Huawei Enterprise USA Gets New Channel Chief, Goes After Cisco, Juniper With Discount Offer

Huawei Enterprise has appointed a former Hewlett-Packard and 3Com channel executive as its new channel chief.

Glen Ziegler, who in late February signed on as senior director of channel sales at Huawei Enterprise, is taking the reins from Rob Claus, who left the company in January to become vice president of sales at video conferencing developer Tely Labs.

[Related: Huawei Enterprise Comes Out Swinging At Cisco, Others Over Their Lack Of Innovation]

Prior to moving to Huawei Enterprise, Cupertino, Calif., Ziegler managed channel strategy and execution for the Americas for HP's networking business. He joined HP as part of that company's acquisition of 3Com, where he was director of channel partners.

In a recent interview, Ziegler, who reports to Huawei Enterprise USA COO Jane Li, told CRN the move to Huawei will give him another opportunity to build a strong channel organization.

"3Com's networking business was growing when we were acquired by HP," he said. "But we face the bureaucracy of a large company. At Huawei, we don't have networking stuck in a corner behind server and storage. We can grow all three."

Steve Rovarino, president of Red Rover, a Reno, Nev.-based solution provider and Huawei Enterprise partner, said he is glad the vendor finally filled the open channel chief position.

"When Rob left, it was unclear if Huawei would leave the position vacant or backfill it," Rovarino said.

The biggest thing Ziegler and Huawei Enterprise can do right now for channel partners is build the company's brand awareness, Rovarino said.

"Brand awareness is always an issue with Huawei," he said. "Every time I visit a new customer, I have to explain what Huawei is, and how big they are. Huawei needs to let customers know how it can help solve their IT issues."

Partnering with Huawei Enterprise means working with company with an easily differentiated product line that is not over-distributed, and one that offers services opportunities to partners, Rovarino said.

"Huawei is strong on the pre-sales side, and has good post-sales components," he said. "But its professional services is on an ad-hoc basis. They help get solutions fired up. But to build out with the business, that's what we as partners do."

NEXT: Huawei Enterprise Is Recruiting Partners, Reinvigorating The Channel

In addition to the new channel chief, Huawei Enterprise is also looking to help partners grab deals from networking competitors including Cisco, Juniper Networks, and Extreme Networks by offering a 30-percent discount off competitive quotes from those vendors, Ziegler said.

"This is not strictly a price play," he said. "We really want the opportunity to show customers our technology."

This also gives channel partners a way to showcase Huawei Enterprise to customers, Ziegler said.

"If you sell Cisco, and you get a 2 percent to 3 percent margin, it's still a sale," he said. "But we need to educate partners and customers about Huawei. By getting people to quote our solutions, they become more aware of what we offer."

Huawei currently has over 100 channel partners in North America after a recruiting focus in the education and retail markets, Li told CRN.

"This year's recruiting focus is in the data center," she said. "Our data center portfolio last year was not complete. But we announced our data center software a year ago, and late last year unveiled our converged infrastructure. So now our portfolio is complete."

Ziegler said his marching orders from Huawei Enterprise are to reinvigorate the channel by offering them a value proposition that includes exceptional product, exceptional service, and exceptional margins, he said.

"The exceptional service in the middle will be the glue that holds the other two together," he said. "We initially work with VARs closely to help them on the services side, but eventually, we step back and let the VARs take over."

When asked about how U.S. government concerns about China-based Huawei are impacting Huawei Enterprise's U.S. business, Ziegler said the company was surprised by how little pushback it is getting from solution providers about the issue.

"I think we're past this," he said. "It's old news. People realize a lot of companies build products in China. I think time has overcome this issue."

Li said Huawei Enterprise used to be a quiet company, but that's no longer the case.

"It has been a learning process for the company in the U.S. IT market, where we know we need to be more vocal," she said. "For the carrier market, Huawei is dealing with only a handful of well-known customers. But in the enterprise business, we're dealing with a much bigger audience. We need much better marketing and transparency."