Vodafone unveils new global enterprise unit, accelerates CW&W integration

Vodafone will form a new global enterprise unit starting Jan. 1 with specialist teams located in 50 countries. Nick Jeffrey, the current CEO of Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW&W), will lead the unit and report directly to Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao.

The operator said that a need for a global enterprise unit became apparent from the strong demand for combined products and services created after the acquisition of CW&W earlier this year. This move will see the CW&W integration process accelerated ahead of its original schedule, the company said in a statement.

The new unit will comprise four vertical teams: Vodafone global enterprise, Vodafone carrier services, M2M solutions and hosting and cloud services. These teams will also be supported by dedicated enterprise channels and sales operations, as well as products and marketing teams to provide standardised processes, tools, platforms and products across the enterprise unit.

The decision to step up the integration process will see the merger of various CW&W units into the new global enterprise group, or into divisions of Vodafone UK, starting Jan. 1.

Vodafone said in September that it expects to incur cumulative integration costs of approximately £500 million by March 2016. This is expected to deliver cash flow synergies of £150 million to £200 million per year by March 2016, resulting in operating free cash flow for Vodafone in that year of £250 million to £300 million from the acquisition.

For more:
- see this Vodafone statement

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