3Com Sets Trajectory for Enterprise Voice Communications
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 10, 2000--
Company Extends Market-Leading LAN Telephony System to Large
Enterprises and Call Centers; Delivers New Phone Functionality;
Creates Next Generation e-Network Voice Applications and
Application Developers Partner Program
3Com Corporation (Nasdaq: COMS) today unveiled its worldwide e-Networking voice strategy and supporting product roadmap to give enterprises of all sizes dramatic new Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) functionality for today's e-businesses. The strategy is centered on scaling 3Com's leading small and medium enterprise NBX(R) technology to large enterprise systems. This will create dramatic new non-proprietary phone functionality that will deliver a new generation of reliable and flexible voice applications for e-Networks.
"3Com is fundamentally and radically changing the way enterprises can use telephones and therefore deploy e-business applications for its customer and partner relationship management," said Edgar Masri, senior vice president and general manager, Network Systems Business Unit, 3Com Corporation. "We are building upon the immense success we've had with NBX technology in the first stage of the LAN telephony market and are ready to deliver voice solutions that will address broader markets. This is consistent with our strategy to offer all enterprises an e-Network infrastructure specially tuned to support converged voice/video/data e-business applications."
"I am pleased to see 3Com articulate its new voice strategy, building on current voice products," said Rod White, vice president of telecommunications, Home Shopping Network, the nation's premier television-based retailer. "Using the NBX 100 communications system voice solution, Home Shopping Network has realized significant operational savings because there aren't any additional costs for phone adds, moves and changes. Plus, the NBX 100 communications system has proven to be a reliable telephony solution."
Expanding 3Com(R) NBX Technology to Large Enterprises and Call Centers
LAN Telephony
In the LAN, 3Com will expand its range of PBX-replacement solutions based on the company's core NBX technology.
3Com's NBX family replaces conventional PBX systems with Network-Based Exchange products that run Ethernet/IP-powered LAN telephony networks. With the NBX family of integrated call processing engines, business telephones, attendant consoles and rich applications, enterprises can reduce the reliance on expensive PBX systems and the proprietary add-ons required for Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) and unified messaging applications.
The 3Com LAN telephony roadmap will extend the core NBX technology and application suite to 3Com workgroup and core network switches. Expected in the second half of 2000, SuperStack II switches will support up to 750 users per switch. Through a distributed architecture, multiple SuperStack II switches will be capable of handling thousands of users in hundreds of locations. Future enhancements to 3Com's CoreBuilder(R) 9000 family, planned to become available in mid-2001, will extend that scalability further for deployments requiring large-scale, centralized e-Network voice services.
WAN Telephony
To help enterprises replace expensive traditional voice-only trunking with converged voice/data networks, 3Com PathBuilder(R) switches offer an expanded range of access technologies. These currently include Voice-over-ATM, Voice-over-Frame Relay and Voice-over-IP solutions for smaller offices, as well as large enterprises and VPN tunnel switches that can link LAN telephony devices across the WAN. Scheduled to become available in the second half of 2000, the PathBuilder switch will support Voice-over-XDSL.
Scheduled for late 2000, the NBX and SuperStack II products will offer enterprises wide-ranging performance options for voice gateways based on traditional and newer standards, such as H.323, MEGACO, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and others evolving standards. Expected in early 2001, CoreBuilder 9000 switches will support voice-gateway services. Also in the future, enterprises with broadband applications are planned to gain access to networks through 3Com devices that will function as customer premises equipment.
For many companies, trunking replacement is an ongoing process, while newer companies are free to start with a clean slate. The 3Com WAN telephony strategy will help the new companies move voice and data onto the same "pipe", regardless of the underlying technology.
e-Networks: Next-Generation Applications and Application Developers Program
The final element in 3Com's enterprise telephony strategy involves giving increased support for third-party-developed applications, and to supplement those efforts, developing in-house applications that will deliver the ultimate benefits of voice/data integration. Currently, 3Com NBX 100 communications system supports Microsoft applications for managing administration with IE5.0, Unified Messaging with Outlook Express, and CTI services with Outlook. 3Com's standards-based CTI approach allows customers to use their most popular personal information managers (PIMs) such as Outlook and ACT! and other off-the-shelf applications.
Scheduled to become available from 3Com in mid-2000 are leading-edge applications that will support customer relationship management (CRM), multi-location call center processing and mixed media services, such as voice/fax and voice/video.
3Com also plans to deliver an application developer program in first half of 2000 to bring additional third-party applications to the 3Com voice portfolio.
Redefining Phone Functionality
Anticipating a rapid migration to an all-IP communications environment, the company plans to deliver telephone solutions incorporating PDA applications like the market-leading Palm Computing(R) platforms with infrared. In the second half of 2000, 3Com is scheduled to deliver next-generation telephony applications to its enterprise customers, such as the capability to interact PDAs with infrared enabled telephones so users can personalize and manage telephony communications. Last week, audiences were astounded by 3Com CEO Eric Benhamou's demonstration of this emerging telephony/PDA application during his keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Enterprise Telephony Strategy Supports e-Networking
3Com's enterprise telephony strategy will help enterprises experience the benefits of e-business and e-Networking regardless of individual deployment strategies. "Unlike other networking vendors, 3Com's strategy provides a strong focus on the three most important aspects of e-Networking deployment: application support, user access and high availability," said Barry Castle, director, voice marketing, Network Systems Business Unit, 3Com.
For application support, the NBX products currently give users wide-ranging applications that have been prohibitively expensive with traditional PBXs. These will now be extended for the enterprise, while 3Com works with developers to build next-generation applications.
To optimize user access, NBX solutions also feature wide compatibility among business telephones, attendant consoles, unified messaging tools and analog phones. This breadth of access will be extended across the enterprise and will build on 3Com's existing access strengths, with PDAs, wireless LAN products and other devices.
For high availability, the NBX products, as well as 3Com's other enterprise LAN and WAN products, today offer end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) technologies and full support for network management policy controls. These capabilities assure application prioritization and maintain transmission quality. 3Com's voice strategy will merge these capabilities with the added benefits of super redundancy and resiliency that are available in the company's traditional switch products.
For more information about 3Com voice solutions, interested resellers and customers can call 1-800-NET-3COM.
About 3Com Corporation
With over 300 million customer connections worldwide, 3Com Corporation connects more people and organizations to information and each other in more innovative, simple and reliable ways than any other networking company. 3Com delivers e-Networking solutions through information access products and network systems to enterprises, small businesses, consumers, carriers and network service providers. 3Com -- More connected.(TM) For further information, visit 3Com's World Wide Web site at www.3com.com or the press site at www.3com.com/pressbox.
3Com, NBX, SuperStack, CoreBuilder, PathBuilder and Palm Computing are registered trademarks and More connected. is a trademark of 3Com Corporation and its subsidiaries. All other company or product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
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