State Trading Corp. partners Huawei to introduce IdeaHub to public sector

From left: Huawei Sri Lanka Public Affairs Director Christophe Lee, Huawei Enterprise Vice President Indika De Zoysa and Huawei Sri Lanka CEO Liang Yi exchanging the partnership agreement with Minister of Trade Dr. Bandula Gunawardena and STC Chairman Yoga Perera and other officials

Sri Lanka’s state trading supply giant that caters to leading public and private corporations – State Trading (General) Corporation, partnered with world’s leading ICT solutions provider Huawei to introduce Huawei IdeaHub, a productivity tool for the smart office, bundled with intelligent writing, High Definition (HD) video conferencing and wireless sharing. 

A Red Dot Award 2020 winner, IdeaHub is designed to suit any environment and effortlessly turn conference rooms, executive offices and open areas into smart spaces.

Minister of Trade Dr. Bandula Gunawardena speaking on the new partnership said, “In today’s world technology continues to change life, as we are all aware of. Everything from the way we operate in our offices to homes, and even in government sector offices and in public places as well as in our professional working environments. Especially with movement and travel restrictions, it is important that Government sector explore technologies that help us to conduct live and virtual presentations and meetings. I believe this partnership will enable State Trading (General) Corporation to introduce these latest digital technologies that enable government sector to smoothly and efficiently carry on day to day operations and processes with support of digital innovations such as Huawei IdeaHub.”

“With the current situation of the ‘new normal’, an area that is changing at a fast pace in the office environment is the conferencing and presentation space. Therefore, both government sector and private sector as well as public corporations need to have digital technology solutions that are converging capabilities into connected offices which would fast track office functions,” said State Trading (General) Corporation (STC) Chairman Yoga Perera said. 

He further pointed out that as a powerhouse that strives to make Sri Lanka as a nation that is globally competitive, Huawei IdeaHub solution will be introduced to Government sector organisations that will facilitate connected offices to fast track day to day functions of public sector in this era of new normal. He added that this new partnership between Huawei and STC will lead the two entities to explore more digital technologies that could cater to public sector digital transformation. 

Commenting on the collaborative partnership, Huawei Sri Lanka’s Chief Executive Officer Liang Yi said: “We are indeed delighted to partner with State Trading (General) Corporation to introduce our cutting edge technologies such as Huawei IdeaHub to enable collaborative smart ecosystems that are essential in a modern, connected office, to deliver a seamless user-centric experience, designed to enhance the way teams work together wherever they work from.”

Liang Yi highlighted that Huawei has already installed a number of IdeaHub terminals at its Sri Lankan head office, as well as at some of Sri Lanka’s leading private sector offices making local businesses successfully undertake their digital transformation journey.

“These services cover every step of the digital transformation process — and beyond — from strategic development and implementation to operational support, effectively helping the Government sector to successfully realise digital transformation, now and in the future,” Liang Yi added.  

Huawei’s IdeaHub is a perfect team collaboration board that takes all the elements of a conferencing or boardroom multimedia solution and converges them into one smart device.

The ultra-smart board incorporates five major highly integrated capabilities: It is a fully functional smart board; it has a built-in 4K camera; a built-in high-definition microphone array; an optional built-in Android system/Windows OPS, surround speaker system; and can be wall mounted or attached to a mobile stand.

In enterprise and Government sector, it would be perfect for policy promotion scenarios that involve interested parties who are based in different locations, and also for remote training. In the education space, it can also be used for remote learning and will enable students who are based in far-reaching areas or unable to attend lectures in specific locations to engage in a live video conference. It can also be used to engage a guest lecturer from another province or country. In addition, it can also be used to facilitate group discussions. 

In the healthcare space, medical institutions can apply it to several telemedicine scenarios such as remote diagnosis, where doctors are unable to travel to give second opinions, and also for surgical teaching, where a specialist is also unable to be physically present for a procedure.