Western security concerns are 'noise on the periphery' says Huawei exec, as firm looks to impress CIOs

Huawei focused on attracting business of CIOs, says SVP Leroy G. Blimegger Jr as firm unveils partnership with Telefonica

Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei regards security questions surrounding its products as "noise on the periphery", saying that CIOs are more interested in hearing about how Huawei can benefit their organisations.

That's what Dr Leroy G. Blimegger Jr, senior vice president of Huawei Global Technical Services and global president of Assurance & Managed Services told Computing during firm's Global Professional Services Forum in London today.

Speaking at the event, Blimegger described how, as part of Huawei's push into the enterprise services market, the Chinese telecoms giant wants to increase its interaction with CIOs and "change the way" they perceive the Huawei brand.

"We have traditionally been a communications technology (CT) company and now we need to become an IT company and that requires people with different capabilities. Some of our CT staff already have IT capabilities but we don't have the critical mass of people that think in the IT domain," he said, going on to describe how the increase in demand for IT services is something Huawei needs to focus on.

"Obviously, as the market changes, as the industry changes from one that has IT sitting in the corner, to now where we have 3G and 4G services with IT and CT starting to share space, to what we're going to see in future - IT wrapped around a CT core - we have to change the way we think of Huawei," Blimegger continued.

"We have to change the way we deliver services, our business models and we have to start talking to CIOs," he added.

When asked how Huawei intended to increase its rapport with CIOs, he pointed to the importance of being available to meet them at events to demonstrate what's the company has to offer and also to the importance of transparency.

"[Attending] events like this, where we open to the world what our strategy is -moving forward to be a recognised IT company - that is the first step," Blimegger said.

"If CIOs don't know what our aspirations are, if they don't see our road maps, if they don't see us at our user conference in Barcelona, they'd wonder why they'd want to talk to Huawei," he continued.

"Through these events and through our announcements they say 'wait a second, this isn't the Huawei I knew in the past', and they start opening their doors," he said.

Computing asked Blimegger how Huawei intends to reach out to CIOs who will be aware that many western governments - including the United States and the United Kingdom - are wary about the firm's alleged association with the Chinese government.

The Huawei SVP acknowledged that it's an issue for the firm, but argued its track record in providing services more than makes up for the scepticism of certain groups.

"Yes, there's always news floating around the edges and yes we always have to expend some energy to take care of that," said Blimegger.

"But the reality is our business is the fastest growing business in Huawei and when we when we talk to CIOs they're not interested in that, they understand a lot of that is just noise on the periphery," he concluded.

Prior to today's Global Professional Services Forum, Huawei announced that it had been selected by telecommunications firm Telefónica to provide an end-to-end performance management solution to manage its Latin-American network.

"Telefónica OSS's [operations and support services] simplification strategy is based on the standardisation, simplification and automation of the processes and technologies across our footprint. We are selecting the best partners in the market to help us in this journey," said said Juan Manuel Caro Bernat, operations & OSS director at Telefónica S.A.

"Huawei's performance management solution really meets our demands through its leading-edge capabilities. Huawei is our strategic and reliable partner, and I believe that our cooperation with Huawei will continue to be fruitful and profitable in the future," he added.

Huawei also welcomed the deal.

For us, Huawei OSS has been one of the company's key strategic investment areas, and strengthens our position as a transformation partner for operators," said Dr Howard Liang, president of global technical service for Huawei.

"It is a great honour for Huawei to be selected as the performance management solution supplier for Telefónica subsidiaries in Latin America."