3Com to leverage on China's low cost

BANGALORE, INDIA: Peter Chai, vice president and general manager (Asia Pacific), 3 Com Corporation, today said that the company would leverage on its China advantage while focusing to increase its market share in India.

“China gives us the advantage of a low cost R&D location. We scale our business through the low cost advantage. It also gives us a chance to enhance our technology,’’ said Chai to media persons at press conference here.

3Com has a headcount of 4,700 in China out of which 2,400 are in R&D. The company has invested close to $900 million in China, said Chai.

3Com boosted its presence in China by completing the acquisition of H3C. Chai said that the integration with H3C Technologies is fully complete.

Chai also stated that the company would capitalize on the prevalent network convergence trend by pushing its open services network. He informed that while the Chinese R&D would work on it, the company might also consider partnering with Indian companies for its software part.

Speaking on the plans for the open services network, Orcun Tezel, technical director, 3Com South Asia, said that the company would adopt a combination of single vendor and multi-vendor approach.

Chai also said the 3Com would also focus on the SMB market. “We are uniquely positioned to serve the SMB market,’’ added Chai.

In India, the company has identified healthcare, BFSI, Telco, government as key verticals, said Mohit Rampal, country manager, 3Com- India.

Rampal said that in India, 3Com would partner with solution specialists in different verticals. Elaborating on the company’s partners in India, he said, “We are strengthening existing relationship. We are also creating new relationships with SIs (system integrators) and partners who can sync with us.’’

Rampal added that company is increasing its workforce in India. It is already ramping up its pre-sales and post-sales team in the country, said Rampal, who became the country manager last month.

Private equity firm Brain Capital Partners had last month, acquired 3Com for $2.2 billion. Huawei, with whom 3Com had a joint venture for H3C Technologies, is holding a minority stake in the company. Huawei, however, is not involved in 3Com’s day-to-day operations and is a commercial and strategic partner of the company.