Lindsay Zwart (Vodafone NZ)
Vodafone NZ is launching a software-as-a-service (SaaS) management platform designed to help Kiwi businesses achieve maximum value from their Microsoft 365 investments.
The company, best known as a telco, was recently awarded Microsoft’s gold premier partner status and is the first to bring the platform to Aotearoa/New Zealand in an exclusive partnership with Microsoft independent solution vendor CoreView.
CoreView’s flagship SaaS management platform provided a single-interface view of the Microsoft 365 suite in a business, offering advanced management functionality, Vodafone said.
The platform allows businesses to manage and optimise Microsoft 365 licenses, identify security vulnerabilities and application misconfigurations and to drive adoption through automated campaigns.
Research conducted by CoreView of over five million Microsoft 365 users worldwide found that forty per cent of Microsoft 365 licenses are unassigned, inactive or oversized and that less than half of purchased Microsoft 365 services were adopted.
“For most businesses, a sizeable chunk of budget is spent on essential business tools included in the Microsoft 365 suite," Vodafone NZ enterprise director Lindsay Zwart said.
"Often, it can be difficult to keep track of licenses and applications involved in the subscription, let alone knowing what the end user will and won’t need to use."
The functionality of CoreView meant Vodafone NZ could give customers more power over their Microsoft SaaS investments, improved operational efficiency and optimised product usage.
Microsoft NZ general manager Vanessa Sorenson said CoreView was fully endorsed by Microsoft.
“As an independent solution vendor, CoreView is part of our cloud services partner program," Sorenson said.
"We are therefore really excited to see that another of our trusted partners, Vodafone NZ, has secured an exclusive agreement with CoreView to provide this platform here.”
Last October, Zwart told investors that Vodafone aimed to be NZ’s most trusted digital provider through market leading cloud services and strategic partnerships.
Vodafone NZ would partner for expertise, market scale, significant investments and thought leadership, she said, while value-added procurement services would be "attached to all deals".
There had been strong uptake of early offerings and a solid pipeline of new cloud products and services were set to be released in market in the near term, she said.
CoreView CEO Michael A Morrison said the CoreView platform addressed challenges common to most businesses, regardless of size, region, or industry.
"Companies that adopt the CoreView SaaS management platform report immediate value in the actionable insights and administrative efficiencies provided through the granular data collection and analytic capabilities,” he said.
