Huawei is a global provider of solutions and products related to information and communications technology (ICT) for operators, enterprises, SMBs and consumers. For enterprises and SMBs, they provide products and solutions of high quality and reliability along with value addition. They offer products inNetworking, UC&C, IT Infrastructure, Data Center Networking, Cloud Computing & Data Center and Security domains, among others.
Daniel Jiangqingsong, President, Huawei Enterprise Business Group, shares, “Today ICT is transforming like never before, the way businesses and enterprises function, communicate and network. India is a big and growing market. We are bringing a lot of new products into the Indian market and leveraging our global experience, our R&D, our record of providing high quality & reliability products and the success we have seen in the other global markets. We want to bring the best solutions to customers that meet their specific needs.”
Suresh Reddy, Vice President, Huawei Enterprise Business Group, asserts, “We have been in telecom field globally for a long time and in the Indian telecom segment for more than 10 years. Of this, Huawei’s Enterprise Business has been in India for the past three years. Our revenues globally, including telecom and enterprise solutions and others are USD 39.6 billion, of which over 1 billion comes from India. We have initiated thestrengthening of our enterprise presence in India, and it would be premature to evaluate the performance of the Enterprise business, based solely on revenues. About 33% of our total global business comes from China. At the global level, we are No 1 in datacenter switches and LTE, No. 2 in routers, No. 4 in the server category and No 6 in storage. We stand at the 315th position among Fortune 500 companies globally.”
Need to Develop a Robust Channel Partner Network for Enterprise Business
In a bid to further establish itsenterprise footprint in the Indian market, Huawei EBG recently announced a more focused approach to educate, establish and expand its channel partner network in India. Reddy states, “Right now we have about 150 registered partners and 40-focused partners. First, we will focus on adding value to the existing partners, groom them to drive forward our strategy and values, and then gradually expand the number. Initially, we will start providing our products and services in metros and then expand towards Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.”
The Huawei’s Enterprise Business will unwaveringly implement and adhere to stable channel partner policies. And will continue to cooperate openly with partners and strive to build a sound industry eco system that leads to mutual benefits.
Daniel asserts, “We want to work closely with the partners so that we can establish firmly in the market. Initially our focus is not on revenue. In China, we worked hard to build the base in the initial few years—the revenues were nominal, but once we reached the take off stage, revenues picked up remarkably. Today, over 33% (USD12 billion) revenue come from China alone. We plan to replicate the same feat in India.”
Reddy defines, “Our selection criteria for the channel partners is, first we see in which region he is operating, what verticals he has been serving, his basic knowledge of networking products, his GTM of the product line, what value can he add. We are not rushing into anything. We learnt from our experience what the Indian customer needs. Accordingly our channel will be structured. We will see how far our growth strategy matches with that of the channel partner’s growth strategy.”
Business Strategy to Work in Tandem with the Channel Strategy
As a leading ICT solutions provider, the Enterprise Business looks forward to cooperating with customers and partners in India to find a better wayfor ICT transformation and create a sound industry ecosystem conducive to the ICT industry and a connected society.
Speaking on the occasion Suresh Reddy, said, “As a part of this endeavor to strengthen ourchannel presence in the Indian market, we are looking at deeper engagement with our partner base by connecting, engaging and building relationshipswith new partners who form a part of the Value Added Resellers who havedisplayed distinct expertise in markets which are key verticals for HuaweiEBG. This will form the core of all our channel activities in 2014. This however, does not take away from the contribution our existing partner network has made to the success we have achieved in gaining access tomarkets so far.”
Huawei runs a number of channel service certification programs in order to ensure a controlled and consistentchannel partnership network, thereby enabling Huawei and its partner ecosystem to jointly deliver standardized services to end consumers.While opportunities are important in business; Huawei is laying its bets on relationships that will create opportunities.
Reddy details, “We define the market for our products and solutions into a 3-layered business market: 1. Carrier market; 2. Enterprise market—here the networking is integrated with terminal devices such as smartphones, tablets, dongles, laptops, etc. This segment is the target market for Huawei target market; and 3. Terminals market—smartphones, tablets, dongles, etc. which is the B2C segment. The global ICT industry considers Huawei as a niche player. Globally we have already designed and implemented 350 data centers. Our main focus is on customized-enterprise solutions, the way customers need them. Our formula is to provide the best products, solutions and services. In case of our products, every component is manufactured by us. So we can tell exactly how our products will work, based on our experience and knowledge. Whatever we deliver, we are confident in promising its performance. Our products are time-tested, environment-tested and performance-tested. On the other hand, the products provided by most other vendors are usually assembled using components of made by different vendors so often they are not sure how they will work.”
Daniel clarifies, “In India, there is a need to enhance customer awareness about Huawei products. We are initially concentrating on limited products. For example, our video conferencing solution TE30 for SMBs is a very cost-effective solution. Initially, we are dealing thru more Tier-2 partners and few Tier-1 partners. We experimented this in China and it worked well there. We focus on specific customer requirements. For instance, once I met an Indian customer who wanted a switch that can run on battery. We made it according to his requirements and after that we sold over 2000 such switches in India.”
