Huawei revises down enterprise sales, eyes $10B by 2017

Huawei Technologies is earmarking sales revenue of US$2.7 billion in 2013 from its enterprise business unit, as it looks to capitalize on the ongoing convergence of IT trend sweeping through the enterprise arena. However, its five-year sales projection is a climbdown from the forecasted target set in 2012.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Chinese networking giant said it will strengthen its role in the enterprise market by focusing on integrating its enterprise offerings with the rest of its product portfolio. As a result, it hopes to generate US$2.7 billion in sales revenue this year, said William Xu, CEO of Huawei Enterprise Business group.

Xu said: "With significant growth capacity, the enterprise market is a core element of Huawei's overall strategic development plans. The convergence of ICT has brought about great opportunities for Huawei to contribute to the evolution of this market."     

Xu added the company plans to bring in US$10 billion in sales in five years' time.

This, however, is a lower projection than the one mentioned by David He in 2012. The president of marketing for the enterprise business group said the unit showed 50 percent growth in 2011 to generate US$1.5 billion in sales, and it hoped to bring in 10 times the amount in contract sales by 2015.

To help boost its enterprise play, Huawei said it will increase its channel partner engagements. It stated that as of 2012, the company has partnerships with more than 3,500 channel companies but the number is expected to reach 5,400 by the end of the year.  

Last month, the company booked an overall 32 percent jump in net profit for 2012 at 15.38 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion), which it attributed to improved operational efficiency. Sales revenue reached 220 billion yuan (US$35.5 billion) for the same period.