Here, Startups Magazine’s Sam Holland covers what services Vodafone Pulse Connect is offering to small businesses and ultimately what Vodafone is doing to help entrepreneurs. 

Vodafone Pulse Connect and what it offers small businesses 

Vodafone Pulse Connect is a single package for small businesses’ communications that spans mobile, broadband, and Cloud-based services. It allows business owners to pay for all the telecoms deals they need in one monthly package while also tailoring that package to their own, business-specific needs and preferences. For example, those companies that wish to simplify how their phone lines work may opt for Vodafone’s Cloud calling service, and they can also add new services to their existing package as and when the need arises. 

Vodafone Pulse Connect has been designed in response to the demands and pitfalls that SMEs encounter in their aims to stay connected with both their staff and their customers. The next subsections will cover the needs that such organisations, including startups, will have in their journey and what Pulse Connect can do to address such demands. 

The demand for security 

It is a sad fact of life that those who are unprepared are preyed on, and this experience especially applies to new business owners who are yet to find the time and other resources to implement the best cyber security systems. Accordingly, as part of the Vodafone Pulse Connect package, SMEs are offered protective systems such as Lookout Security and Cisco Meraki. These are respectively a threat detection system and a multi-functional threat management software. 

Vodafone says that this collectively offers small organisations ‘best-in-class’ security systems and explains on the ‘Cloud Solutions’ section of its site that those systems are scalable, customisable, and modular. Plus, Vodafone’s SME customers are offered interoperability between their legacy security technologies and newer models, which accommodates the many small businesses that are making an otherwise difficult transition between the old and the new. 

The demand for connectivity and flexibility 

Especially following the rise in lockdown-related remote working, modern enterprises must be prepared to adapt to ever-changing demands in the workplace and utilise fast and reliable Internet connectivity throughout. This is why Vodafone Pulse Connect offers a service that it calls its ‘easy to use configurator’, which allows company owners to tailor their telecoms preferences to their specific business needs and even receive rewards for purchasing additional services. This is crucial for smaller organisations who may otherwise struggle to pay for communications deals they don’t need, such as overpriced broadband tariffs. 

In fact, one development that arose at the time of writing is that Vodafone is now offering SMEs free broadband for one year due to the high cost of living and business running that have largely defined the late 2022 period. The deal will run from the 19th of October to the 24th of November, and it will further assist those SME entrepreneurs who have already benefited from Vodafone Pulse Connect’s configurator solution. 

The demand for support 

Of course, it is vital that business owners ensure that their SMEs and startups are secure, well-connected and flexible. But these qualities will not reach their full potential without the right support from the companies that help to provide them. 

Consider, for instance, Vodafone’s ‘V-Hub’. V-Hub is the company’s online platform that offers a forum for small businesses to connect, share their experiences, and delve into tools and training resources that are specific to SMEs. Vodafone.co.uk’s V-Hub section also has a link to its ‘Knowledge centre’ which provides advice articles on many aspects of modern business operations such as outsourcing and social media marketing. 

Putting all the above demands together, another key to supporting small organisations is in ensuring that the resources offered to SMEs and startups are both simple and fixed in nature. Accordingly, Vodafone Pulse Connect also offers what Vodafone calls its ‘Complete Solution’. 

Through its Complete Solution, Vodafone Pulse Connect ensures that customers are supported by a consolidated package of services (including Microsoft 365 for Business and Teams) rather than a disconnected series of communications systems. Such a solution ensures that small business owners are billed for everything their organisation needs in one monthly contract, which offers much-needed simplicity for the entrepreneurs who are already paying for multiple accounts. 

For innovation in SMEs, you need Disruptive Minds 

Vodafone Pulse Connect is offering small organisations the collective benefit of a secure, connected, flexible, and supportive package that has been designed with the demands and challenges of modern business in mind. 

Nevertheless, it is not just about what Vodafone can do for smaller businesses: it is also about what smaller businesses can do for Vodafone. It is evident from the company’s offerings that it is striving to build and maintain a community in business. And with such a community comes lessons that can be learned from entrepreneurs – from businesses of all sizes – about what does and doesn’t work when supporting up-and-coming organisations. 

In fact, Vodafone works with the Great British Entrepreneur Awards (GBEA) on its own initiative called Disruptive Minds. Disruptive Minds, to quote from its page on GBEA’s website, “bring[s] entrepreneurs together to share insights on the challenges they’ve faced and the lessons they’ve learned along the way”. 

Such an initiative has a variety of sessions (including webinars) that open up discussions of both the rough and the smooth side of running small organisations. Take the session entitled ‘Mental health in SMEs – how can you make wellbeing a priority in small businesses?’: this is just one example of Vodafone’s focus on the challenges of being a business owner – but also how entrepreneurs can rise to such challenges by understanding both themselves and others. 

Ultimately, and to reiterate, Vodafone and its Vodafone Pulse Connect package reflect the importance of strong communication in businesses – whether it’s internal communications, business-to-client communications, or (perhaps most importantly of all) communications across a whole community of businesses, both big and small.