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1 INSERT COMPANY LOGO HERE Frost & Sullivan 1 We Accelerate Growth

2 Contents Background and Company Performance... 3 Industry Challenges... 3 Visionary Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact of Vodafone... 5 Conclusion Significance of Company of the Year Understanding Company of the Year Key Benchmarking Criteria Best Practice Award Analysis for Vodafone Decision Support Scorecard Visionary Innovation & Performance Customer Impact Decision Support Matrix The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards Research Methodology Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan 2 We Accelerate Growth

3 Background and Company Performance Industry Challenges European businesses are gradually moving their communications and customer care solutions to the cloud as they look to reduce upfront technology investment costs and gain greater flexibility. Hosted/cloud services also help reduce service fees for initial configuration and installation and eliminate the expense and hassle of integrating multiple, disparate premises-based unified communications and collaboration (UCC) and contact center solutions. They replace variable premises-based infrastructure and software maintenance and management costs with predictable monthly service fees and enable flexible and economical capacity adjustments. Hosted/cloud solutions also provide costeffective business continuity/ disaster recovery (BC/DR) through redundant connections and mobile device integration. Even more important, hosted/cloud solutions help improve business agility and provide a competitive edge. They free up internal resources for more strategic tasks and provide access to the superior technology expertise of hosted providers. They reduce technology obsolescence risks and enable the delivery of telephony, UCC and contact center features based on user needs independent of their physical location or underlying infrastructure. Moreover hosting makes critical applications affordable and justifiable for a wider market, including small/midsized businesses (SMBs) and public-sector agencies, which play a much larger role in the European economy than they do in the U.S. These private and public organizations can take advantage of the pay-as-you-go feature of hosting, allowing them to add capabilities as budgets permit, and if need be, to scale them back. With strained economic conditions in Europe, organizations of all sizes are looking at new ways to implement technology to lower operating costs while maintaining or improving the operation levels of their contact centers and general workforce. At the same time they are mindful of having to comply with strict regulations such as the European Union s Data Protection Directive as adopted by the Member States. As organizations increasingly acknowledge the potential benefits of cloud technologies they are rapidly adopting hosted communications and contact center solutions. With projected user and revenue growth rates between 25 and 30 percent for the next five years, the European hosted Internet Protocol (IP) telephony and UCC services market presents significant growth opportunities to both European service providers and market participants from other regions. The hosted contact center market is also gaining traction it is expected to grow at a 17 percent compound annual growth rate over the next five years. The hosted solution share of EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) contact center seats is forecasted to rise from 8.2 percent in 2013 to 20.2 percent by The UK, Germany, France, and the Nordic Frost & Sullivan 3 We Accelerate Growth

4 countries are the four largest hosted contact center markets share-wise in EMEA. Of these the UK market is by far the largest, with a 26 percent share, while the second largest, Germany, has a 15 percent share. These rapidly evolving markets also present challenges to market participants. Competition is intensifying and new providers are constantly entering the market. Most providers are looking to offer a convenient one-stop shop for their customers by providing a broad array of hosted features and capabilities at compelling bundle prices. Yet many providers are still lacking key capabilities demanded by businesses and public sector organizations today, including mobile device integration, instant messaging (IM) and presence, advanced conferencing and collaboration tools, and contact center. Service provider flexibility and ability to innovate and rapidly respond to evolving customer needs has been hampered by the use of third-party platforms and dependence upon technology vendors product evolution vision and roadmaps. Many providers are also unable to address diverse customer needs and typically focus on a single customer segment. In fact, the majority of European hosted telephony/ucc providers have targeted primarily the small-business market, where demand for outsourced communications is the highest. Lack of contact center capabilities has been one of the key impediments to provider penetration among medium-size and large organizations. At the same time hosted contact center providers must demonstrate that their solutions deliver a high degree of reliability, security, and regulatory compliance in order to attract and retain clients who are accustomed to those vital attributes in premises-based installations. Service disruption can significantly hinder further cloud/hosted contact center adoption, if not addressed efficiently. The EMEA hosted contact center market is new and highly de-centralized. It is, therefore, difficult for customers to differentiate among the different services to determine which best suits their requirements. The market has witnessed the entry of niche participants, many of which have been unable to sustain their presence or positively impact the market. The subsequent market exit by unsuccessful providers has soured those enterprises that had signed up on the viability of cloud contact center solutions. As a result they understandably often hold back from migrating to the cloud until dominant market participants arise with go-to cloud-hosted solutions. Finally, many providers have limited presence outside their home country. This prevents them from effectively supporting multi-national, distributed enterprises or expanding their operations in new markets for greater scale and further growth. Hosted IP telephony/ucc and contact center providers that overcome these challenges are best positioned to accelerate growth and expand market share. Providers with a more diversified portfolio comprised of a broad applications set including telephony, messaging, Frost & Sullivan 4 We Accelerate Growth

5 mobility, and contact center will be more successful in addressing diverse customer needs. For example, contact center providers which offer value-add services such as self-service and customization, and which provide application scalability and BC/DR differentiate from providers just hosting the applications and position themselves as full-fledged cloud solution providers. Effectively designed service bundles targeting different customer segments can help such providers capitalize on existing opportunities in the highly competitive and still growing small-business market, as well as enjoy an early-mover advantage in the relatively untapped mid-size and large-enterprise market. Finally, providers with a broad geographic footprint can provide a greater value proposition to local small and medium-size businesses as well as large multi-national corporations (MNCs). A provider possessing all these competitive attributes a diversified product portfolio, competitive pricing, international presence and a strong brand can most effectively serve customers and sustain a leadership position. Visionary Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact of Vodafone Through a visionary strategy and execution excellence Vodafone has gained a leadership position in the European hosted/cloud IP telephony/ucc and hosted contact center markets. Multiple factors are contributing to its success, including: the identification of key mega trends; effective implementation of growth strategies; strong financial performance; superior price/performance value; excellent customer purchasing experience; and considerable brand equity. Visionary Scenarios through Mega Trends Visionary market leaders most effectively identify unmet customer needs and incorporate key market trends in their growth strategies. More specifically, their long-term success is determined by the ability to identify and properly address mega trends. Mega trends are global, sustained, and macro-economic forces of development that are transformational to business, economy, society, cultures, and personal lives, thereby defining our future world and its increasing pace of change. Understanding mega trends can help market participants develop sustainable growth strategies and prepare to more effectively address new market challenges and opportunities. With the launch of its One Net services in 2008, Vodafone bet on two mega trends that have been shaping customer demand since then cloud and mobility. Vodafone was a pioneer of cloud/hosted business voice services in Europe and continues to demonstrate thought leadership through continued services portfolio diversification, product feature/functionality enhancements and prompt identification of new market opportunities. Many providers now acknowledge the opportunities arising from growing demand for cloud/hosted communications, collaboration and customer care solutions. However, Vodafone enjoys a considerable advantage as one of the earliest entrants in the cloud Frost & Sullivan 5 We Accelerate Growth

6 telephony market. The company is able to leverage its long track record and experience in the industry to adjust its hosted services portfolio and product feature/functionality to more effectively accommodate evolving customer needs. Vodafone s hosted/cloud UCC and contact center solutions have evolved and matured to satisfy the most stringent customer and prospect requirements for service reliability and security. Vodafone ranks among the few providers that can offer tight integration of wireline and mobile communications. As business users become increasingly mobile, companies are looking to more effectively enable worker productivity on the go. Vodafone s One Net services provide some of the most compelling mobile capabilities available in the European hosted communications market today. Through native, network-based integration One Net Express and One Net Business Services provide mobile users with convenient access to business communications applications without the need for a client download or the cost and complexity of on-site mobile-wireline integration. Vodafone also supports the growing number of remote workers, including contact center agents. Organizations are turning to the home/remote working model to lower facilities costs, provide more flexibility and scalability, expand talent pools, attract and retain top talent with work/life balance benefits, reduce tardiness caused by transport delays, and to support green initiatives and BC/DR strategies. This has given rise to the virtual organization another key mega trend shaping the way we work today. Vodafone s hosted IP telephony, UCC and hosted contact center services provide considerable benefits to such distributed organizations. Indeed it is fair to say that Vodafone has moved beyond hosting in the strictest sense of the word to becoming a true cloud services provider in the contact center, IP telephony, and UCC markets. Recently, Vodafone once again demonstrated its ability to successfully identify unmet customer needs. Even as competition in the hosted IP telephony and UCC services market intensifies and compels providers to continually expand their product and feature set, few have launched advanced contact center services that integrate with their hosted UCC solutions. Businesses and public-sector-organizations are looking to integrate their contact center solutions with the rest of the enterprise communications capabilities in order to be able to more quickly and effectively resolve customer issues, improve customer satisfaction and retention rates, and accelerate growth. As customer organizations increasingly outsource their communications solutions, they will expect their providers to integrate hosted UCC solutions with hosted contact center capabilities. Vodafone has responded to that need with the integration of a contact center services portfolio through the Cable & Wireless provider acquisition and the launch of a new hosted contact center offering based on Cisco infrastructure. Implementation Best Practices Vodafone s pioneering market entry has partly driven the decision to use an internally developed hosted communications platform. Many providers leverage hosted IP telephony Frost & Sullivan 6 We Accelerate Growth

7 platforms developed by third-party vendors, which increases their costs and limits their ability to innovate and promptly respond to evolving customer needs. By using its own technology, Vodafone has the flexibility to develop new products or features as soon as it perceives rising demand among its existing or prospective customers. Vodafone accurately assessed the opportunities for hosted/cloud services adoption among different customer segments and first targeted its One Net services at underserved small and medium-size businesses (SMBs). Due to their more limited financial resources and IT staff, SMBs are the early adopters of outsourced communications solutions. To date, SMBs account for more than three quarters of the total hosted IP telephony installed base globally, proving the substantial demand for such solutions in this customer segment. Furthermore, Vodafone demonstrated great vision and thought leadership by making the solution simple to deploy, use and manage, and by focusing on mobility from the very beginning. Vodafone has leveraged its strength in the areas of global voice, managed mobility and IP networks and its considerable expertise in carrier and hosting services to differentiate its converged One Net service with strong mobile capabilities and integrated billing and management. Vodafone has excellent cloud hosting capability, flexibility, scalability, and BC/DR functionality. The Vodafone Cloud and Hosting Services unit has 14 data centers located in Ireland, South Africa, and the U.K., as well as access to other data centers through partners. The geographic spread or geo-redundancy of its data centers assures service continuity as it is highly unlikely that one or two single events will knock all of its centers off-line. As the hosted IP telephony and cloud UCC market matures, Vodafone is preparing to compete in the next phase of market evolution. Larger businesses with multiple geographically dispersed sites are now beginning to adopt hosted communication solutions for the flexibility and cost efficiencies in supporting mobile and remote workers. However, these businesses have different requirements from those of SMBs. Vodafone has partnered with Cisco and Microsoft to leverage their respective advanced UCC technologies to tap into this new segment of larger customer organizations. With the comprehensive capabilities of Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) and Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Lync, Vodafone can address the needs of large enterprise customers that are looking for more advanced features and a greater degree of customization and integration with other communications and business applications. One of the key additional capabilities required by larger businesses is contact center, which Vodafone has now integrated with its UCC offerings in order to offer a one-stop shop to customers demanding more comprehensive solutions. Frost & Sullivan 7 We Accelerate Growth

8 Financial Performance With about 3.5 million One Net service users at the end of 2013, Vodafone is the undisputed leader in the European hosted IP telephony and UCC services market and it continues to grow rapidly. From mid-2013 to mid-2014, Vodafone added approximately 300,000 new users, significantly more than any other European or global provider. Vodafone s success with One Net and its adjacent services is also evident in its continued global expansion. In 2013 and 2014, the company launched One Net for SMBs services in new markets to achieve presence in 11 markets. One Net Enterprise is now available in 17 markets, with more market launches pending. One Net Enterprise-Cisco launched last year is currently available in the UK. Expanding One Net availability is accompanied by the extension of Office 365 in 23 markets. One Net Collaboration, which integrates One Net services with Office 365, is launched in three European markets. The acquisition of Cable & Wireless contact center assets provided Vodafone with a solid start in the hosted contact center space. Today, Vodafone boasts over 150 cloud/hosted contact center customers, more than 100,000 configured hosted agents, and contact center systems running 7.44 billion call minutes of customer interaction traffic. Vodafone has existing hosted contact center deployments in the UK, India, South Africa, and New Zealand. The new, Cisco technology-based contact center service is currently available in the UK with planned geographic expansion for the near future. Overall, Vodafone is tremendously successful with its hosted telephony, UCC and contact center solutions. With a strong focus on international expansion, service enhancements, new product launches, technology integration, partner enablement and addressing specific customer needs, it is well positioned to further improve its market positioning going forward. An example of Vodafone s promising pipeline is a recent contract with Aviva, the global insurance company. Vodafone will be supporting 12,000 Aviva contact center agents at multiple Irish and UK sites with Vodafone Contact Centre, Vodafone One Net Enterprise, and Vodafone IP-VPN. As part of a seven-year agreement announced in July 2014 Aviva agents will have new collaboration tools for document sharing, instant messaging and conferencing services sometime in early Price/Performance Value Leadership Vodafone offers three different flavors of One Net for SMBs and larger enterprises. One Net Express, One Net Business and One Net Enterprise variously match features and functionality to the intended customer audience. All three services offer compelling capabilities and excellent performance and are priced based on the value delivered in each package. One Net Express delivers essential private branch exchange (PBX) functionality to users mobile devices. This solution offers the most compelling value to mobile professionals, Frost & Sullivan 8 We Accelerate Growth

9 entrepreneurs and small office/home office (SOHO) workers. One Net Business allows businesses to use both IP desktop phones and mobile devices with the hosted PBX solution. This solution is most suitable for SMBs with both deskbound and mobile workers. Both solutions were designed from the ground up with SMBs in mind. As cloud solutions, One Net Express and Business provide a flexible and economical way for SMBs with small IT budgets and limited IT staff to deploy communications technologies. They are simple and easy to deploy and use, yet provide the key functionality and performance reliability required by this customer segment. One Net services offer enterprise telephony features such as hunt groups, music on hold, auto attendant and extension dialing without the high CAPEX and management complexity associated with deploying a premises-based PBX system. Both services are competitively priced, starting as low as 25 Euros per user per month. Most businesses sign two-year contracts, which typically entitle them to price discounts and a waiver on installation and set-up charges. A core Vodafone solution differentiators among European hosted telephony and UCC offerings and a major value-add for customers is the One Net mobility element. Few competing providers have launched compelling mobility solutions, which gives Vodafone a considerable competitive advantage in the hosted communications marketplace and enables it to provide superior value to its customers. Many small businesses are using mobile phones as their primary communications endpoints, which makes Vodafone One Net a perfect fit for their needs. One Net for SMBs turns mobile devices into virtual landlines and extensions of the company s communications system. Users receive landline numbers on their mobile devices with as many area codes as required as well as the ability to redirect calls from any landline phone to a mobile phone free of charge. Furthermore, calls from One Net users to fixed lines and mobile phones are routed through the Vodafone mobile virtual private network (VPN), which makes it less expensive to call users in other office locations and enables extension dialing from mobile devices for greater user convenience. Vodafone also offers a compelling solution to larger enterprises. One Net Enterprise (based on Vodafone s home-grown platform) adds conferencing and collaboration capabilities to the PBX feature set to enable more effective collaboration among distributed teams and remote workers. In addition to telephony, One Net Enterprise also offers voice and/or unified messaging, web conferencing and file sharing, video calling and other features. In addition, Vodafone now offers One Net Enterprise based on Cisco s HCS. Targeted at large organizations with more diverse user needs, the solution extends a comprehensive Frost & Sullivan 9 We Accelerate Growth

10 suite of applications including telephony, voice/unified messaging, presence and instant messaging (IM), conferencing and collaboration, mobility and contact center. Similar to One Net for SMBs, One Net Enterprise is offered on a utility-based pricing model, however with its feature set and architecture it is most economical for distributed multi-site businesses. Vodafone One Net Enterprise is available in three different packages, offering the best price/performance value to customers with different needs: Basic: includes telephony with a full PBX feature set, support for one standard IP phone, and optional voic . Standard: includes telephony with a full PBX feature set, support for one client or device which can be a mobile phone with basic FMC features, video-calling, optional voic /unified messaging, and instant messaging via a Jabber client. Enhanced: includes telephony with a full PBX feature set, support for up to ten clients/devices which may include a mobile phone with a rich set of mobility/fmc features, video-calling, voic (with optional unified messaging), and instant messaging via a Jabber client. Vodafone also targets the large enterprise customer segment with its hosted UCC product line based on Microsoft technology, which includes private dedicated Lync, SharePoint and Exchange services. Vodafone recently enhanced the value of its hosted/cloud IP communications offerings with the acquisition of Cable & Wireless contact center solutions and the launch of new Cisco-based contact center services. The new offering enables multi-channel customer support through voice, web, and , as well as through social and mobile apps. It also provides optional media recording, workforce optimization and analytics capabilities. Vodafone also has powerful call handling capabilities with Vodafone Voice Interaction services which offers IVR self-service and call direction to contact center agents in either dual-tone multi-frequency or speech recognition modes. The speech system has a 90 percent (or better) recognition rate. Organizations can select from pre-existing templates or have Vodafone customize their IVR applications. Vodafone hosted/cloud contact center offerings help businesses realize greater benefits from their hosted communications services deployments while reducing implementation and integration costs associated with disparate, multi-vendor UCC and contact center technologies deployed on the premises. Frost & Sullivan 10 We Accelerate Growth

11 With a range of cloud IP telephony, UCC and contact center solutions that offer compelling functionality at competitive pricing, Vodafone provides greater price/performance value to its customers than most other European providers. Customer Purchase Experience Vodafone s extensive footprint allows it to address a broad customer audience, including local small businesses as well as large MNCs with multiple distributed locations. With local presence in most countries combined with centralized global products and services capabilities Vodafone is better positioned than most of its competitors to provide a superior purchasing experience to customers. The majority of competitors in this market are either local incumbents or small next-generation providers that cannot compete on the same level as Vodafone. Furthermore, its extensive geographic reach allows Vodafone to more economically scale its operations which translates into economies for its business customers. Vodafone s broad geographic reach enables the provider to effectively serve the needs of MNCs looking to consolidate their communications infrastructure and technology management across multiple locations. This capability is an advantage in the rapidly growing but still very fragmented European hosted IP telephony, UCC and contact center services market. With most providers focused on the small business space, Vodafone is one of few providers able to deliver greater value to large distributed organizations. Vodafone offers a variety of purchasing options to address different customer needs and preferences for technology acquisition and deployment. SMBs can quickly and easily purchase One Net on Vodafone s web site and deploy the solution in just a few days. Alternatively, businesses can work with Vodafone project managers who can provide a comprehensive evaluation of customers communications needs and assets and assist them with the service implementation. Vodafone account managers assist clients with the ongoing management of their communications solutions, including conducting regular service performance reviews. Vodafone staff also utilize proactive network monitoring tools to remotely diagnose and resolve technical issues. Vodafone further enhances the user experience by providing various additional capabilities that can boost the value of its hosted telephony and UCC services. One Net can be conveniently bundled with other Vodafone offerings such as its Red Plan or Sharer Plan, which add buckets of minutes and text/sms messages to the feature packages. Users can share minutes and text allowances with their colleagues. Also, Vodafone-to-Vodafone mobile calls as well as all internal calls are free (i.e., included in the package). Since Vodafone is both a fixed and mobile network operator, it provides a true one-stop shop for business customers mobile and fixed communications requirements. Customers receive a unified bill for their converged landline and mobile communications, making purchasing and managing the solution both more convenient and economical. Frost & Sullivan 11 We Accelerate Growth

12 One Net for SMBs is available in 11 different countries wherein each is tailored to local customer needs and channels. This allows Vodafone to scale its operations and leverage more extensive and diverse customer feedback in ongoing product development, while at the same time providing unique value to local customers. Adding minutes, devices or desktop or mobile user licenses is simple and involves only incremental charges. Vodafone One Net solutions support market leading Cisco desktop IP phones and Polycom conferencing phones, as well as most mobile devices available on the market today. This allows customers the flexibility to use mobile devices of their choice, including userpurchased mobiles if the company has a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy. If any of the devices provided by Vodafone malfunctions, the provider replaces them free of charge within 24 hours. Vodafone s new One Net Enterprise solution is tailored to the needs of larger businesses that require a more consultative needs assessment and a higher degree of customization. Vodafone has more than 1,000 sales staff dedicated to selling solutions for MNCs. The provider has abundant in-house resources such as solution architects, mobility experts, technical assistants, communication consultants and others who help with the deployment and ongoing management of communications solutions for MNCs. Beyond MNCs, Vodafone also has a considerable reach amongst large national and other business customers. Overall, it has more than 5,000 business-to-business (B2B) sales staff around the world. One Net Enterprise is available in 17 countries with more market launches pending. The availability in multiple European countries enables Vodafone to provide uniform capabilities and convenient service deployment and management to distributed organizations with presence in more than one country. Vodafone s hosted contact center offerings are also supported through a broad set of services capabilities providing customers with a superior purchasing experience. Vodafone designs its hosted contact center solutions based on customers business objectives, employing a consultative approach and migration planning strategies. It leverages specialist teams comprising of pre-sales and solution consultants that help with the sales process as well as the service implementation. Vodafone supports its hosted/cloud contact center deployments with training services, which ensure implementation success and greater customer satisfaction. Vodafone s hosted contact center solutions are delivered under a flexible, pay-as-you-go pricing structure with a combination of per-user, percustomer and per-port fees. One-off charges apply to handsets and headsets, connectors, customized integration and various optional services. Overall, Vodafone provides a convenient and effective purchasing experience for a broad spectrum of customer organizations with diverse technology needs. Frost & Sullivan 12 We Accelerate Growth

13 Brand Equity Vodafone ranks among the largest communications service providers in world. The provider owns and operates networks in 21 countries and uses partner networks in over 40 additional countries. The Vodafone Global Enterprise division provides telecommunications and IT services to corporate clients in over 65 countries. Vodafone s brand is well known among both consumers and business customers. It brand equity inspires trust and boosts the adoption of new solutions launched by the company. As the hosted IP telephony/ucc and contact center markets mature, market share and brand will become increasingly important and are likely to provide Vodafone with a competitive advantage. Conclusion Vodafone holds a strong leadership position in the European hosted IP telephony and UCC services market. With a broad solutions portfolio and compelling functionality delivered at competitive price points, Vodafone has achieved a remarkable market share of 56.7 percent of the total installed user base, in spite of regional macro-economic challenges and competitive landscape fragmentation. Vodafone is also in the process of strengthening its hosted contact center offerings to become value-added cloud services. This is opening up new growth opportunities for the provider, both as standalone services and as adjuncts to its hosted telephony and UCC solutions. Vodafone offers superior value to its customers looking for a one-stop-shop experience for hosted communications and customer care solutions. With its strong overall performance, Vodafone has earned Frost & Sullivan s 2014 Company of the Year Award. Frost & Sullivan 13 We Accelerate Growth

14 Significance of Company of the Year To win the Company of the Year award (i.e., to be recognized as a leader not only in your industry, but among your non-industry peers as well) requires a company to demonstrate excellence in growth, innovation, and leadership. This kind of excellence typically translates into superior performance in three key areas: demand generation, brand development, and competitive positioning. These areas serve as the foundation of a company s future success and prepare it to deliver on the two criteria that define the Company of the Year Award (Visionary Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact). This concept is explored further below. Understanding Company of the Year As discussed above, driving demand, brand strength, and competitive differentiation all play a critical role in delivering unique value to customers. This three-fold focus, however, must ideally be complemented by an equally rigorous focus on visionary innovation to enhance customer value and impact. Frost & Sullivan 14 We Accelerate Growth

15 Key Benchmarking Criteria For the Company of the Year Award, we evaluated two key factors Visionary Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact according to the criteria identified below. Visionary Innovation & Performance Criterion 1: Addressing Unmet Needs Criterion 2: Visionary Scenarios through Mega Trends Criterion 3: Implementation Best Practices Criterion 4: Blue Ocean Strategy Criterion 5: Financial Performance Customer Impact Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience Criterion 5: Brand Equity Best Practice Award Analysis for Vodafone Decision Support Scorecard To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation; ratings guidelines are illustrated below. RATINGS GUIDELINES The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Visionary Innovation & Performance and Customer Impact (i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the definitions for each criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team confirms the veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which confirms that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies. Frost & Sullivan 15 We Accelerate Growth

16 The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3. DECISION SUPPORT SCORECARD FOR COMPANY OF THE YEAR AWARD (ILLUSTRATIVE) Measurement of 1 10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent) Company of the Year Visionary Innovation & Performance Customer Impact Average Rating Vodafone Competitor Competitor Visionary Innovation & Performance Criterion 1: Addressing Unmet Needs Requirement: Implementing a robust process to continuously unearth customers unmet or under-served needs, and creating the products or solutions to address them effectively Criterion 2: Visionary Scenarios through Mega Trends Requirement: Incorporating long-range, macro-level scenarios into the innovation strategy, thereby enabling first to market growth opportunities solutions Criterion 4: Implementation Best Practices Requirement: Best-in-class strategy implementation characterized by processes, tools, or activities that generate a consistent and repeatable level of success. Criterion 3: Blue Ocean Strategy Requirement: Strategic focus in creating a leadership position in a potentially uncontested market space, manifested by stiff barriers to entry for competitors Criterion 5: Financial Performance Requirement: Strong overall business performance in terms of revenues, revenue growth, operating margin and other key financial metrics Customer Impact Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar offerings in the market Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience Requirement: Customers feel like they are buying the most optimal solution that addresses both their unique needs and their unique constraints Frost & Sullivan 16 We Accelerate Growth

17 Customer Impact BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company s product or service, and have a positive experience throughout the life of the product or service Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality Criterion 5: Brand Equity Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty Decision Support Matrix Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard, analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at best-in-class levels. DECISION SUPPORT MATRIX FOR COMPANY OF THE YEAR AWARD (ILLUSTRATIVE) High Vodafone Competitor 3 Competitor 2 Low Low Visionary Innovation & Performance High Frost & Sullivan 17 We Accelerate Growth

18 The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards Research Methodology Frost & Sullivan s 360-degree research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360-degree-view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Too often, companies make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. The integration of these research disciplines into the 360-degree research methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at bestin-class levels. 360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN THE CHAOS Frost & Sullivan 18 We Accelerate Growth

19 Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices Our awards team follows a 10-step process (illustrated below) to evaluate award candidates and assess their fit with our best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of our awards process are based on close adherence to this process. STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT 1 Monitor, target, and screen Identify award recipient candidates from around the globe Conduct in-depth industry research Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all bestpractice criteria 2 Perform 360-degree research Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners Assess candidates fit with best-practice criteria Rank all candidates Matrix positioning all candidates performance relative to one another 3 Invite thought leadership in best practices Perform in-depth examination of all candidates Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all candidates Identify any information gaps Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates 4 Initiate research director review Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives on candidates performance Update candidate profiles Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper 5 Assemble panel of industry experts Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders Share findings Strengthen cases for candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates Refined list of prioritized award candidates 6 Conduct global industry review Build consensus on award candidates eligibility Hold global team meeting to review all candidates Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all eligible candidates Final list of eligible award candidates, representing success stories worldwide 7 Perform quality check Develop official award consideration materials Perform final performance benchmarking activities Write nominations Perform quality review High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees successes 8 Reconnect with panel of industry experts Finalize the selection of the best-practice award recipient Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select winner Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria 9 Communicate recognition Inform award recipient of award recognition Present award to the CEO Inspire the organization for continued success Celebrate the recipient s performance Announcement of award and plan for how recipient can use the award to enhance the brand 10 Take strategic action Share award news with stakeholders and customers Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess award s role in future strategic planning Widespread awareness of recipient s award status among investors, media personnel, and employees Frost & Sullivan 19 We Accelerate Growth

20 About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit Frost & Sullivan 20 We Accelerate Growth