3Com adopts radical simplicity for SMEs

Networking supplier 3Com says it is developing products that provide consumers and small businesses with "radically simple" networking products that increase network uptake and aid business-to-consumer interaction.

3Com's chairman Eric Benhamou said in Prague this week that network suppliers must change their mindset to embrace SMEs. His speech emphasised that 3Com is now developing "brand" name products that focus on the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises.

"We need to combine rich connectivity with radical simplicity, and design networks from an end-user perspective," he said. "Only by doing this will small and medium-sized businesses and consumers really be able to access the information and services they need to enhance their lives."

Benhamou said networking has changed radically in recent years. "It no longer just applies to a number of computers in one place wired together," he said. "Networks now extend from the single office, to small to medium sites within offices, and beyond that. You have mobile users, home teleworkers, networked apartment blocks, hotels and airports."

He added: "Networking is no longer only about connecting PCs to data. It is about connecting users to information, through an ever increasing diversity of devices and technologies, from wireless to broadband, as well as through traditional means such as Ethernet."

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