tara punta tayo EXCITING!!!

Huawei launches training center in PHL

Already one of the leading companies in the telecom infrastructure space, Chinese networking giant Huawei is looking to penetrate the enterprise business market next as it sets up a training center for enterprise networking professionals in the Philippines.

The P3 million training facility will be located at the Asia Pacific College (APC), an institution founded by IT firm IBM Philippines and SM Foundation.

At a briefing following the signing of the contract between the two parties, Huawei Philippines vice president for enterprise business group Nathan Wang said their carrier telecom (CT) business units has been the main contributor to revenue in the past years, but they are ready to grow to new areas of the business.

"There has been a shift from the CT business to the Information and Communications Technology space, where there's an ocean of enterprise customers," Wang said. "This is how Huawei can grow to the next level."

Engineering students of APC, channel partners, clients, agents and IT professionals can sign up for the two-week Huawei Certified Datacom Associate (HCDA) course which will immerse them in the different technologies the vendor has brought to the market.

Among other topics, the HCDA certification course will include modules in IP network basics, Ethernet, WAN, RIP protocol, OSPF protocol and firewall basics, among others.

The two companies said they are looking to train and certify some 200 individuals within the first year of the partnership.

Once the facility has successfully certified a professional, it will then become the 37th training center of Huawei worldwide.

APC chairman Ramon Dimacali said it is but a natural step for the school to partner with Huawei since they have done similar tie-ups in the past.

He cited the cases of Convergys and IBM Daksh which have tapped them in the past to provide training for their prospective employees.

"The idea is that, we have a facility, we understand their products, and our professors are trained for it," Dimacali said.

He added that right now, there is a huge demand for enterprise networking professionals since a lot of companies are re-engineering their systems to address the needs of emerging technologies such as cloud computing.

"When we certify [individuals], it's not just for employment at Huawei, but also to work at these enterprises," Dimacali said, adding that there is a big demand in the market right now because most of these firms are using Huawei technologies.

Enterprise expansion

Wang noted that the top telecom firms in the Philippines are big users of Huawei products, especially with the rollout of their 3G mobile Internet dongles.

"Most telecom firms in the Philippines have Huawei as their networking platform," he added.

With their enterprise push —which started only late last year— and the training facility at APC, Wang said they are hoping to add to their current pool of 200 certified Huawei engineers.

He added that the company is serious in expanding to more international market such as the Philippines in their bid to become one of the top enterprise networking providers in the world.

"Ten years ago, 80 percent of our revenue came from mainland China, and only 20 percent overseas. Five to six years later, that has been reversed," he stressed.

The company said they are eyeing to generate revenues of as much as $400 million worldwide in 2011, aided by its aggressive move to capture more of the enterprise market.

source: gmanews[quote]