Vodacom Lesotho turns to Parcus Group for training and consulting support

African telecommunications giant Vodacom is making improvements to its customer service division, among others, in Lesotho. For support with the planned improvements, the firm has recruited Australian telecommunications consulting and training firm Parcus Group.

Based out of South Africa, Vodacom is a mobile service provider with offerings spanning the voice, data and converged services domains. The firm was established in 1994, and has since grown not only to become the biggest and most popular network in South Africa, but has expanded into Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho, serving a total of over 65 million customers.

Alongside its infrastructure and network services, the firm prides itself for its customer service, having attained the highest score amongst all network service providers on the South Africa customer service index (SAcsi) – conducted by Pretoria-based market research firm Consulta.

The firm scored just over 79 points out of 100 on the index, ahead of Telkom in second place with just under 77, and well ahead of MTN and Cell C. Nevertheless, as internet connectivity spreads wider across the continent, the firm is now looking to improve its operations outside of South Africa as well.

As a result, Vodacom Lesotho has signed an agreement with the Parcus Group, wherein the latter will provide a comprehensive package of services, including: optimisation of customer service; acceleration of the supply chain; an evaluation of products to measure their alignment with consumer needs; and the subsequent tweaking of product offerings.

Parcus Group is an Australian consulting firm, with a specific focus on telecom and information communication technology (ICT). Within these domains, the firm possesses a set of interactive analytics and software tools, which it leverages to offer training services and develop customised solutions. 

Within its training modules, the firm differentiates itself primarily through certain interactive practical application frameworks, which can be used once the training is complete in order to integrate the newly acquired knowledge into daily business operations.

Commenting on the Vodacom contract, Managing Director of Parcus Group Ifor Glavanic said, "This agreement with Vodacom Lesotho is another demonstration of how Parcus Group’s extensive experience in the delivery of industry specific training and consulting services benefits telecom carriers throughout the world. Our aim is to help our customers improve the speed and quality of service creation and new product development. At the same time our customers benefit from faster delivery of market competitive products via increased staff productivity and new skills.”

Ts’epo Thabisi, Executive head of Vodacom’s Consumer Business Unit added, “Vodacom Lesotho is committed to improving its capabilities as a customer-centric organisation. Parcus Group has demonstrated the skills and experience needed to help us achieve this. Their focus on business improvement together with the telecom-specific nature of their capability complements our market knowledge. We anticipate that this will have a positive impact on our organisation, and ultimately, our customers.”