Member Article

4G to be good for UK business - Vodafone

Business leaders believe that 4G will vastly benefit their organisations - making them more responsive and improving the customer experience.

In a new report by Vodafone UK, almost nine out of ten business leaders (86%) said they believe 4G will increase productivity by providing a genuine ‘in-office’ experience wherever they are.

The report, the latest in Vodafone’s Perspective series found that over half of respondents (55%) felt 4G would benefit their organisations and one in five described those benefits as being ‘significant’.

Interest in 4G services is substantial among business users, with 41% of respondents planning to start using it in the next 12 months.

The report A perfect storm: the role of 4G in the ‘age of me’, shares the findings of research among 554 organisational leaders across UK Plc and includes reflections on the impact of 4G from 10 business leaders including Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, Nicola Rabson, Partner at Linklater and Tom Ball, founder of Neardesk.

The report shows that the state of the UK economy has been a catalyst for a change in expectations. Consumers have come to expect things now, not tomorrow and the result, according to the report, is a new era termed ‘the age of me’, where customers expect to deal with nimble and responsive organisations and employees want greater flexibility.

Over two-thirds (69%) of the business leaders surveyed reported that their businesses have had to become more responsive over the past three years, to both employees and customers.

These leaders believe 4G will improve their ability to respond to customers and deliver a better customer experience through real-time data intelligence, better availability or more engaging and impactful content, and enterprise applications.

Three-fifths (58%) of leaders surveyed believe that employees have changed their attitudes with the most notable change being the increased focus on work-life balance. 4G technology will enable employees to make the most of what may previously have been frustratingly unproductive time.

Jeroen Hoencamp, Enterprise Director, Vodafone UK, commented “There has been a revolution in the workplace. The focus is no longer on where and when you work it’s all about maximising productivity, increasing efficiency and ensuring customer satisfaction. At the heart of these innovative working practices is a renewed focus on greater collaboration across businesses enabled by increased data use.

“We’re now seeing employees with different skillsets and from different departments coming together to work flexibly, collaborate and share competencies. Increasingly, better connectivity is enabling greater information flow between colleagues, 4G will only accelerate this trend towards collaboration.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Vodafone UK .