Etisalat, Huawei Ink Outsourcing Deal

A partnership that will see Etisalat improved its information technology, telecommunications services offering has been sealed with Chinese equipment manufacturing company, Huawei. 

Under the arrangement, Huawei will be responsible for the operational management of Etisalat Nigeria’s IT services across technical infrastructure, application management and user support.   

However, the business planning, architecture and governance shall still be retained by Etisalat Nigeria.

Presently, Etisalat has over 15 million subscribers and invested about $1.2 billion in various network upgrades in 2013.

Announcing the outsourcing partnership, Matthew Willsher, acting chief executive officer of Etisalat Nigeria,  said the decision to outsource aspects of the company’s IT function follows the adoption of a new model, which is effectively aligned with the corporate vision of creating more value for customers by improving quality, reducing costs, embedding innovation, and increasing the speed of delivery.

“At Etisalat, we are dedicated to providing innovative and best quality telecommunications services to our customers. Outsourcing our IT services to Huawei  is  part of the fulfillment of our promise to continuously deliver excellent communication experiences to our customers at all times,”  said Willsher.

He added that the outsourcing arrangement would in no way lead to the lay-off of IT staff as is often feared under such circumstances.

“Our overall aim is to improve efficiencies, leverage capabilities and improve training and development for our employees. About 75 per cent of the current IT staff will be transferred to Huawei with comparable terms of employment and compensation, so that no one will be worse off’’, Willsher explained.

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