Huawei Joins Forces With Accenture

China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., has formed a strategic alliance with Accenture Plc.., to develop better cloud services for telecommunications firms and the enterprise. Though the ink is still drying on their pact, the two firms are already engaged in “joint initiatives” that will focus on China, Southeast Asia and a few select developed markets.

The plan calls for the joint development of cloud platforms, specifically business support systems for telcos and customer care applications for the enterprise, reports Bloomberg. To do so, the firms will leverage Huawei’s networking experience and hardware alongside Accenture’s expertise in consulting and systems integration.

A crucial aspect of the plan sees Accenture integrating its infrastructure-as-a-service platform with Huawei’s private cloud, with the goal being to develop an integrated private cloud for the enterprise.

“In an era where the physical and digital worlds are increasingly converging, no enterprise is able to address all customer needs alone. Enterprises need to collaborate openly and integrate their resources and capabilities to help customers succeed,” said Eric Xu, chief executive officer of Huawei.

Xu added that the partnership would “further augment” Huawei’s overseas enterprise operations, which have so far failed to meet the same level of growth its seen in China.

Part of the reason for this is because Huwei has very limited access to North American markets. The company has been dogged for years by claims that its networking gear could be vulnerable to Chinese spies, and although it denies the accusations, it has struggled to convince US customers they’re not true.

One region Huawei is eyeing with interest is Europe, where it wants to sign up 1,000 channel partners to help it take the fight to Cisco Systems, Inc. and other networking firms.

Whether or not the Accenture partnership will help there remains to be seen. Accenture is promising the initiative will help enterprises “cut costs, risks and time of implementation”, but hasn’t said how this will be achieved.

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