The Webcom Group (Webcom), an end-to-end information technology communications (ICT) solutions company, has recently signed a reseller agreement with Huawei, a global ICT solutions vendor, providing the company with access to a range of Huawei's products, delivering new functionality and choice to its markets.
Webcom now has access to Huawei's range of video ATMs, networking, data centre and telepresence solutions in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
Says Pieter le Roux, Technical Director at Webcom: “These four mainline product segments broaden our scope of offering, allowing us to deliver a Tier 1 brand to our customers. Huawei's product offering is competitive, and complements our existing offering to customers.
“An example is the 4G capabilities on Huawei's wireless product offering, which future-proofs our customers' ICT investment with the imminent introduction of 4G into the local market.
“In addition, the unique Video ATM is ideally suited to the local banking environment, a sector that we are already entrenched in. Video ATM technology will complement our current offering and services to this sector with the additional functionality of biometrics, video conferencing to banking call centres, as well as scanning and print capabilities. Using a 4G backbone, Video ATMs can act as 'remote' branches in under-serviced or rural areas. This technology is currently used in international markets successfully.”
Huawei's offering will also enable Webcom to deliver mobile data centres to customers in industries such as mining, where it is necessary to set-up short-term data centres at sites that require access to and saving of large files, including images. In addition, its telepresence solutions will provide Webcom with a differentiator, as this solution consumes almost 50% less bandwidth than traditional solutions, and features an end-to-end offering including software, hardware, networking and management.
The agreement is mutually beneficial, providing Huawei with an ideal partner to take its offerings to new markets. Says Jean-Claude Kabeya, Channel Manager at Huawei South Africa: “Huawei's success in the telecommunications environment is well-known, but when the Enterprise business was created, it provided us with an opportunity to leverage our products in the greater IT market. Webcom has a good 'go to market' strategy in place, along with excellent sales and technical resources that can assist us to further penetrate the South African market and Southern African Development Countries (SADC) region.”
Webcom needed to comply with certain criteria in order to fulfil the requirement to become a Huawei reseller. This included sales and technical certification, as well as meeting targets.
Adds Kabeya: “Huawei is supporting Webcom by providing assistance with marketing, training and first-line support. Reseller training is an important focus for us, and we encourage our resellers to participate and obtain certification. This is provided from the get-go without criteria that needs to be met by the reseller. In addition, we understand the importance of having access to products and provide our resellers with an upfront rebate of demo equipment.”
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