Al Futtaim Group, a major conglomerate with leading brand franchises, chooses alliance for software-driven network

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 19 October 2023 - Vodafone Business and e& marked a significant strengthening of their enterprise collaboration with the first joint major customer win after they unveiled a new strategic relationship in May this year.

At GITEX 2023 the world’s largest tech show today, Vodafone Business and e& also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) detailing how they will jointly market, sell and service businesses and public sector organisations across their respective footprint to support with their digital transformations. The two companies plan to work with existing multi-national enterprise customers that would benefit from their combined offerings, operational scale, and complementary geographic footprint.

Al-Futtaim Group, one of the largest family run conglomerates operating in diverse sectors such as automotive, retail, real estate, finance and health, is the first such customer to benefit from the new Vodafone Business and e& partnership. The Al-Futtaim Group chose this partnership because e& and Vodafone offers cross-border digital connectivity services, management and security in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while ensuring Al-Futtaim Group adheres to local laws and regulations.

As Al-Futtaim Group looks to expand in new markets, particularly with its dynamic retail franchise business, it needed a secure solution that could be quickly and cost-effectively scaled up. Al-Futtaim Group will use an advanced software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) from Vodafone with expert hybrid managed connectivity solutions provided by e& to advance its digital transformation and cloud adoption initially in eight countries.

Fánan Henriques, Vodafone Business International and EU-Cluster Director said: “I am delighted that Al-Futtaim Group has chosen the new Vodafone Business and e& partnership to usher in a new era of connectivity. We are a powerful force that can help accelerate the pace of digital transformation for many customers.

“We will now target the growth opportunities presented by the emergence of key trading corridors between the Middle East and Europe, and favourable regional macro-economic policies incentivising the deployment of digital infrastructure across both private and public sectors.”

Obaid Bokisha, Group Chief Operations Officer, e& Operations said: “I am looking forward to working and collaborating with Vodafone on this major project with Al Futtaim, taking this partnership to a whole new level ushering in a new era of digital acceleration for all our customers. Together we can empower possibilities and explore new frontiers of what is achievable. With our comprehensive digital first solutions we will continue to focus on driving synergies across our businesses, a testament to the strength of our partnership and value it will bring our customers.”

Vodafone Business and e& have defined principal areas of focus under their MOU agreement which include working closely with enterprise customers across markets, leveraging each other’s market capabilities and jointly offering cross-border digital services and solutions in accordance with applicable laws. This includes joint customer engagement and a cross market operating model to identify, explore, and secure new business opportunities.

The two companies will also jointly offer innovative and scaled digital products and services covering SD-WAN and SD-LAN, device life cycle management, Internet of Things (IoT), Mobile Private Networks, cloud solutions, and Unified collaboration and communication tools.

Hashtag: #VodafoneBusiness

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About Al-Futtaim Group

Al-Futtaim Group is one of the largest family run conglomerates operating in diverse sectors such as automotive, retail, real estate, finance and health. Al-Futtaim Group works with the world's most admired and innovate brands from across the globe – US, UK, Japan, Sweden, France, Germany – which trust Al-Futtaim Group with their own reputation and commercial success. Al-Futtaim Group was established in the 1930s as a trading business and is one of the most progressive regional family business houses headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

About Vodafone

Vodafone is the largest pan-European and African telecoms company. Our purpose is to connect for a better future by using technology to improve lives, digitalise critical sectors and enable inclusive and sustainable digital societies.

We provide mobile and fixed services to over 300 million customers in 17 countries, partner with mobile networks in 46 more and are also a world leader in the Internet of Things (IoT), connecting over 167 million devices and platforms. With Vodacom Financial Services and M-Pesa, the largest financial technology platform in Africa, we serve more than 71 million people across seven countries.

We are committed to reducing our environmental impact to reach net zero emissions by 2040, while helping our customers reduce their own carbon emissions by 350 million tonnes by 2030. We are driving action to reduce device waste and achieve our target to reuse, resell or recycle 100% of our network waste by 2025.

For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com, follow us on Twitter at @VodafoneGroup or connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/vodafone.

About e&

e& is one of the world’s leading technology and investment groups. With consolidated net revenue at AED 52.4 billion and consolidated net profit of AED 10 billion for 2022, its high credit ratings reflect the company’s strong balance sheet and proven long-term performance.

Founded in Abu Dhabi more than four decades ago as the UAE’s first telecommunications company, the Group now operates in 16 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

e& provides innovative digital solutions, smart connectivity and next-generation technologies to a variety of customer segments through its business pillars: etisalat by e&, e& international, e& life, e& enterprise and e& capital.

To learn more about e&, please visit: https://eand.com/