South African small businesses wanting to harness the power of the Internet, to enhance communications with customers, suppliers and clients, and gain access to greater amounts of business information through a reliable global supplier, now have a solution.
Research performed by IDC, BRG and SBA among other sources have discovered that there are over 14 million small businesses in the US alone, 20% of which have PCs. Of this 20%, only 10% are networked, and just 4% of these companies have an Internet connection.
US-based Cisco Systems have launched a stack of products for the small office environment locally - one of the hottest and fastest growing markets - the Cisco Networked Office Stack.
John Hindley, Cisco product manager at leading distributor, Lattice Technologies, explains that this strategic move by Cisco to focus on products that fit into the small business space proves the company`s commitment to that market.
"The Networked Office Stack is a suite of products designed to fulfill the specific networking requirements of the small or branch office user, with simplicity, flexibility and affordability rated as highest priority. Each product in the suite can be utilised as a stand-alone, besides working as a component of an integrated stackable solution with the other suite products.
"This means the company can address growing network or information technology (IT) requirements while protecting investments with a solution which will grow as the company does, through the use of auto sensing and auto negotiation technologies on the 1500 10/100 hubs and switches, without requiring dedicated IT staff," he says.
7The new range provides a unique combination of secure Internet access, complete line of flexible high-performance local area networking and Internet marketing solutions.
Security, another high priority for small companies, is available through the IOS firewall for the 1600 and 2500 series of routers - this enables the company to protect information and determine who has access to sensitive internal information within the network. End-to-end security, firewall and encryption features for data privacy are also available through the Cisco Networked Office Stack.
Even the factors of appearance, small footprint size and security, important in an environment where networking equipment is located on the table top rather than in a wiring closet, have been taken into account.
"Other differentiators include a one year warranty on all products in the stack, single vendor service and support, guaranteed product interoperability with all products within the stack, as well as being compatible with the existing network," Hindley adds
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