Huawei is offering ambitious companies in the Middle East the opportunity and platform to go global.
At the OpenLab facility in Dubai, companies can build and validate solutions with Huawei technologies, which can then be delivered through Huawei’s global network.
An example is Dubai-based Human Logic which develops technology driven education solutions, and fintech Omnia Pay that have leveraged Huawei infrastructure and capabilities to help take their systems to regional and global markets. Healthcare solutions provider ATC in Kuwait is in the testing and integration phase at the OpenLab of its digital medical products.
Partners bring their system to the OpenLab, run it in the Huawei infrastructure to ensure it works, optimise its performance, benchmark that to the competition, and finally make sure it is the best business solution for customers, explains Alaa ElShimy, vice president and managing director, Huawei Enterprise, Middle East.
“After this, we engage in a go-to-market discussion with the partner: which customer do we go to together and which customer do they go alone and then bring us in, and which customers do we approach and then pull in the partner,” ElShimy explains.
End customers benefit because they can visit the OpenLab and experience the solution in action and even test it before they buy it. ElShimy says the analogy of a test drive applies. “The car dealer could verbally explain all the attributes of the car, but being able to physically test vehicle itself makes all the difference.”
Customers are also mitigating much risk when they get a fully integrated solution from one channel partner, ElShimy says. “The success rate is much higher for the customer because they are guaranteed of success as the solution has already been pre-tested and pre-integrated,” he adds.
Channel partners on the other hand profit because they can sell numerous other solutions at a go as opposed to just selling a single Huawei product.
“These integrated solutions are much better for the customer, it’s much better for the system integrator and of course it’s much better for us because it’s a value-added solution we are taking to market,” ElShimy says.
The main focus for the Dubai Open-Lab is in public safety and oil & gas solutions, as these represent the biggest need in this market. “Our open architecture allows us to leverage on whichever brand the customer is already using as many of the global manufacturing brands are our partners,” says ElShimy.
Customers can mitigate a lot of risk when they get a fully integrated solution from single SI, says ElShimy.
The solutions produced at the Open- Lab are cloud-ready, says ElShimy. “In areas such as seismic studies or data analytics, the collection, extraction and analysis of the data require very powerful machines, all which are very costly, because it requires a lot of processing power and a lot of storage. Cloud removes the need for this expensive investment,” ElShimy says.
ElShimy says building up the ecosystem is his main priority in 2018. “I have focused on the channel and distribution for the past two years I have been heading Huawei operations in the region. Now that we have a good channel and distribution landscape, the ecosystem is my focus is this year,” he concludes.
Source: Network Middle East Magazine