agenda21 Digital Unveils State of the Art New Innovation Platform 'Vodafone Labs'

Vodafone UK has launched a new site to showcase their latest technological innovations featuring TOBi, the first ever live chatbot in UK telecoms.

The new microsite, Vodafone Labs, for Vodafone UK is a central hub that will showcase the company's latest innovations in technology and act as a platform for attracting new talent to Vodafone’s digital team. Digital consultancy agenda21 worked in partnership with sister agency web design and build agency MMT Digital and Vodafone Digital to develop the launch version of Vodafone Labs in just two weeks.

Visitors to the Vodafone Labs site can experience cutting-edge Vodafone initiatives including TOBi, the first live chatbot in UK telecoms, and new voice authentication services which are being tested using Amazon’s Alexa. For prospective candidates, the site offers an introduction to the digital team, alongside details of current vacancies.

Jon Davies, head of digital at Vodafone UK, said: “The content and messages on our new site represent our big ambition to be a leader across our industry and beyond. Transforming what we deliver and how we deliver is at the centre of Vodafone Labs. Feedback from inside and outside the business has been fantastic and we are looking forward to continuing the story of digital Innovation in Vodafone.” 

“We are developing a new model of engagement with Vodafone and have integrated teams working together to deliver fully optimised digital solutions. We are not having to go back and retrofit SEO, UX or content optimisations its done during the development process and that will deliver measurable business benefit," said Rhys Williams, Joint CEO agenda21 Digital

Ian Greentree, client solutions manager at MMT Digital, said: “By having the product owner, designers and developers working side by side we were able to define a strong Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This allowed Vodafone to effectively prioritise its business requirements and substantially reduce time to market. The Labs MVP microsite was conceived and delivered in a single sprint which not only included design, build and SEO but also the production of content and online video.

“Our agile culture allowed development to move forward while we tested the site with Vodafone’s stakeholders via a daily build of the demonstration environment. Developers created pages from wireframes where UI design hadn’t been created and in some cases, didn’t need to be fully designed. This saved a lot of time and prevented the scope creep we sometimes see from ambitious design.”

agenda21 and MMT Digital is part of the Be Heard Group, a pure play digital services group operating at the intersection of marketing, technology and e-commerce.