“I expect this program to take us a long way from where we are now standing,” said Chai. “I believe we have a good marketing team in terms of lead generations as well as product marketing.”
Chai finishes with a piece of advice for partners. He recommends that they focus on their individual areas of expertise to achieve growth, and in return 3Com will provide the support to help them realise their goals.
Raju Chellum, vice president Asia Pacific, AMI Partners then took the stage to shed some light on the significance of the SMB market with an entertaining presentation. He was followed by Anna Dorcey, senior director of open networks and enterprise product marketing, 3Com Corporation, who provided a detailed account of 3Com’s latest offerings and explained what she refers to as “the ecosystem behind the methodology”, in particular 3Com ON, the company’s open network program.
A partner conference wouldn’t be complete without a tour of the facilities and a couple of demonstrations to assure partners that the vendor is at the cutting-edge of the latest technologies. A busload of press and partners were transported to the Hangzhou base of operations for the recently acquired H3C. Networking technology, security offerings and video conferencing solutions were on display with impressive demonstrations leaving attendants suitably impressed.
H3C is expecting to make an impact on the Australian market with products including its Multiple Service Routers (MSR) series, delivering wire speed and concurrent services of data, voice and video. R&D has also been invested in developing a new series of switches geared to both enterprise and SMBs.
So, 3Com has invested in R&D, marketing and has joined forces with innovative and influential players such as H3C and Bain Capital. It all sounds fantastic; however given 3Com’s history you can’t blame partners for remaining slightly skeptical. In an attempt to provide greater transparency as well as support for its channel partners, 3Com has established a Partner Resource Centre featuring alerts such as technology updates and topical case studies. Designed to be a source of information and also technical support, the resource centre acts as a virtual tradeshow where relevant information is congregated onto one platform for the convenience of users.
“This is designed to empower partners,” said Nick Tidd, vice president worldwide channel sales, 3Com Corporation. “We approached this with the attitude that we would take responsibility for compiling all these tools for our partners.”
There is also the added allure of a rebate program and various other incentives for resellers. Ease-of-use was another major consideration when developing the resource centre.
“Navigating is seamless and intuitive, everything is easy to find,” said Tidd. “It’s about making it easier for resellers to access information that is most relevant to them, whereas on other sites you can be overwhelmed by the volume of data that doesn’t apply to you.”
When the formalities concluded for the day, the organisers felt a night of entertainment was in order. Press and partners were treated to a live performance that featured a spectacular light show and a cast of hundreds dancing, sailing or playing instruments on a stage hidden under inches of water at the famous West Lake.
It’s difficult to predict whether all the ambitions of the vendor will be realised, but the 3Com Asia Pacific “Switch On” conference appeared to be successful in alleviating partner concerns that the company had become complacent.
The proactive approach 3Com is taking to reclaim a larger percentage of market share in APAC – investing in marketing, partner programs and acquiring growing businesses – might succeed. Leaving the conference, many partners were of the opinion that they just might pull it off.
3Com "Switched On" in China
By
Leanne Mezrani
on Nov 27, 2007 10:54AM

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