Huawei Highlights Innovation and Responds to Rival Criticisms

Huawei Enterprise U.S.A. has begun to give a more aggressive response to what it claims is unfounded criticism of the company by competitors. 

The Cupertino, Calif.-based subsidiary of China-based telecom and IT giant Huawei, stated that the company will not sit complacently as competitors utilize the media and government to criticize it.

The vice president of channels for Huawei Enterprise, Rob Claus, noted that the company needs to brand itself  based on its technology and innovation rather than allow competitors to do this for them. He said: “Our competitors are not being nice to us. We're not going to be nice to them.”

Despite the fact that Huawei is a global company with a revenue of $38 billion, it is proving difficult to establish itself in the U.S. It has been a challenge for Huawei to face criticisms from Cisco and the U.S. government which mention the collusion of the company with the Chinese government.

The CEO of New York-based Netfast Technology Solutions (an IT solution provider and Huawei partner), Joe Asady, for the first time highlighted Huawei’s competitive advantage and portfolio of solutions offerings, according to Claus.

Claus noted that the innovation capabilities of Huawei have been developed on its own, and the company also has one of the IT industry’s widest portfolios. He said: “Huawei doesn't acquire. We innovate.”

Claus stated that rivals HP, Cisco and Dell have “innovated” via acquisitions, and added: “It's pretty expensive to innovate. It's expensive to keep up with engineering.” He pointed to HP’s Autonomy acquisition which proved troublesome, Dell’s Compellant acquisition, and the fact that IBM is considering the sale of its x86 server business to China-based Lenovo.

Further to this, Claus said that consolidation equals cuts in relationships and less money for solution providers, stating: “The thing is, we are not going to be sold. We are not going to be bought by anybody. We're here to stay. ... We're a stable company. We will be successful in the United States… We're just beginning. We're not over-saturated. I'd love to have channel conflict.”

He pointed to the fact that both HP and Cisco have not been doing well with their partners, noting: “If one [partner] program runs out of steam, they have to make another one.” Cisco, according to Claus, has saturated its partner community and pays most of its attention to a small group of its largest partners.

The founder of Argyle, Texas-based IP Convergence (a solution provider and Huawei's partner of the year), Steve Baker, stated that when acquiring information relating to features to be added to vendor products, he gets results from Huawei.

Baker said: “We can have a discussion. I don't just get a 'no.' They ask 'Why do you want that? What will this do for the customer?'”

The senior account manager at Wildomar, California-based DataSpan (a solution provider considering signing up to Huawei), Billy Riddle, noted: “Huawei told us that Cisco's product line is only about 6 [percent] to 8 percent of Huawei's. If I work with Cisco, which worries about a company that has only a 6 [percent] to 8 percent overlap with Huawei, I have to really look at partnering with Huawei.”

The president and CEO of Zionsville, Indiana-based Libanga Computer Systems (a SMB solution provider and Huawei partner), Mario Guerendo, commented on the fact that Huawei did not fully sell itself during the company’s recent partner summit.

Guerendo said: “They're actually underselling themselves. That's why Cisco is so worried about Huawei and carrying out negative campaigns against the company. In the networking world, I would call Cisco a Toyota and Huawei an Audi selling for a lower price than a Toyota.”

Spokespeople from Dell, IBM and HP failed to respond to requests for statements on Huawei’s comments about them, and Cisco declined to comment. (CY) Link