Lagos – Huawei, the Chinese firm, has clinched a deal to manage the information technology services for Etisalat Nigeria.
Under the arrangement, Huawei handle the operational management of Etisalat Nigeria’s IT services across technical infrastructure, application management and user support.
Etisalat Nigeria will however retain the business planning, architecture and governance.
Announcing the outsourcing partnership, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Etisalat Nigeria, Matthew Willsher, said the decision to outsource aspects of the company’s IT function followed 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,” he said.
He added that the outsourcing arrangement would not 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.
Presently, Etisalat has more than 15 million subscribers. It has invested about $1.2 billion in various network upgrades in the past year.
– CAJ News
