How Huawei Helped EVI Become a Leading Smart City Solution Integrator

EVI is the Philippines’s leading integrated Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Smart City and Pro Audio and Video (AV) systems solutions provider. Founded in 2002, it has about 200 employees, and its annual revenue is US$10 million.

In 2018, EVI began working with Huawei and started using its Safe City and Smart City solutions. EVI has since rapidly expanded its business and transformed from an AV systems integrator into a Safe City solution integrator; it has also won multiple command center projects and supported the digital transformations of the Philippines’s government and industries.

Saturated AV Market Needed Business Transformation

In recent years, competition in the Filipino AV market became increasingly fierce. Undifferentiated products led to price competition among integrators. Profit margins dropped rapidly, and the market was almost saturated. EVI urgently needed a business transformation to maintain its revenue growth.

The government was deploying Safe City and Smart City solutions in the Philippines, and trying to make all cities in the country into safe cities. The project required security systems, such as CCTV, to realize video security and traffic management.

EVI wanted to participate in the project but was unsure how to undertake its own business transformation into an ICT integrator. It needed to continue providing quality solutions and services for existing customers; to be an ICT integrator, it also required good knowledge of networks and IT devices, and many professional personnel. EVI did not have these resources and could not attain them all within a short time period. Meanwhile, many of its competitors had accumulated extensive experience over the past 20 years.

In these circumstances, EVI could not successfully transform by itself, so it reached out to Huawei, which had entered the Filipino market about four years earlier and achieved rapid revenue growth. After several rounds of communication, EVI realized that Huawei could expedite its business transformation. Many of EVI’s customers had security requirements that Huawei could help with, and Huawei’s Safe City solution could effectively leverage EVI’s technologies and personnel in the AV industry. Working with EVI, Huawei could also enhance its advantages in the Safe City domain by using EVI’s local resources, such as video walls and video backhaul.

Transforming into a Safe City Solution Integrator

The transformation was much harder than expected, and Huawei and EVI experienced several setbacks in quick succession as they tried to cooperate.

At the beginning of 2018, EVI organized a team to promote Huawei’s eLTE solutions. Because the Filipino market was still transforming from analog to digital, the application for the LTE spectrum was difficult, and the promotion did not achieve the expected outcome. In mid-2018, Huawei and EVI worked together to try to win a contract for a major IPT project with a governmental customer in the Philippines (Customer P). Because of a lack of mutual understanding between the two enterprises, they did not achieve their desired results. Toward the end of 2018, Huawei and EVI promoted Huawei’s Safe City solution to Customer P, and Huawei and EVI bid for one of the organization’s projects. Customer P could not reach an internal agreement and rejected the bid.

The struggles during these cooperation attempts affected both sides’ confidence. Huawei and EVI analyzed the situation. Despite the difficulties in their cooperation, EVI recognized that Huawei had several major strengths, such as a large sales volume, a vast company scale, a mature ecosystem, and rapid development capabilities that were better than other ICT vendors. As well as these advantages, EVI also believed in Huawei’s outstanding new ICT technology.

Teams from both companies redesigned the communication methods and agreed to jointly focus on attracting Customer P again. Because of the quality of EVI’s solution and Huawei’s end-to-end ICT products, they finally won Customer P’s command center project.

Soon after this successful cooperation, EVI and Huawei won Customer L’s command center project. A month later, Huawei and EVI cooperated again and won another command center project from Customer P — a project they had previously bid for unsuccessfully. Meanwhile, EVI made breakthroughs with Huawei’s core customers because of its video conferencing products.

Integrating New ICT and AV Technology to Build Safe Cities and Smart Cities

Huawei’s Safe City solution helped EVI achieve rapid business expansion, gain customers and double its revenue. Huawei has also strengthened EVI’s solution capabilities, launched competitive Safe City solutions, set a benchmark for the market, and empowered EVI’s business transformation and continuous revenue growth.

EVI regards Safe City and Smart City as major business strategies for the future. Integrating Huawei’s ICT technology with our AV technology, EVI will become the leading Safe City and Smart City solution provider in the local market, and help in building the Philippines into a better nation.

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EVI Distribution Inc. is the leading distributor and systems integrator for professional audio, audiovisual, broadcast, and auxiliary systems with over a decade of experience in the Philippines. EVI is committed to providing complete design, supply, and installation services that integrate current and emerging technologies to deliver the perfect experience for its clients. Combining the very best audio/video manufacturers, broadcast and security systems brands with its pool of experts, EVI creates a completely customized and innovative solution for its customers.