VODJ Vodafone Group plc

Vodafone Business to Offer Managed Security Services to SME and National Corporate Businesses in Europe
Vodafone Business is teaming with Accenture (NYSE: ACN) to deliver managed security services to small to medium enterprises (SME) and national corporate customers in Europe. Vodafone will bring enterprise-grade cybersecurity along with access to leading cyber talent and expertise to organisations that do not have the experience, time or resources to keep up with the rapidly evolving threat landscape. 

As a result of this strategic relationship, businesses in Europe will have access to world-class security services in simple, pre-defined packages designed specifically for their needs from a provider they trust.  Accenture and Vodafone Business also intend to jointly invest in security innovation to help keep organizations safe as new threats emerge. The agreement is a key step forward in Vodafone Business’ strategy to offer enterprise-grade cybersecurity to businesses of all sizes.

In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, more organizations are conducting business online and working to secure their supply chains. This shift has highlighted gaps between small to medium enterprises at different levels of digital readiness that are very vulnerable to cyberattacks. While larger enterprises improve their cybersecurity defense, cybercriminals are increasingly turning their attention to less well defended organisations. Vodafone Business is committed to helping customers emerge stronger and safer from the crisis.

Vinod Kumar, CEO Vodafone Business said, “We are committed to better support small and medium enterprises and national corporate sized businesses as they transform and ‘future ready’ their organization. Working with Accenture, we will leverage our combined capabilities and global experience to deliver modular security solutions, offering access to technologies that until now were only available to companies with large IT budgets. Today’s news builds upon the Vodafone V-Hub service recently announced.”

According to the Vodafone Business Future Ready Report 2020, “Forty-one percent of businesses were concerned with keeping data safe online and 38 percent were concerned with losing important information or data.”

Vodafone Business with Accenture Security will deliver comprehensive managed and professional security services to help businesses to detect, respond and recover from a cyberattack including:

• Cyber assessment services that will start the customer journey – to include employee awareness, cyber resilience and vulnerability diagnostics.
• Managed security services include monitoring, incident management and response that will be easy to use, deploy and grow with a business – removing complexity at every stage. These services will leverage Accenture’s recent acquisition of Symantec’s Cyber Security Services business. 
• Professional services focused on risk assessment, testing and testing employee awareness of phishing attacks. 
• Joint investment in an innovation lab focused on security solutions and intelligence for workplace, cloud, IoT and SD-WAN environments.
• A simple and seamless experience including onboarding, delivery and service management, streamlining the time it takes to deploy and protect a business.

“The distinct nature of cybercrime makes it borderless and anonymous. Cybercriminals can come from anywhere and as they take advantage of the COVID-19 situation, they pose a significant threat to businesses of all sizes with costly consequences,” said Kelly Bissell, who leads Accenture Security globally. “This strategic relationship brings together two leading global players and will give Vodafone customers access to leading cybersecurity talent and industry expertise globally.”

Vodafone Business managed security services will launch later this year to SME and national corporate sized businesses, initially in Italy and Spain with the United Kingdom and Germany to follow. These new services will align with the company’s core mobile, fixed, IoT and cloud portfolio solutions. In addition, they complement and build upon Vodafone’s existing cyber-as-a-service offerings for businesses of all sizes. 

About Vodafone

Vodafone is a leading technology communications company keeping society connected and building a digital future for everyone. 

Vodafone is focused on two scaled and differentiated regional platforms in Europe and Africa.  We operate mobile and fixed networks in 22 countries and partner with mobile networks in 48 more.  As at 31 March 2020 we had over 300m mobile customers, more than 27m fixed broadband customers and over 22m TV customers.

We connect for a better future.  We are optimistic about how technology and connectivity can enhance the future and improve people’s lives. Through our business, we aim to build a digital society that enhances socio-economic progress, embraces everyone and does not come at the cost of our planet. That is why we have committed to improve one billion lives and halve our environmental impact by 2025.

For more information, please visit: www.vodafone.com.

About Accenture Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services in strategy and consulting, interactive, technology and operations, with digital capabilities across all of these services. We combine unmatched experience and specialized capabilities across more than 40 industries — powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. With 513,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture brings continuous innovation to help clients improve their performance and create lasting value across their enterprises. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

Accenture Security

Accenture Security helps organizations build resilience from the inside out, so they can confidently focus on innovation and growth. Leveraging its global network of cybersecurity labs, deep industry understanding across client value chains and services that span the security lifecycle, Accenture helps organizations protect their valuable assets, end-to-end. With services that include strategy and risk management, cyber defense, digital identity, application security and managed security, Accenture enables businesses around the world to defend against known sophisticated threats, and the unknown. Follow us @AccentureSecure on Twitter or visit us at www.accenture.com/security.

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