Vodafone UK launches Spend Manager today, a new range of services designed to enable better management of company mobile phones. Spend Manager is designed for large companies and organisations in the public sector and is comprised of three solutions: Split Bill, Mobile Salary Saver and Employee Discount Scheme.

Split Bill
Figures suggest that 1000 hours a month (1), in a business with 500 handsets are spent by employees trying to manage, identify and recover personal call charges - an administrative burden costing at least £64,200 per year (2). Split Bill is an online application that lets employees see their monthly call record and mark each call as either business related or personal. This gives businesses an easy and fast way to manage the process and cut admin costs by as much as 90% (3), freeing up valuable time.

Elaine Roberts, Head of Enterprise Marketing at Vodafone UK, explains: 'In our experience many businesses are frustrated by the time it takes to manage hundreds of paper bills and the time it steals from employees who must sift through the bills and highlight personal and business calls.

'We estimate that on average 15% of the calls made each month could be personal (4). Many employers have agreements in place with employees where they agree how personal calls made on a work mobile are paid for, but it can sometimes be a difficult process to manage. Split Bill eliminates all of the hassle and makes the administrative process easier to manage for everyone.”

Vodafone UK is also launching products to enhance the range of benefits employers can offer to their staff:

Mobile Salary Saver
Thanks to a partnership with Flexphone, this is a tax efficient way for companies to offer their employees a mobile phone for personal use. Mobile Salary Saver has been introduced to give employers an alternative employee offer following the Government’s announcement to remove the Home Computing Initiative. Employees can sacrifice a part of their pre-tax gross salary in return for a mobile phone connected to a Vodafone Retail price plan. These phones can be on pre-pay or a contract price plan.

Dependent on their salary, employees can make a saving of between 33 and 41 per cent on Vodafone consumer packages, phones and accessories. Employers will also be able to save up to 12.8% on National Insurance contributions. This service is only available on the Vodafone UK network.

Employee Discount Scheme
This gives companies the ability to offer employees an option to purchase mobile phones for their personal use, as well as for their friends and family, at a discounted rate. The discounted price is aligned with Vodafone UK’s online consumer rates on price plans and all users will receive a £40 Vodafone credit voucher on to their account on joining

Elaine Roberts continues: 'The launch of Mobile Salary Saver and the Employee Discount Scheme meet our customers’ needs to provide innovative and desirable benefits to their employees. Research shows that there are a number of critical factors that influence employee loyalty to a company. The Vodafone UK Working Nation report - entitled: ‘Loyalty at Work: what does it mean today?’(5) - established a strong link between the benefits employers give and employee loyalty. These two schemes give employers two very distinct ways to offer employees benefits and help drive employee loyalty.”

Employers who want to find out more about Spend Manager should visit www.vodafone.co.uk/businessspendmanager

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Notes to editors

1 Relates to Split Bill, Vodafone Research, July 2006. Sample base: 7,500 large sized companies (over 250 employees). On average 1000 hours a month was spent across an organisation (with 500 company provided mobile phones) managing bills.

2 Vodafone Research - 'A survey of end-users in the SME and Corporate sectors” undertaken by QED

Based on the average number of hours employees (in an organisation with 500 handset users) spend identifying personal and corporate charges as well as the administrative time spent distributing and collating paper statements to staff, multiplied by the minimum wage of £5.35/hour (1000 hours x 5.35 x 12 months = £64,200)

3 In trials Split Bill has reduced the end-to-end process of managing paper bills by around 90%  - from 2 hours to 12 minutes. A potential cost saving of £57,780 (i.e. 90% of £64,200).

4 Vodafone Research, on average 15% of calls made on a company provided handset are personal, in an organisation with 500 handsets                                                                                                      

5 The Working Nation report is available online at: www.vodafone.co.uk/workingnation 300 employers and 1000 employees across Britain were surveyed

For further information please contact:

Samantha Botting

Vodafone UK Media Relations

Tel: 0845 4444466

email: press.office@vodafone.com

About Vodafone UK
Vodafone UK has 16.3 million customers and is part of the world’s leading international mobile telecommunications Group, offering a wide range of voice and data communications. The company is committed to providing mobile solutions that allow both consumer and business customers to make the most of now. In addition, Vodafone connects customers across the globe with roaming agreements worldwide. It provides 3G roaming in 29 countries and offers great roaming value with Vodafone Passport. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.co.uk.

About Flexphone
Flexphone has been delivering mobile phones via salary sacrifice and flexible benefit for over 2½ years.   As Vodafone’s chosen partner to deliver Mobile Salary Saver, you have the assurance of a trusted mobile phone benefit scheme, which offers Vodafone’s competitive High Street price plans and allows both you and your employees to make considerable financial savings.

Flexphone was founded in August 2003 with tax partners BDO Stoy Hayward.  Initially a division of telecommunications specialist, Isis Telecommunications Management Ltd, winners of numerous customer service awards, Flexphone partnered exclusively with Vodafone UK in January 2006.  Later, in November 2006, Flexphone became independent of its parent company.  Led by the founding Directors of Isis and the architect of MoBill, the award winning customer service and billing platform, Flexphone retains the operating values, absolute commitment to service excellence and unique software capabilities of its originating company.

Flexphone Ltd aims to retain its position as the UK’s premier mobile phone benefit provider by continuing to deliver excellent service, quality, and innovation.