Huawei HCIE accreditations prime Altron customers for even more success

JOHANNESBURG – Altron Systems Integration, a specialist provider that leverages world-class technology and leading practices to architect, implement and support sustainable ICT-based business solutions, says that Huawei’s HCIE certification has enabled the group’s engineers and consultants to unlock unprecedented success for its customers. The partnership with Huawei is not new, having started in 2012 and grown from strength to strength.

Altron Systems Integration Head of Engineering Kabelo Tselangoe says the partnership with Huawei generally, and the HCIE certification programme specifically, has empowered the group’s consultants to work closely with customers to understand their business needs and build customised solutions that deliver innovation and make a measurable impact in customers’ businesses.

“Our two businesses are aligned on values and that overlap means that customers genuinely get the very best service and solutions possible. At the outset, in terms of the actual technology and cost, Huawei offers world-leading solutions. But beyond that, our shared principles and values form the foundation of our evolving partnership. These values are our customer obsession, openness and integrity, continuous learning, passion for employees and a spirit of collaboration,” explains Tselangoe.

HCIE is the highest-level Huawei certification available outside of China and stands for Huawei Certified Internetworking Expert. Technicians can become certified in an array of areas, such as an HCIE in data, storage, cloud computing, WLAN and 5G among others. Tselangoe achieved his HCIE in Routing and Switching (Datacom) in 2017. He explains that in order to get to the level required to achieve an HCIE, a technician must pass an associate level, then a professional level, and only then can they work towards the expert level, or HCIE.

“During each step of the journey, you build up, from basics, to application, to more complex configurations, and then when you work on the expert level, you go into planning with customers and how to advise and add value to their environments. In other words, it gets into depth on the business side of a customer’s environment,” he explains.

He says that this is particularly important as Altron continues to differentiate itself through its commitment to deep partnerships with its customers and finding the very best solutions for their unique environments and objectives. “It is the antithesis of a cookie-cutter solution approach. Rather than just sell solutions, we are empowered to craft solutions alongside the customer. We do this by understanding their business and operations, and with an eye on what they seek to achieve, automate or optimise, we build solutions with the customer – in essence, we bring the customer on a journey with us. This differentiates us in that we become a trusted partner and adviser,” he says.

He says that the credibility for the business and individual engineers that comes with an HCIE certification has helped Altron not only grow and evolve with customers but deliver impactful solutions. “It’s obvious that the performance of the Huawei product set, as well as its competitive pricing model, makes it highly attractive. However, beyond this, businesses appreciate that HCIE-accredited engineers bring more than world-class technology, they bring the ability to understand the bigger picture of a business’s operations and a genuine orientation towards building long-term, and meaningful relationships with customers.”

Explaining this a little more, Tselangoe says that many customers have an idea of what their desired end state should be, but they don’t necessarily understand how to articulate this into a Business Requirement Specification (BRS), which is important because it is crucial to ask for solutions that are appropriate for each unique context. “Our engineers are able to play an advisory role for customers within this process. There is a strong emphasis on building a solid rapport and coming to shared conclusions and solutions. The delivered products and services will be an outcome of a deep understanding of what our customer needs.”

He says that this amplifies Altron’s commitment to evolve with its customers. In order for us to become a long-term trusted partner with a single obsession – to go above and beyond to deliver innovation and impact in customer businesses – there needs to be healthy rapport and open communication between a business and its customers, he says. “If the solution that we have is not fit for a particular customer, it will not be suggested but the customer will rather be advised on a suitable alternative and we will walk the journey with them. This is why the partnership and HCIE certifications have been so important in our business because it has played a role in helping us understand that our organisation needs to change and evolve in a way that mirrors what our customers are looking for, and this bodes well for the next phase of our growth.”