Network Rail identify areas of the business that will benefit from mobile technology to enhance efficiency and flexibility for the workforce and put in place systems to achieve both bottom-line and customer benefits.
As this relationship evolves, O2 will work closely with Network Rail to develop bespoke solutions which will set a new benchmark for mobile services in the rail industry as a whole.
Ben Dowd, Business Sales Director, O2 UK, said of the deal: "This is an incredible win for O2 and provides us with another great example of how we are changing the face of the mobile marketplace. We genuinely believe that customer and employee satisfaction are intrinsically linked to business success and together with Network Rail, we believe we can help the company achieve its objectives".
Network Rail's Director of Information Management, Catherine Doran, said: "We are delighted to enter into this relationship with O2. We are keen to embrace new ways of communicating with our people and suppliers and changing the way we work by using new technology. O2 has demonstrated the same passion and drive to help us achieve these bold targets, by showing great innovation, good customer service and commercial capability."