Cicso Monday announced its SME offering, dubbed the Cisco Business Communications Solution. According to the company the reason for delving into the SME arena is that it wants to bring its enterprise offerings down to the SME -- thereby levelling the playing field between SMEs and enterprises.
Tim Stone, marketing manager of IP communications and security at Cisco, says that many SMEs are looking for enterprise-type solutions, but simply do not have the budget or the expertise to implement such solutions.
?It is just not good enough to provide an SME with a watered-down enterprise solution,? he continues. ?We have found that SMEs want enterprise-class solutions, but, at the same time, these solutions need to be able to suit the SME?s needs, and also be easy to use and easy to set up.?
According to Stone, Cisco?s SME communications offering requires no specialized expertise to install.
The Cisco Business Communications Solution features a tailored family of products, services, support and financing options, which are intended to help SMEs control costs and improve operational efficiencies.
As part of the solution, Cisco has also announced the SME-class Cisco Catalyst Express 500 Series of switches and additions to its IP communications portfolio, including IPC Communications applications and an expanded line of XML-enabled IP phones -- all part of the Cisco Business Communications Solution.
Cisco Business Communications Solution system for SME customers with 20 to 250 employees is based on the Cisco Catalyst Express 500 switch and the IP Communications Express Solution, featuring Cisco CallManager Express and Cisco Unity Express within the Cisco Integrated Services Router (ISR).
The Cisco Catalyst Express 500 Series switches are built specifically for SMEs that want to run converged networks. As a family of wire-speed Layer 2-managed Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet switches, it aims to provide a secure network foundation optimized for data, wireless and voice.
Together with the Cisco Network Assistant 3.0 application, customers can now configure their networks and enable technologies such as wireless LANs and IP communications, Cisco says.
For simple, all-in-one communications, Cisco is introducing new versions of Cisco CallManager Express and Cisco Unity Express. According to the company, Cisco?s CallManager Express 3.3 features embedded ?MeetMe? conferencing for 20 to 96 users, enhanced call routing and queuing capabilities, and increased security.
Security
According to the company, all the Cisco Catalyst Express 500 switches come with advanced built-in security features. ?When we designed the switches, simplicity and security was a top priority. Thus we included a graphical user interface which makes things such as controlling security that much easier,? comments Stone. ?The switches also come with ?smart ports? -- which aim to allow users to implement Cisco?s best practice options on each of the ports -- thus alleviating the need for users to go into the ?nitty-gritty? of setting up security options per port,? he concludes.