Because telcos’ business has become a lot more challenging in recent years, largely because of the OTT players, their way of sourcing equipment is changing. No longer do they simply write an RFP, which leads to a contract and then deployment, said Paul Scanlan, president of Huawei’s business and network consulting group.
Paul’s group, which has expanded from 200 staff in 2012 to 500 staff with 150 at its headquarters, has implemented about 150 projects around the world with roughly 100 telcos. Half the consultants are Chinese and half foreign.
Scalan noted that the group actually has two sets of customers – external firms (operators) and internal teams — the sales and product groups, which are looking for ideas and support. “We sometimes do presentations to support sales and marketing to help its customers understand market trends or Huawei’s direction from an innovation perspective.”
Understanding that the telco world is evolving and to change how it engages with telcos, Huawei two years ago set up the hybrid business and network consulting group – the result of merging the newly created business consulting unit and its carriers solutions group.
One way it is doing that is to improve relationships at the CxO level – beyond the CTO, which Scanlan said tends to be a cost center.
As it engages beyond the CTO level, it aims to leverage its trust on the technology side and bring in new types of business, like a go-to-market strategy for 4G. The focus shifts to a business perspective from a technical one.
What Huawei brings to the table is data and analysis from its 600-odd telco customers, Scanlan said. “We know who’s spending what, who’s tried what, the types of networks, the state of the economy, etc. So we can blend all this data and bring up a credible set of suggestions.”
More can be found here at TelecomAsia.