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Technology Stocks : 3Com Corporation (COMS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tim Luke who wrote (22105)	9/23/1998 11:42:00 AM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 45548

3Com Battles To Top Of Hubs, Grabs Lead Among Large Firms Computer Reseller News - September 21, 1998 3Com Corp. was the most widely used LAN hub product among businesses of all sizes, according to CRN's latest Inside Spending brand-preference poll. 3Com, Santa Clara, Calif., easily outpaced runners-up Cisco Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif., and Bay Networks Inc., Santa Clara. Among large corporations, 3Com was named by 29 percent of poll respondents, compared with 19 percent each for both Cisco and Bay Networks. Midsize companies preferred 3Com by a whopping 36 percent, compared with 9 percent for second-place Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif., and 8 percent for Bay Networks. 3Com also was the big winner among small companies, with an overwhelming 24 percent share of those users, compared with HP's 9 percent and Cisco's 4 percent. Last year 3Com placed third among large companies in the Inside Spending poll, behind Bay Networks and Cisco, although it was the most widely used hub in both the midsize- and small-business segments. Tiffany Finocchio, channel development manager for 3Com, said the percentage-share jump in the large-business category can be attributed to the networking vendor's increased channel outreach efforts. "Over the last few years, we've been executing a lot better, offering things in more locations and touching more resellers," Finocchio said. She said 3Com has embarked on training not just the technical people, but also the salespeople in its partner base, thereby making the channel more comfortable with networking products. "The quality of our communications with our channel partners has been tremendous over the last year," she said. For example, late last year 3Com implemented a Secure Reseller Web site focused on virtual sales kits, news bulletins, realtime pricing, competitive comparison tools and proposal builders. "It's made it that much easier for our partners to do business with us," Finocchio said. "We work hand in hand with our reseller base. Taking a deal direct rarely happens. Our reps out there are supposed to help resellers close business." Dana Christensen, solutions marketing manager for 3Com's medium enterprise, said marketing to small and midsize companies is a matter of providing the right products through the right distribution channel. She said 3Com caters to the specific needs of each business segment. "Medium customers, for example, are very concerned about value. They typically have growing businesses and are looking for a solution that will grow with them," Christensen said. "Hubs have a scalable architecture that's really flexible and can easily adapt to their changing business requirements as they move to more bandwidth-intensive applications." In addition to marketing specific products to their corresponding business segments, 3Com continues to expand its reseller base for the small- and midsize-business markets, she said. Copyright r 1998 CMP Media Inc. o~~~ O