Saab Grintek has reached an agreement with Chinese group Huawei to promote the latter's core network products - next-generation routers and switches - in SA.
Angelo Manzoni, managing executive of Saab Grintek's enterprise division, says the company will make a major contribution to cost containment in the IT and telecommunications industry.
"Routers and switches are widely deployed in IT networks, covering government, corporate and business markets of all sizes. We are well positioned to supply Huawei products to these markets."
The product range includes next-generation routers and 10GB Ethernet switches, which Huawei claims are becoming the standard mega-backbones for networks, with data volumes increasing as demand for video, voice over Internet Protocol and multi-service applications grows.
Manzoni says Saab Grintek's status as voice provider was becoming a limiting factor in a converging telecommunications market, and the company felt it had to add a data component to its product range.
He notes that the key advantage of partnering with the Chinese group is competitive pricing, and the products come with an end-user 24/7 support service. Saab Grintek will target the enterprise space, looking specifically at large corporates in sectors such as finance and hospitality.
Saab Grintek has positioned itself to offer high-level support to clients and their suppliers, says Manzoni. He adds that Technical Training Solutions Africa, a Saab Grintek operation in charge of customer and engineer certified training, is to facilitate the training requirements of resellers and integrators.
Barron Si, datacom director at Huawei, points out that intellectual property is packaged with the products, eliminating the need to buy separate licences. Si claims this is a big advantage for industry, as it reduces costs and removes lengthy licensing processes.
[VIDEO]"We have made major inroads into world markets and now, with Saab Grintek as our partner, we can further promote out technology in the South African market," he says.
"We selected Saab Grintek for its reputation as a major supplier in the telecoms and IT industry, as well as its depth of knowledge and experience. Saab Grintek engineers have already been trained at our headquarters and are fully conversant with the Huawei range of products."
According to a Gartner report released in March last year, Huawei is expanding its product and customer portfolios, with contracts and trials from large carriers outside of China. Huawei, the report states, wants to become a global company, with 70% of its revenue from overseas markets in 2008.
The findings also reveal that Huawei is the second-fastest-growing telecoms vendor, and is beginning to threaten big players like Cisco Systems for global market share.
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