Huawei expands alliance with accenture to offer cloud services
By Bloomberg
Huawei Technologies Co. said it's expanding an alliance with Accenture Plc to add cloud services as China's largest maker of phone-networking equipment targets $10 billion revenue from enterprise computing by 2017.
The companies will focus initially on clients in China, Southeast Asia and other emerging markets while pursuing select opportunities in developed markets, Victor Wan, who directs the Accenture alliance for Huawei, said in a phone interview today. The financial terms weren't disclosed.
Huawei is broadening its portfolio from networking equipment into smartphones, tablets, business-computing products and cloud services as it works to boost sales to $70 billion by 2018 from $39.5 billion last year. The expanded Accenture partnership builds on a 2010 agreement to provide software for business-support services to phone companies.
"Bringing our strengths together to the market will provide huge efficiency improvement and revenue growth for both partners," said Wan, who declined to comment on the number of employees assigned to the alliance or projected sales.
Cloud Computing
The expanded partnership will combine Accenture's experience in systems integration with Huawei's technology, Gianfranco Casati, Accenture's group chief executive for growth markets, said in an e-mailed statement.
The cloud computing push is part of an effort by Huawei to accelerate growth by winning contracts in cloud hosting and digital networks, boosting revenue from the business fourfold by 2017, the company said in March. Global revenue from the division, which rose 32 percent last year to about $2.5 billion, will top that rate of increase this year, William Xu, who heads the unit, said in Germany in March.
Huawei, a closely held company owned by its employees, was set up in 1987. It has focused on emerging markets in part because of limited access to the U.S. telecommunications market, where Huawei has battled claims the company's gear may provide opportunity for Chinese spying. Huawei has repeatedly denied those allegations.