1) What is the main theme of your presence at GITEX this year?
Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group will be the focus at GITEX this year showcasing many of its latest technologies and solutions catered to industries from government to healthcare, education, oil & gas, power, transportation and more. Living up to our brand platform “A Better Way”, visitors at GITEX will have a chance to touch, feel and experience Huawei technology for themselves in a real-case environment along with lively panel sessions that will address hot topics most talked about in the industry. This will be in addition to Huawei’s active participation in forums such as the GITEX Big Data Conference; a first at this year’s exhibition for which Huawei is involved as a Platinum sponsor.
2) Are you releasing/launching anything new at GITEX 2013? If so, what?
Those at GITEX can look forward to a number of exciting Huawei product launches seen for the first time in the region including our latest Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) solutions, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) switches and additions to our high-end storage technology portfolio. Huawei will also be spotlighting its recently deployed e-classroom solution, along with its Safe City solution in addition to its all new HD video-conferencing solution—ideal for local SMEs.
3) How is your company presenting itself at GITEX this year to differentiate it from competitors?
Recognizing the extraordinary changes that are taking place in the information and communication industries today, Huawei has implemented a number of strategic adjustments to better serve our local customers. These initiatives have been particularly impactful within the Middle East as over the last two years Huawei has extended the reach of its offerings from the telecom carrier field to the enterprise and consumer fields as well. This is known as our “cloud-pipe-device” strategy and is a core differentiator for our business globally and in the Middle East region. With each of these business groups hosting a full program activities at this year’s GITEX, our end-to-end ICT offerings will certainly differentiate Huawei from others at the exhibition.
4) What are the key trends influencing your approach to GITEX 2013 and the offerings you are pushing?
The next wave of digital society will see the rise of a new kind of intelligence; a connected and shared wisdom. For service providers, future growth will involve exploiting the integration of the cloud, pipe, and device within the context of skyrocketing data usage. This era of “Big Data” is also inspiring revolutionary changes within the business community, enabling organizations to have real-time visibility of their operations, capture a wealth of new market intelligence, and keep their people connected through more efficient communication tools. The rapid advancement of smart devices over the past year has further meant that personal devices have far exceeded their traditional legacy as basic communication tools—offering individuals and businesses the ability to work, play and explore the world from wherever they are in the world.
In this context, Huawei has been striving to better understand customers’ needs and innovate hand-in-hand with customers to realize business success. With a strategy to develop an open industry architecture and enhance integration within the ICT ecosystem, GITEX 2013 will be a platform for Huawei to showcase just how we are able to offer effective and agile technology solutions that address these trends.
5) How have you seen the Middle East respond to those trends in question, and how did you think that will change over the next year?
The Middle East is an exciting and substantial market for Huawei today as both a growth driver and a region where Huawei can contribute to the advancement of the overall technology landscape based on more than two decades of success in the ICT field. Many of the global trends I have just mentioned are certainly influencing the regional ICT landscape—from big data to diversifying cyber security threats, rise in broadband penetration, and smarter consumer devices.
With that said, we believe that each country is unique in terms of its opportunities and challenges. Each market has its own economic roadmap, its own legacy of ICT infrastructure, and its own priorities for utilizing ICT in spurring wider social development. In partnering with our customers, we feel it is essential to understand how each of these local facets impact the customer’s core business, tailoring ICT solutions to meet those demands.
As a rapidly growing, multinational ICT solutions provider, such considerations will become increasingly valuable in the years ahead as we combine global experience & innovation with local market expertise.
6) How do you think GITEX 2013 will be different to previous editions?
GITEX has always played a significant role in shaping the global ICT industry. That is in part due to the exhibition’s commitment to evolving its program each year; addressing new and emerging topics within the sector while bringing together thought leaders from across the globe. This year’s first-ever GITEX Big Data Conference—aimed at providing invaluable and real-life examples on how to turn big data into a true corporate asset—is just one example of the organizer’s ambitions for making this an exceptional year.
Under the theme ‘Lets Create, Disrupt and Re-imagine Together’, the organizers are certainly optimist about this year’s event, and so are we.
7) What are the key offerings you will be presenting at GITEX – sum up their key and unique features.
Today Huawei offers a broad range of tailored products, solutions and consulting services in the Middle East with all three of Huawei’s main business groups—Carrier Networks, Enterprise and Consumer—active in the region.
Through our Enterprise Business Group, Huawei helps organizations across industry verticals from government and public sector entities to finance, transportation, healthcare and energy sectors by providing a broad portfolio of products and services to ensure an organization’s ICT infrastructure is highly secure, scalable and reliable. Our comprehensive solutions on display at GITEX span IP network infrastructure, unified communications & collaboration (UC&C), and cloud computing & data center management.
While our Enterprise Business Group will feature most prominently at this year’s GITEX, Huawei’s heritage in the telecoms market will also be on show including previews of our latest innovations across wireless, core networks, fixed networks, applications & software, as well as professional services now offered in the Middle East.
The stage will also be shared with Huawei’s consumer business which will be demoing many of its latest handset and Wi-Fi devices during this year’s GITEX. Such devices—many of which are world firsts—leverage Huawei’s rich history in the ICT field to offer distinct advantages over traditional device vendors. This will include the recently launched Huawei Ascend P6, the slimmest smartphone in the world, which has seen a remarkable welcome by consumers in the region as well as operators interested in having exclusive deals to launch Ascend P6.
8) How important is GITEX as a platform and event to your organization?
GITEX provides us with an ideal platform to meet our goals to stay competitive, to understand and to satisfy our customers while further strengthening our relationship with top regulators, channel partners, and service providers from around the globe. This further helps us to ensure that our solutions uphold the latest industry-recognized benchmarks; from integrated product development to quality control, joint innovation and customer relationship management.
We are further committed to being transparent in all aspects of our business while deepening collaborative efforts within the ICT industry. Events like GITEX providing an engaging platform for both current and future customers to get a better understanding of who we are and where we are heading as a global technology pioneer.
9) What is the top reason you invest in GITEX — do you see a healthy return on your investment, or is it more about presence/visibility?
The industries Huawei operates in are intensely competitive in terms of price, functionality, service quality, as well as the timing of new product and service deployment. In this context, the ability to fully understand and satisfy customer needs is a prerequisite as technologies change rapidly and competition intensifies. This is particularly true in the enterprise ICT market as we help organizations to embrace the challenges brought about by ICT transformations such as cloud computing, BYOD, smart cities and so forth.
To stay competitive, we must also constantly introduce new products into the market while educating customers about the real-world advantages of our technology solutions—be they social, financial, or environmental benefits.
10) What does your company hope to achieve by appearing at GITEX 2013?
GITEX is an exceptional global forum for achieving the objectives I have just touched on. In that sense, we see GITEX as a strategic channel both in terms of business ROI and cementing our brand’s reputation when it comes to technology innovation.
11) What are your company’s main recent achievements in the Middle East market?
Over the past year Huawei has continued to achieve robust grow in the Middle East through new partnerships as well as a diversification of our solutions portfolio. Our 2012 revenues for example, totaled nearly USD $2.1 billion, an 18% increase over the previous year.
Within the enterprise market, Huawei has rapidly emerged as a partner of choice for customers in a wide range of verticals. Some of our most notable project wins have included the development of mobile transmission networks for the Etihad Rail project in UAE as well as implementing a Smart Campus Network using IPv6 technology for Tawazun Industrial Park.
In addition to such deployments, Huawei Enterprise has also been widely recognized by industry partners throughout the past year for its solutions innovation. This includes being honored as ‘Best Vendor of the Year in the Channel in the Middle East’ at the Channel Middle East Awards 2013, as well as receiving a ‘Middle East Product Innovation Award’ by Frost & Sullivan for our achievements in the Middle East network security market.
In the telecommunications field, Huawei continues to work with leading operators across the Middle East to deliver new solutions that will help carriers simplify their networks and achieve a smooth evolution to next-generation technologies. These milestones have included agreements with leading operators such as Etisalat, STC, Zain, Batelco, du, Ooredoo, Mobily, Menatelecom, and Wataniya to name a few.
It was also a stellar year for Huawei’s consumer business group—Huawei Device. Now standing as one of the world’s top-five global smartphone vendors, we have been able to bring exceptional communication experiences to the Middle East through new partnerships with top retail distributors, extended customer care and support agreements across the GCC, and a host of world firsts including the world’s slimmest, fastest, and largest smartphones.
