Huawei has hosted its first Cape Town Tech Convention at which it demonstrated its investment and commitment to partners and customers in the Western Cape. It also shared some of the innovative products and solutions it offers in the region as well as its plans for further expansion, which will allow customers to compete globally.
Gene Zhang, Huawei MD of Enterprise Business South Africa, underlined how investing in the ICT ecosystem, is critical in an increasingly digital world.
“The global economy and society are recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic and the digital transformation of industries has become a new driver for economic growth,” he says. “By the end of 2022, the digital economy will account for 50% of global GDP. There are an incredible number of digital opportunities, which will grow the digital economy.”
According to Zhang, these opportunities are as present in South Africa as they are in the rest of the world.
“South Africa plans for the digital economy to make up 50% of GDP by 2040,” he says. “The country is well positioned to achieve this goal. South Africa is also taking the lead in artificial intelligence (AI) by putting in place an AI blueprint for Africa.”
Speaking about Huawei’s commitment to helping make that vision a reality, Zhang says: “Huawei hopes to develop ICT talent, grow together with local SMEs, retain capabilities in South Africa and build a digital ecosystem.”
Shaun van Zyl, Huawei regional director of South Africa Cape Town Regional Business Department, provided some detail about how Huawei is meeting its commitment to South Africa in the Western Cape.
“Huawei has seen a 40% average increase in revenue in the Western Cape year-on-year over the past five years,” he says. “We’re now engaging in multiple sectors, including government, finance, education, ISPs, transportation, and retail.”
Van Zyl pointed out that Huawei has made several high-level investments when it comes to serving Western Cape customers, including a training centre, innovation lab, and demonstration centre.
As Werner Nothnagel, solution responsible of Huawei South Africa Cape Town Regional Business Department noted, Huawei is working closely with its partners and customers to build ordered partner ecosystem.
“We are growing with our partners, we are growing with our customers,” he says.
He points out that Huawei can do this because it knows that it’s important, “to understand what the customers’ pain points are so we can talk and develop to that.”
According to Nothnagel, Huawei is locked in to helping open those opportunities and solve those challenges.
One Huawei customer that’s already seen the benefits of that commitment is the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).
“We want to be the leading smart university in South Africa,” says Napo Sello, networks supervisor at CPUT. “How do we achieve that? By working with innovative partners like Huawei.”
Another academic institution, the University of the Western Cape (UWC) which began working with Huawei in 2019, with a partnership focused on bringing connectivity to non-core academic sites including residences, remote sites, and convivial spaces.
“Huawei were very visible, not only in discussing opportunities but also in the work it was doing on campus,” says Raymond Crown, CIO of UWC.
As a result, the initial engagement with Huawei has grown to the point where the institution has engaged with Huawei on multiple projects including residences, academic sites, and a digital innovation hub.
“No matter what we want to do, chances are we’ll find it in the Huawei portfolio,” he says.
Huawei’s partnerships are crucial to being able to deliver to its customers in this way.
As Altron MD Kennedy Chinganya notes, its decade-long relationship with Huawei has enabled it to service a growing client base which includes some of the biggest names in banking, education, government, and ICT.
“I am grateful that we are able to partner with Huawei,” he says.
Those sentiments were echoed by Sam Roy, executive: service management at BCX. The enterprise systems integrator and digital transformation partner’s relationship with Huawei dates to 2017. The relationship has been fruitful too.
“The revenue growth of the Huawei/BCX partnership has more than tripled since 2019,” he says.
Brandon Abrahams, CEO of Greystone Technologies, has also been particularly impressed by the robustness of the Huawei equipment he offers his customers.
“Just to show the robustness of Huawei equipment, we installed 100 switches at a retailer in 2017. They’re still all working today,” he says. “I cannot advocate any more for Huawei than I am today.”