Oman's Leading Automotive Business Deploys 3Com Technology to Ensure Mission-Critical Network Performance across the Sultanate

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 15 March 2005 - 3Com, one of the world's leading networking technology companies, today announced that one of Oman's automotive business leaders, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles, has installed a WAN/LAN network solution from 3Com, to connect its nationwide chain of branch offices with the Muscat-based headquarters.

Suhail Bahwan Automobiles, Oman's exclusive Nissan dealership, has a network of 15 locations - each comprising showrooms, service centres, and warehouse - spanning the length and breadth of the country. As part of a long-term vision to establish itself as the nation's foremost automobile distributor and drive the standards of customer service in Oman, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles designated several services centres for round-the-clock operation and deployed a centralised enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution from SAP to improve customer service.

To make the most of its ERP implementation and ensure secure communications between offices, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles required a WAN/LAN solution with the ability to relay information between the central SAP servers based in the Muscat headquarters and the company's branch offices. After reviewing various options offered by network vendors, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles opted for 3Com's WAN/LAN infrastructure solution. 

"Our business depends on having reliable connections between our numerous locations," said Dileep Somani, general manager IT, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles. "This network is mission-critical; all business transactions must traverse this system and therefore any solution that we deploy must be extremely reliable and deliver high-performance."

"3Com's router and switch technology provides us with the connectivity and features that we need to grow the business while providing exceptional levels of service to our clients. This solution is designed to be scalable, functional, easy to install and works out of the box - offering everything that we required and much more," added Somani. 

The 3Com implementation deploys one Router 5680, several Router 3012s, one SuperStack 3 Switch 4924 and a number of SuperStack 3 Switch 4226Ts, as well as 3Com's Guardian Service for constant support. Located at the company's headquarters, the Router 5860 delivers high-performance WAN access routing across the network. The router's flexibility offers a series of expansion benefits, including eight Multi-Function Interface Module slots that hold LAN and WAN interface modules. The 3012 routers deliver WAN access routing in a cost-effective, desktop platform, and support quality of service (QoS), ensuring that critical SAP data gets priority delivery ahead of other traffic. Redundancy features are also configured, to guarantee a constant connection between branches. 

"All of our business-critical data is located in SAP," said Somani. "With the 3Com routers, we are able to access and use SAP 100 percent of the time. If SAP is the brain of our business, the 3Com network is the circulation system."

3Com's LAN equipment forms the internal backbone of Suhail Bahwan Automobiles' network. Deployed at the headquarters, a SuperStack 3 Switch 4924 acts as the core of the infrastructure, and provides Gigabit Ethernet connections to the company's 12-unit server farm. Four SuperStack 3 Switch 4226Ts supply Fast Ethernet connections to users in the headquarters, while each branch location also boasts a versatile, high-density Switch 4226T for desktop connectivity.

"Our goal is to assist the development of businesses throughout the Middle East territory," said Wael Fakharany, regional manager at 3Com Middle East. "Suhail Bahwan Automobiles had specific business aims that required an immediate answer. Our scalable solution will enable the company to not only keep pace with its rapid growth, but also exceed that growth over the coming months and years."

"The deployment of the switches allows Suhail Bahwan to create virtual LANs to segregate SAP traffic from other data streams, allowing them to get on with their work and concentrate on providing top-class service to their customers," explained Fakharany.

"3Com gave us a high-performance network to meet our mission critical requirements," concluded Somani. "Their broad portfolio of systems gave us superior business performance when compared to other vendor offerings. Both 3Com's Global Services team and consultants from Omani systems integrator Bahwan IT did an extraordinary job planning and implementing the LAN/WAN. We have taken a step forward because of 3Com."

-Ends-

About Suhail Bahwan Automobiles
Suhail Bahwan Automobiles is part of Suhail Bahwan Group, one of the Sultanate of Oman's largest companies. The group has more than 7,000 employees and operates a range of business sectors, from telecommunications and construction to healthcare. In 2004 the group launched Suhail Bahwan Automobiles, which is now the nation's exclusive dealership for Nissan. For further information, please visit www.suhailbahwangroup.com. 

About 3Com Corporation
3Com is a leading provider of secure, converged voice and data networking solutions for enterprises of all sizes. 3Com offers a broad line of innovative products backed by world class sales, service and support, which excel at delivering business value for its customers.  When customers exercise choice, their choice is 3Com. For further information, please visit www.3com.com, or the press site www.3com.com/pressbox.

Copyright 2005 3Com Corporation. 3Com, the 3Com logo and SuperStack are registered trademarks and Exercise Choice is a trademark of 3Com Corporation. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective holders.

© Press Release 2005