Johannesburg, 06 May 2008
3Com has maintained the number two market share position worldwide in total Ethernet switching port shipments, enterprise router units and SMB switching, and continues on a positive growth trajectory in EMEA.
3Com EMEA has recorded four consecutive quarters of quarter-on-quarter revenue growth, and saw 20% year-on-year revenue growth as at end February 2008.
"This has been largely driven by our increased customer focus," says Mike Ansley, 3Com EMEA vice-president. "In the past year we have brought service and support in-house and regionalised our channel programmes, and we are now expanding our direct sales force."
3Com in South Africa also continues to show strong growth, and has expanded its local operation to meet increased demand from customers.
"We've had competitive enterprise products for more than two years now, and we continue to be strong in the small-medium business space," says 3Com regional sales director for Africa, Gavin Zackey. "3Com provides enterprise strength networking technology with SMB economy."
The Johannesburg office has been expanded, with specialists concentrating on the government, telecommunications service provider, enterprise and SMB markets, and the Cape Town office has been strengthened to service the coastal areas.
In addition to South Africa, 3Com covers Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Kenya and Zambia. It is exploring opportunities in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Ethiopia, and also has representation through partners in North African countries.
"Independent analyst reports demonstrate that 3Com's commitment to developing a complete portfolio of high-quality, low-cost switches and routers is rapidly winning support from customers around the world," says Ansley. "We continue to successfully deliver on our strategy, and are leveraging our ownership of H3C to provide low-cost, high quality open standards-based secure converged networking solutions to organisations of all sizes. We are delivering on our promise of convergence with open services networking (OSN), and we have refined our go-to-market strategies to capitalise on these.
"In the highly competitive network infrastructure market, it is essential that vendors clearly differentiate their offerings. Not only does 3Com have a significant price-performance advantage, but our growing portfolio of OSN-enabled products stands out from the crowd."
3Com's Q3 (end February 2008) results demonstrate strong growth in networking sales (up 8% year-on-year) and in services (up 5% year-on-year). Overall, 3Com's revenue in Q3 was the highest since it formed H3C in 2003, up 4% year-on-year. Non-GAAP operating profit approached 10%, the sixth consecutive quarter of positive operating profit.
"We are investing heavily in increasing customer contact to help us better meet our customers' needs," says Ansley. "Our service and support function is now in-house, and our channel strategy has become more regionally focused."
3Com continues to capitalise on the huge market opportunity in China to which H3C gives it access and where it enjoys strong market share. 3Com has vaulted to the number one market share position for enterprise stackable switch ports and router units in the rapidly growing Chinese market, according to leading industry analysis firm IDC.
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