Vodafone today announced it has more than one million users of its hosted One Net service in Europe, said to be the result of a growing numbers of Small and Medium Enterprises seeking to gain competitive advantage by bringing their fixed and mobile communications together.
In the current challenging economic climate, says Vodafone, small businesses recognise that they need to be even more responsive to the needs of their customers and One Net enables them to field calls both quickly and efficiently, wherever they may be.
Small and Medium Enterprises are also achieving considerable cost savings by handing the management of both their fixed and mobile communications needs to Vodafone, it says. Significantly, cost savings are also realised because all calls between One Net company handsets – both fixed and mobile – are free.
As One Net is a rental-based solution, priced on a per user basis, it is said to be highly attractive to Small and Medium Enterprises because it requires no capital investment. One Net’s scalability is also said to enable customers to easily increase or decrease the number of connections to match changing staffing needs within their business.
Through its call management system, the service allows users to answer calls to their business on either their fixed or mobile phone, the ability to transfer calls between phones or to any other phone within the business and benefit from one combined voicemail box. It also reduces the administrative burden for Small and Medium Enterprises through its per-user, per-month charging system together with one monthly bill covering all of the business’s communications needs.
The One Net system utilises Vodafone’s IP Centrex telephony system, which enables a high level of integration between fixed and mobile phone handsets.
“Vodafone has taken a leadership position in this emerging market for Cloud Telephony. This market is taking off because customers can now be more responsive to business enquiries, manage their communications costs more efficiently and – being a hosted solution – they can spend more time focused on their own business”, said Tom Craig, Vodafone’s Business Services Director. “The service enables smaller companies to compete alongside their larger rivals by giving them all the call handling capabilities they will need without a significant financial outlay. In addition, it offers a transparent, per-user charging model across both fixed and mobile phones.”