Vodafone is targeting public and private sector inefficiencies with its new One Net Enterprise Cloud platform, combining fixed, mobile and desktop communications.

The telecoms giant hopes to boost staff collaboration and drive efficiency with the unified communications (UC) product by replacing multiple different communication channels used by organisations.

The cloud platform will include voice and video conferencing, instant messaging and other methods of communication to allow employees to collaborate "anytime, anywhere, on any device", according to the press release.

In a roundtable discussion yesterday, enterprise director Phil Mottram touted the service as one way the public and private sectors could save money and drive efficiency, in part because it does not rely on a public branch exchange (PBX) and supports a range of communications all hosted in Vodafone’s data centre.

"We’re taking all that functionality for both fixed line and mobile and essentially putting it in a Vodafone data centre," said Mottram. "We host the functionality in our network and if you deployed One Net today you don’t need a PBX, you’ve saved yourself that investment forever.

"Also because it’s both fixed and mobile infrastructure we can route calls so the cloud service pins you down and knows if you’re not at your desk and re-routes the call to your mobile."

Vodafone claims the platform offers predictable costs and requires little upfront investment.

Mottram added that customers trialling the service have experienced up to 34% cost savings compared to a PBX system, but the telecoms giant expects savings to average at around 25%.

"There’s a real opportunity for customers to move away from the old world to the new world, where Vodafone is hosting all that technology on its network and data centres," he said.

The service’s ability for anytime, anywhere communications would enable more flexible working too, Vodafone said, as it outlined ways the Government could save costs via mobile working and other methods.

Picture: Enterprise director Phil Mottram, courtesy of Vodafone