Although 3Com has traditionally sold through the channel, the company is in the process of building a sales team to undertake an "enterprise attack".

3Com channel director Dean Vaughan said customers want more functionality at existing price points.

"Basically they want Layer 4 features at Layer 2 prices," he said.

3Com's strongest vertical in Australia is education where the company has inked deals across several states as many schools standardize on VOIP.

Claiming 3Com is one of the few companies to cover switching, security and convergence, Vaughan says open standards is driving many technology decisions.