Despite today’s low-friction global economy, and the increasing adoption of international standards, understanding distinctions and preferences in local markets remain critical to the overall success of multi-national corporations (MNCs).
Put simply, one size rarely fits all
The same principle applies to businesses seeking to equip a global workforce with mobile communications. Despite being a relatively new sector – the world’s first commercially available mobile phone only reached the market in 1983 – mobile networks serve different needs in different countries and cultures. Local markets each have their own characteristics, driven by factors such as geography, regulation, population dispersion, and of course consumer demand.
This presents a challenge to MNCs. Do they seek to leverage their buying power by consolidating everything into one provider. Or do they instead simply allow each market to reach its own local arrangement.
By pursuing a ‘sole supplier’ contract the MNC may well secure exceptional commercial terms, yet find itself with inconsistent global coverage and a poor match between the needs in each region and the services provided under the master contract. By contrast, allowing each market to create its own solution could deliver a patchwork of contracts of differing lengths and terms, and without any cost advantages derived from the customer’s global scale.
Global communication without local compromise
The FreeMove Alliance is designed to help MNCs avoid having to succumb to these compromises. As representatives of four of Europe’s most respected and recognised networks – Orange, Telecom Italia, Deutsche Telekom and Telia – and spanning over 100 countries thanks to partnerships with other world leaders such as Swisscom and British Telecom, FreeMove is structured to support both efficient global planning, and effective local implementation. We bring both commercial and cultural awareness to the planning of mobile services to MNCs, along with the reliability and accountability of dealing with a single partner.
When working with FreeMove, each customer is provided with a Global Account Manager (GAM) who acts as a single point of contact. Their role is to understand the customers’ over-arching needs and co-ordinate the services of Local Account Managers within local markets to ensure the best possible solution is assembled from the ground up. The GAM then presents a harmonised ‘best of’ offer to the customer, compromising the strongest local offers, services and roaming capability. This hybrid model operates as follows:
Centrally delivered:
Global Account Management
International Implementation
Freemove Quality Portal and Quality Reviews
Locally delivered:
Local Account Management
Dedicated Support and helpdesk
Award-winning customer service
Nitin Bhas, Head of Research at Juniper Research summarised it as follows:
FreeMove’s glocal approach allows MNCs to benefit from the best of two worlds: the organization very efficiently coordinates the local national operators of its members while centralizing the management of all mobile services for multinationals by providing a single point of contact. This gives multinationals access to the top mobile networks worldwide while relieving the burden to manage a multitude of providers.
Put your global needs in the hands of global experts
As the world’s communications needs adapt to a new business environment, including leveraging the exciting opportunities of 5G, planning the effective provision of comprehensive, resilient, and cost-effective mobile communications has never been more important. Each year more global organisations turn to FreeMove to harness the benefits of our unique model. To find out more, please contact us!
