3Com Corporation announced a strategic initiative to provide best-of-breed, automated managed service solutions for providers and enterprises of all sizes. The new managed voice over IP (VoIP), security and network infrastructure solutions enable managed service providers, including carriers and systems integrators, to automate key elements of implementation, service configuration and support to reduce costs and improve service levels for customers.

The managed services will be based on 3Com's award-winning products: NBX solutions for voice, TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention Systems for security and 3Com switches and routers for infrastructure.

"As a leading provider of secure, converged networking products and solutions, we believe we are the only company taking proactive steps to enhance products specifically for a managed service offering, making 3Com's managed service solutions the easiest to deploy, manage and support," said 3Com CEO and President Bruce Claflin. "The capabilities that we're building into our products through our managed services will enable both managed service providers and enterprise end-users to streamline, secure and automate their business processes."

Through a combination of 3Com's in-house managed service technology and management automation technology from Motive, Inc., this initiative will enable service providers to more efficiently and effectively deploy 3Com managed security, voice and data services for their enterprise customers. The managed solution benefits the end customer by:

• Enabling them to lower their total cost of ownership while leveraging third party expertise, and optimizing their own internal resources around their core business;
• Improving end user experience through faster installation and better customer support;
• Enabling them to scale their infrastructure more economically as the business demands; and
• Reducing risk with monitored solutions

According to a recent study by industry analyst firm InfoTech, the total managed services market is expected to reach $44.6 billion in 2005 of which managed security represents $4.39 billion, managed voice represents $1.22 billion and networking management represents $36.13 billion. "Although networking management represents the largest portion of the market today, voice and security are the fastest growing segments in managed services and represent tremendous growth opportunities," said Mark Ricca, executive vice president of InfoTech. "Carriers that take advantage of these opportunities now will build their expertise and reputation in focus areas to be well- positioned for leadership in the future."

Managed service solutions from 3Com will enable carriers to integrate technology with key business processes and link to the latest network trends to achieve visibility across the carrier's infrastructure. This visibility is used to automate key management tasks for business customers through faster root cause analysis and self-service support capabilities to reduce support costs. 3Com's managed services solutions offer additional revenue opportunities for carriers with unparalleled ease of deployment, support and management, enabling them to more profitably serve end customers.

To decrease deployment costs, 3Com's managed service solution will automate set-up and configuration functions for faster installation, which also significantly increases the speed of service adoption. In the event of changes or upgrades in the service, the automated configuration technology ensures a smooth transition for the end user. By automating a number of previously manual tasks, this solution provides significant cost savings for carriers and enterprises, while greatly improving the user experience for the end user.