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Automobile Association (AA) CEO Willem Groenewald today presented the Association’s future technology strategy at the Huawei Cloud TechWave Summit MEA in Dubai. Speaking under the headline of “Go Cloud, Go Further, the Road of Digital Transformation for AASA”, Mr Groenewald outlined the AA’s partnership with Huawei, and how this will, ultimately, benefit Members and customers locally and provide a platform for the AA to reach a global market.
The Huawei Cloud TechWave Summit brings experts in the ICT field together to discuss the latest technological topics, give their perspectives on digital developments, and learn about digital trends from around the world. The topic for the Dubai conference is “Inspire with everything as a service”.
“Huawei’s core values of being customer-centric, long-term hard work, being open and enterprising, being sincere and trustworthy, and valuing teamwork align with our own values as an Association, so partnering with them to forge our digital future is a natural fit for the AA.
“Our involvement with Huawei is key to our diversification strategy going forward. We no longer only provide roadside assistance; we’re involved in so much more and technology is the basis for our future. A key element of what we do now is to provide innovative solutions developed on a technological backbone. Our Rem-i Connect platform (a remote interface platform) is one such example where a host of Internet of Things (IoT) applications can be aggregated to provide the delivery platform for Software as Service into the future,” says Mr Groenewald.
He says this, for instance, provides further value to the Association’s Original Manufacturer client-base, where the AA is complementary to the evolution of their digital roadmaps through providing a technology service platform.
Mr Groenewald says developing products and services that meet the needs of customers rather than those of the AA itself is critical and serves two purposes: firstly, it provides services that really matter to customers and, secondly, reinforces the AA’s central philosophy of caring for its Members and clients to create a better life for them.
“By partnering with Huawei, the growth and expansion of the AA will be organic as we can overlay low price and high perceived value services on an existing technology backbone. Through this we will be able to reach
markets other than South Africa, something which was not possible prior to moving to Huawei’s cloud-based platform.
“Huawei’s Cloud Container Engine (CCE) technology, for instance, will enable the AA’s business vision by reducing cost of ownership, and provide us a platform for rapid expansion, drastic reduction in latency, and more access to data and processing speed and capacity, all elements that are vital for service delivery. Essentially, we’re improving our business to enable a better life for all,” Mr Groenewald says.
He explains that by using the Huawei cloud and IT infrastructure, the AA can innovate technology on demand, and create technology ecosystems that result in quick upgrades to applications that meet customer requirements. He says the continued development of these applications means the deployment of services will be reduced from months to weeks.
“The commercial benefits of this partnership will drive down costs by up to 30%, while optimizing performance, and that’s really a major benefit for our Members and customers,” he says.
Another benefit of the partnership, notes Mr Groenewald, is that the Huawei cloud backbone will ensure up to 99.99% uptime for the AA’s platform, and that it mitigates risk by providing A-Z redundancy through end-to-end back-up and disaster recovery to deliver and ensure effective business continuity processes. He says this is a key factor in mitigating risk from a governance perspective. He notes that the privacy of the AA’s Members and customer data is paramount and through the Association’s applications it will ensure the safeguarding of this through multiple layers of security.
“Our aim as an Association is to ensure we provide our Members and corporate customers with products and services that meet their needs and to ensure we deliver on our promises. We must partner with people who are like-minded in their pursuit of delivering quality to their customers and with Huawei we have a partner who values relationships and who can assist us to use technology to serve humanity,” adds Mr Groenewald.
Another key aspect of working with Huawei, says Mr Groenewald, is that the AA’s services and products can easily be deployed throughout the world by creating dedicated ecosystems into its cloud platforms which are tailored-made to the specifications of its client-base from both local and international perspectives. Software as a service could be related to specific territories where, for instance, member clubs of the FIA can dial into the AA’s cloud platform and sell services into their local markets and allow the AA to drive new revenue streams through software licensing agreements. This enables scale and creates new subscription opportunities where they did not exist before.
“With our global reach through our membership of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), and with Huawei’s one global network solution known as KooVerse, we will be able to deploy vertical solutions anywhere in the world from right here in South Africa. It’s exciting and points to the future of the AA as an international provider of digital solutions. That speaks to our purpose of caring about people and the prosperity of humanity as whole,” Mr Groenewald concludes.
