What Huawei's MetaERP Transformation Means For You

What Huaweis MetaERP Transformation Means For You

Huawei's MetaERP enterprise resource planning platform could be a game-changer for business operations. Find out what this means for your organization and what action you need to take.

Huawei recently announced that it had secretly completed a digital transformation to a new "MetaERP" enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform. This proprietary tool leverages both artificial intelligence and cloud computing to reportedly elevate Huawei to a new level in its operations and, the company claims, reduce cost.

We don't know much about MetaERP yet, but if the figures are accurate, it could be a revolution for the ERP industry. To take advantage of iterations on ERP technology, your organization has to be ready for transformation.

Thankfully, the LeanIX EAM platform can automate your ERP transformation efforts. To find out more, see our product page:

USE CASE: ERP Transformation

In the meantime, let's look more closely at Huawei's new MetaERP and what it means for you.

Huawei company profile

Name: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Industry: Telecommunications
Headquarters: Shenzhen, China
2022 Revenue: USD 92.6 billion
Employees: 207,000

The name "Huawei" is taken from the slogan "Zhonghua youwei" ('China has promise'). The company was founded in 1987 by army engineering corps officer, Ren Zhengfei, to develop China's communications infrastructure.

Over the years, the Chinese government supported the company to act as a competitor to Apple and Samsung. The firm was also buoyed when Canadian telecommunications leader Nortel began outsourcing production to the Chinese company, and later by partnerships with Vodafone and Symantec.

By 2018, the Chinese telecom leader had sold 200 million smartphones under its brands Huawei and Honor, becoming the world's top smartphone seller by 2020. This is where concerns began to be raised about Huawei's close ties to the Chinese government.

The Trump and, later, Biden administrations placed restrictions on contracts between US companies and Huawei, with other countries following suit. Some or all Huawei products are now banned in North America, the UK, Australia, India, Japan, and Sweden.

As a result, Huawei has had to rapidly scale back their outlay to manage the loss of revenue in these countries. Their efforts have included an innovative enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation.

What Is Huawei's MetaERP?

In April, 2023, Huawei announced it had completed an enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation to what it called a "MetaERP" that it had been working on since 2019. The company set out “to build the simplest possible architecture with the best possible quality, delivering the best possible experience at the lowest-possible costs,” according to its press release.

Between 1996 and 2019, Huawei had been using the Manufacturing Resource Planning II system, developed with Oracle. As restrictions now prevent Oracle from working with Huawei, the Chinese company built a reportedly revolutionary ERP system in-house.

The new, cloud-native "MetaERP" platform now handles all of Huawei’s business scenarios and 80% of its business volume, including 15 million lines of accounting every day, for its 207,000 employees in more than 170 countries. Huawei claims:

"MetaERP has already passed the tests of monthly, quarterly, and yearly settlements, while ensuring zero faults, zero delays, and zero accounting adjustments."

The new MetaERP is using multi-tenant architecture to standardize and flexibly orchestrate metadata assets to quickly respond to service requirements. It also takes advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) to leverage the metadata to enable real-time decision-making.

As Huawei explained in its press release:

"Huawei has complete, full-stack control over MetaERP, which has been built with other Huawei systems like EulerOS and GaussDB. Huawei has also worked with partners to incorporate advanced technologies, such as cloud-native architecture, metadata-driven multi-tenant architecture, and real-time intelligence, into the MetaERP system, significantly improving service efficiency and operational quality."

ERP Today's Editorial Director, Giacomo Lee described MetaERP as "a TikTok-scale dragonslayer in the enterprise tech field". Why is MetaERP so important for companies outside of Huawei?

Why Does Huawei's MetaERP Matter?

Huawei's MetaERP is causing waves far outside of the company's remit. Why does this new platform matter to you?

Well, if Huawei's new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is leveraging AI to achieve perfect results and was implemented largely in-house "at the lowest-possible cost", then this represents a new best-of-breed solution. Other organizations will now be looking to rival Huawei's new ERP solution to achieve a similar competitive advantage.

This will serve to widen the gap between companies benefitting from best-of-breed ERP solutions and those struggling with legacy ERP tools. Organizations using outdated technology could be left behind in the dust.

It's vital for organizations to get their tech stack and application portfolio in order now, so they're ready to upgrade to the new generation of ERP platforms like Huawei's MetaERP when they arrive. Thankfully, there's a simple way to automate that process.

How We Can Help Your ERP Transformation

Huawei's MetaERP is an example of a new generation of cloud- and AI-enabled enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms that are just cresting the horizon. Before you can take advantage of these new tools that can transform all your operations, you need to prepare by establishing a clear view of your application portfolio and IT landscape.

The LeanX EAM enables a successful ERP transformation by offering full visibility into your current software landscape and a roadmap towards your target state. The platform supports you to:

obtain complete transparency on your landscape and interdependencies
collaborate and align transformation initiatives with business capabilities and objectives
build effective architectural roadmaps to successfully navigate ERP transformation

As Oliver Dawid, IT Enterprise Architect at Marc O'Polo explained:

"Without the support of LeanIX, a cost-efficient and smooth transition from our old landscape to the new SAP S/4HANA software landscape would not have been possible."

To find out more about how our EAM platform can empower your ERP transformations, book a demo:

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