3Com offers IP telephony to SMBs

Scott Hilton, vice president Enterprise Solutions for 3Com, claimed the vendor identified a global market opportunity to provide IP telephony products to SMBs.

“It’s about bringing enterprise class features down to that small and medium business, packaging it in a way that they can easily deploy, administer and maintain it,” he said.

According to Hilton, the product expands the 3Com portfolio, which focuses on three key areas – networking, security and telephony. It is also a core component of what the vendor refers to as its ‘secure converged networks’ strategy. The announcement follows the release of a new router platform and open services networking offering earlier this year.

Based on a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), VCX Connect can support up to 100 devices per server. Hilton said the product is channel ready and preconfigured for easy deployment, which presents cost-saving opportunities for customers that resellers can leverage.

“From a partner selling a product and an end-user perspective it’s a much easier product to support,” he said.

To further its UC ambitions, 3Com has developed its own convergence client with built-in desktop integration. The vendor also boasts full integration with Lotus Sametime, the IBM UC solution.

Orcun Tezel, technical director, 3Com South Asia said said the complexity of IP Telephony has been a major contributor to the poor rate of adoption among SMBs; and this creates a need for a strong channel program based on the transfer of knowledge.

“SMBs were not really investing in IP telephony because of the complexity of the system, and the solutions were not meeting their demands and requirements,” he explained. “[The channel program] is all about enabling partners and equipping them with the right tools and skills to push the product in the market.”

According to Tezel, 3Com developed VCX Connect to address the obstacles facing SMBs in the IP telephony market. The key differentiator is the product’s adaptability within a UC framework that complements the vendor’s ‘open networking strategy’, he added.

“It’s all around unified communications … most organsiations are looking at leveraging those applications to drive the product, increase business integration and run operations more efficiently,” he said.