Transforming the Vodafone/Ericsson Relationship

Abstract

In the context of global business, there is limited evidence or guidance as to how firms transform their existing physical in-country relationships into an IT-enabled global relationship. When one of the world’s largest mobile operators, Vodafone of the UK, joined with the world’s largest supplier of cellular network infrastructure, Ericsson of Sweden, the aim was to transform their relationship into a global and virtual one, enacted through an inter-organisational information system (IIS). This article explains how this transformation proceeded. The transformation was treated from the start as an improvisation. There was no fixed destination or project plan, only a shared acceptance that the benefits accruing to the two companies would be asymmetric. The resulting IIS, which both companies now call the eRelationship, allows for information sharing, communication, virtual teams, competence development, network support services, and product forecasting, ordering and tracking. We consider and analyse some key features of this case, namely the role of improvisation, the impact of horizontal organisational relationships, and the evaluation of the transformation and the IIS.