26 / 102
Principal risk
Context
Mitigating actions
Strategic
Objective
4
Technology
failure
Speed of impact:
Very rapid
<6 months
Our customer value proposition is
based on the reliable availability of
our high-quality network. A major
failure in critical network or IT assets
– for example, through natural
disasters, insufficient preventative
maintenance, or malicious attack
– would have a profound impact on
our customers, revenues and
reputation.
•
We invest significantly in maintaining and upgrading
our network on an ongoing basis, and ensuring
availability of adequate redundancy capabilities
where feasible.
•
Business continuity, disaster recovery and resilience
policy requirements are built into our network and IT
infrastructure.
•
We are self-providing transmission links on critical
routes in our networks to reduce reliance on
external parties.
•
Comprehensive insurance policies are in place.
5
Failure to
deliver on
customer
experience
Speed of impact:
Rapid
6-12 months
Failure to deliver a differentiated and
superior experience to our
customers in-store, online and/or
over the phone, could diminish our
brand and reputation, impacting
revenue growth. Associated risks
include: a failure to provide high-
quality customer service through
our call centres, online portals and
complaints’ handling; not providing
customers with fair, easy-to-
understand tariffs; not preventing or
managing roaming or bill shocks.
•
We have prioritised the customer experience as a key
component of our strategy, and we have implemented
a CARE programme (Connectivity, Always in control,
Rewarding loyalty, Easy access) to ensure that our
customers are always top-of-mind when designing
products and services.
•
We are implementing IT transformation initiatives as
the vehicle for delivering a great customer experience,
high-quality, reliable systems, improving our time-to-
market and enabling best-in-class digital capabilities.
•
We communicate with our customers clearly and
transparently, particularly with regard to tariffs and
roaming costs, and we provide a leading customer
experience through our MyVodacom app and online
channels.
•
We track and monitor our performance in delivering a
superior customer experience through various metrics,
the most important being our net promoter score
(NPS).
6
Unstable
economic
and market
conditions
Speed of impact:
Rapid
6-12 months
Volatile macroeconomic conditions
– such as fluctuating foreign
exchange, inflation and interest
rates – could weaken consumer and
enterprise spend, reduce customer
revenue, and impact negatively on
operating costs and capital
expenditure.
•
We closely monitor macroeconomic conditions within
our key markets.
•
We include contingencies in our business plans to
provide for the negative operational impacts that
could arise from lower economic growth, and changes
in interest, inflation and exchange rates.
•
We implement hedging instruments to compensate
for extreme fluctuations in interest and exchange
rates.
•
We have implemented a global cost-savings
programme to combat the effects of inflationary
pressure on costs.
•
We continue to optimise our cost of financing and
increase maturity levels of debt.
Our principal risks
continued
Vodacom Group Limited
Integrated report for the year ended 31 March 2017
22