3Com powers up softswitch launch
Firm's VCX 7000 to appear in UK this quarter
3Com must execute in the convergence market or fail as an enterprise player, according to the firm's UK managing director.
"If we don't get it right in the convergence space, then we can't claim to be an enterprise player," said Rob Coyne, UK managing director of 3Com.
Coyne identified security, wireless and voice technologies as "disruptive to the status quo".
"This is a tremendous opportunity for 3Com," said Rachel Power, an analyst at Canalys. "It has a better product set now, but it depends if it gets it right - and that's a big 'if' for any company."
3Com will launch its enterprise- and carrier-class softswitch, the VCX 7000, in the UK this quarter. Coyne wants a wide range of resellers to be able to market the VCX, which allows large organisations' data centres to offer Session Initiation Protocol IP telephony as well as telecoms companies.
Coyne said licensing will be very flexible. "It has to be a disruptive offering (in terms of licensing) because it's a disruptive technology," he said. "If we don't have 10 to 15 significant sites by the end of the financial year, I shall be disappointed."
Coyne said integrators specialising in outsourcing were interested in the switch, but that smaller resellers would not necessarily lose out.
The product's simplicity will enable smaller resellers to sell it, he said.
However, Power said getting the right resellers for VCX could prove difficult.
"3Com has Westcon and Rocom for the NBX," she said. "Not all of these resellers will be able to sell VCX."
The launch of the VCX outside the US has taken longer than expected.
Staff at 3Com originally cited localisation issues as the reason for the delay after the softswitch was launched in the US last year.
However, Coyne said: "It has been not so much a homologation issue as a US 'we're going to do this our way' issue. But we have hired a number of new staff from all over the world, and this has internationalised the effort."