Huawei has enjoyed rapid growth in the ICT industry, and today has launched the Huawei Commercial Business Unit.
“Over the past seven years, Huawei focused on named accounts,” says Suzette Lloyd, senior channel operations manager. “The company has identified a big growth opportunity in the commercial environment and, with partners, hopes to address it.
“Huawei will put concerted effort into growing the commercial business. We want channel partners to join and we will help them to grow their businesses.
“The spirit of ubuntu underpins this partnership: we will get together, grow together, and win together,” Lloyd adds. “We will provide more support and incentives to develop the commercial market partner team.
“We see the commercial business as vital, together with the development of the channel.”
Huawei is a leading global provider of ICT infrastructure and smart devices, says Gene Zhang, MD of Huawei South Africa Enterprise Division
“We create lasting value for our customers, empowering people, enriching life at home and inspiring innovation in organisations of all shapes and sizes,” he says.
“At Huawei, innovation focuses on customer needs. We invest heavily in basic research to drive the world forward.”
The company boasts 195 000 employees, in 170 countries and regions, reaching more than 3-billion people around the world. “We focus on ICT technology that enables digital and intelligent automation,” Zhang says.
The Enterprise Division’s product portfolio ranges from device to intelligent automotive solutions to connectivity to computing to cloud and to digital power, reaching consumers, carriers and enterprises. “We bring digital to every person, home and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent world.
“We are investing more in connectivity, computing and cloud services to create value for our customers and society at large; continually innovating and working with partners to accelerate digitalisation in various industries.”
Huawei South Africa was set up in 1998. “During the past 24 years, we have participated in the rapid development of South Africa’s communications industry and supported the digital transformation of various industries,” Zhang says.
Huawei and its partners provide a wide range of products including data communication, wireless, optical computing and storage products.
“Besides products, it is important to ensure the stability and security of the customer network through stable support services to provide continuous business benefit.
“Huawei ensures the safe and secure operation of customers’ networks,” Zhang adds. “We have seven localised spare parts centres and professional service teams to ensure the robust operation of ICT. This means we can respond to customer requirements any time and anywhere.”
Small and medium customers are the target market for the commercial business sector, including organisations in education, retail, manufacturing, mining and SME finance.
“For the commercial market, we hope to recruit partners to join our commercial team and focus on expending this market,” Zhang says.
“Products and solutions focus on networking, storage, video surveillance, optical products and IdeaHub.
“In terms of incentives, we will have deal registration, a sales performance incentive fund and programs with product-related bundles.
“We will support partners with co-branding marketing, training of sales, pre-sales and technical staff, demos and proof of concept assistance, and a commercial fast-track program.”
The launch of the commercial business unit wouldn’t have been possible without the active participation of Huawei’s distributors Mustek and Pinnacle.
Donna Mostert, Huawei business unit manager at Mustek, says the journey to the launch has been an exciting time.
Mustek signed up as Huawei’s first South African distributor 12 years ago, and is now ready to embrace the new era, she says.
“When Mustek was ready to engage with an enterprise product we chose Huawei – and Huawei chose Mustek.”
To offer additional support in the launch of the new commercial division, Mustek is growing its commercial team and resources.
Fred Saayman, Huawei business unit executive at Pinnacle, explains that Huawei gave Pinnacle the impetus to expand into the enterprise space, and it is looking forward to extending operations into the commercial market.
The distributor signed up as a Huawei distributor in 2015. It opened its first Huawei Experience Centre in 2017 and become the first ASP distributor outside China in 2018. In 2020, the team achieved 150% growth and Huawei was the number one brand inside Pinnacle.
There are more than 10 people in the Huawei business unit in Pinnalce, and they have access to all the technical and services resources in the rest of the organisation.