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3Com on Tuesday will launch its bid to deliver automated managed services offerings based on its voice, security and high-end data networking products.
Through a partnership with Motive Inc., 3Com Corp. intends to build automated deployment, implementation, workflow and support functions into its IP communications, security and high-end data networking products in order to optimize those offerings for managed services.
“There is a set of business processes that the provider of a managed service can wrap around managed services that are traditionally manual—deployment and activation of a service, ongoing service and support, break/fix and reporting on the service [for the customer and the services provider],” said Kip McClanahan, president of 3Coms Tipping Point security division in Austin, Texas.
“3Com is taking very bold step. We think we are doing the most advanced work to optimize the business processes; our customers would otherwise spend too much on expenses associated with deploying managed services. We think were unique in that,” he said.
3Com is targeting carriers and systems integrators looking to deploy managed IP telephony or managed security services such as intrusion prevention, which McClanahan said were the fastest growing segments of the managed services market.
By automating set-up and configuration, 3Com hopes to speed installation for service providers, and that should result in faster service adoption. 3Com will also smooth the process of making changes to a service through automated configuration.
3Com will build a set of modules into its voice, security and high-end data networking products that enable a workflow to be run against the products for automated deployment and activation of those products as a service.
A second module will be built into the products to “allow support telemetry to be exposed to the end user in an automated break/fix scenario,” McClanahan said. “If there is a problem, it automatically helps the end user to manage support challenges or communicate telemetry information back to the help desk and automate the support interaction that has to happen,” he added.
Those modules are due by years end for 3Coms NBX IP telephony platforms and its Intrusion Prevention Systems. Modules for 3Coms high-end switches and routers will follow.