________________________________________________________________ HP Model 45 Plus Competitive Guide ________________________________________________________________ October 1992 _______________________________________ How to sell HP Model 45 Plus against... _______________________________________ _____ Codex _____ Codex first entered the market for packet-switching equipment in January 1987, when it announced the 6510 IPX packet switch. Codex's solution consists of two overlapping and non-compatible solutions the 6525 X.25 packet switch introduced in April 1989 and the large scale network processors OEMed from Hughes Network Systems i.e. the Codex 6608, 6624, 6660 and 6690. The 6525 is a 6 to 48 port switch with integrated async PAD ($4,345 to $37,000) and SNA/SDLC PAD with a premium price of 750$ per switch. The positioning of these products is not obvious... and management from the Codex 9800 is available only for the 6525 family and not for the 66XX family. Strengths . Meet of broad range of network needs . Strong account presence through installed modems/stat muxes . Aggressive pricing in the US (up to 45% discount) . New modular Modulus series Weaknesses. Non-compatible X.25 families . Proprietary and non-compatible network managements . Financial troubles (40M$ of losses in 1991) . Limited performance (300pps on their 6525 switch) . Very late on the LAN Internet market vs Cisco How to win against Codex . Price/performance : the HP Model 45 Plus 6 ports (5,700$/400pps) beats the Codex 6525 6 ports (5,100$ /100pps) easily. . HP OpenView Network Management versus their proprietary Network Management . HP has also strong complementary Ethertwist LAN products managed under HP OpenView .PA _____ Micom _____ Micom was traditionally one of the stronger worldwide players with a good distributor channel and a large installed base. Micom has in the 2 past years suffered considerably in the market place following a number of company restructurings and the loss of many company employees. Customers have been unhappy with the reliability of MB3 line of X.25 switches and have been waiting for a long time for their new Marathon 5K Data Voice Network Server which supports voice, fax, data and Ethernet on a 56 Kbps or 64 Kbps. The MB3 comes with a basic 6 port interface card and there is an optional 6 port expansion card. 2 of the maximum 12 ports can be configured for high speed (eg. V.35) links. The MB3 can through the "Featurepak" software support a maximum of two protocols per unit; X.25, async, 3270 SNA/SDLC and 3270 BSC. Throughput is rated by Micom at 100 pps (128bytes). The MB300 announced in September '89 appears to be an upgrade of the MB3 with a vendor quoted maximum throughput of 320 PPS. The switch can be managed by Micom's XMNS Xenix management station and for a 6 V.35 port unit costs $5,950. A 12 port unit (6 V.35 & 6 RS232) costs $5,675. Strengths . Large installed base . Large distribution network Weaknesses. Major quality and customer image problems . Old technology . Several ownership changes company future in doubt . Very weak post-sales support How to win against Micom . Performance : HP Model 45 Plus is far superior with 1200 Packet/s versus Micom's 320 Packet/s (128-byte packet) . Reliability of the HP Model 45 Plus : MTBF of 35 years versus Micom's poor reliability - current HP customers are currently upgrading their Micoms by HP Model 45s for this reason. . HP Model 45 Plus State-Of-The-Art technology (SMT components technology) . HP OpenView Network Management versus their proprietary Network Management . HP support superiority and international coverage .PA _______ Dynatech _______ Dynatech Corporation sells over 1,000 diversified products and has 50 companies under the Dynatech umbrella. Dynatech is one of the older and more respected names in the packet switching industry. Dynatech are often encountered widely with their old Model 8 & Model 12 switches. These devices had a reasonable reputation in terms of reliability but were very difficult to configure and often ran into performance problems. Many Dynatech customers were dissatisfied with the length of time (2 years) that Dynatech took to develop the replacement for the Model 8 and 12. With the introduction of its CPX20 in 1989 and of the CPX10, CPX 432 and CPX 216 this past year, Dynatech reaffirmed its position as a recognized leader in PAD and X.25 technology. Dynatech recognizes to be an "Networking Access" provider and not a "Backbone" provider. The CPX 10 provides multiprotocol connectivity from 6 to 10 ports (5,450$ to 7,950$) in increments of 4 ports and the CPX 20 provides from 4 to 20 synchronous ports (7,000$ to 19,950$). All ports can be configured at speeds of up to 64kbps and Dynatech rates the maximum throughput of a fully configured unit at 500 Packet/s for the CPX10 and at 800-1000 pps for the CPX20. Strengths . High-performance X.25 switch . Beginnings of a reasonable product family including Frame Relay capabilities . OS/2 based Network Management station Weaknesses. Company financial situation . Doubts in mind of installed base if would ever get long promised replacement to low performing Model 8 & Model 12. . Low sales in last 2/3 years weakened position in distributor channels . Unclear LAN Internet strategy because of OEM agreement with Eicon . Weak support of SNA/SDLC protocols How to win against Dynatech . HP OpenView Network Management versus their proprietary Network Management DN25 . HP Model 45 Plus SNA/SDLC features are far superior than Dynatech's ones in IBM environment . HP support superiority and international coverage . HP has a strong complementary Ethertwist LAN products managed under HP OpenView. .PA __________ Telematics __________ Telematics success came through the highly successful OEMing of their NET 25 Series of medium to high end switching nodes. They generate 75% of their revenues through OEMs, VARs and system integrators. The Telematics X.25 Networking Access product family is known as the SmartNet family which includes the ACP10, ACP 20, ACP 40 and ACP50 286/386 Access Communication Processors managed by the SmartView PC-based network management station. The SmartNet family provides multiprotocol connectivity from 6 up to 24 synchronous ports (ACP50/386). The approximate price for a 6 port ACP40 unit is $6,000 and for a 24 port ACP50/386 unit is $20,000. The SmartView PC-based management station allows central control of all the SmartNet family of async PADs and switches. Strengths . Family of PADs and switches . Good distribution channels Weaknesses. Very few recent technological innovation (added the Wellfleet router within their offer without Network Management integration) . Poor performance of their ACPs (Max=450 Packet/s) . Poor number of simultaneous 64 Kbps links (Max=8) . Poor support services outside of USA . Financial losses in 1990 & 1991 (approximatively 6M$ of losses each year for 62 M$ revenues) How to win against Telematics . Performance : HP Model 45 Plus is far superior with 1200 Packet/s versus Telematics's 450 Packet/s (128-byte packet) . HP Model 45 Plus supports up to 30 ports at 64 Kpbs versus Telematic's 8 ports at 64 Kbps . HP Model 45 Plus State-Of-The-Art technology (SMT components technology) . HP OpenView Network Management versus their proprietary Network Management SmartView . HP support superiority and international coverage . HP has a strong complementary Ethertwist PC LAN products managed under HP OpenView. .PA ___ TRT ___ TRT a French based company now part of the Philips group is an one of the X.25 industry "old-timers". The company has a very large installed base mostly in France where the country's public data network Transpac was built on TRT nodes. This large installed base and the company's stable product line has allowed TRT to price in an already competitive French market place very aggressively. TRT's flagship product used to be the NPX-09 a 5, 8 or 16 port switch which can support X.25, async, videotex, and SDLC.' Now, TRT has introduced new innovative and high-tech MCX products MCX106, MCX 112 and MCX 212 which are based on state-of-the-art technology. These MCX concentrators/switches are all managed by the Philips Compac NMX Network Management PC. TRT also has a high end offering the NPX-90, an 8-24 port switch with an advertised maximum throughput of 800 pps and managed by the NPX-90. Additionally, the NPX-190 (32-192 ports) has been designed as a high performance backbone node and TRT has been working on a Unix based management station to be known as the NPX-900 to control the NPX-190. Strengths . Large Installed Base in France . Low manufacturing costs & market pricing . New state-of-the-art technology (MCX family) . First to introduce a multiprotocol switch Weaknesses. Limited role outside France, . Proprietary PC-based Network Management How to win against TRT . HP OpenView Network Management versus their proprietary Network Management . HP support superiority and international coverage . Reliability of the HP Model 45 Plus : MTBF of 35 years. .PA ___ OST ___ French based vendor OST is a strong competitor mostly in its home market with the ECOM family of multiprotocol switching nodes. This ECOM family features 4 ports to 72 ports in a full featured node capable of up to 1,000 packet/s. The ECOM 25E is a 4 to 8 port Low End Packet Switch capable of supporting X.25, Async, and optionally SNA/SDLC and Videotext (6,350$ to 8,030$). The ECOM 25L is an 8 to 24 port Mid Range Packet Switch also capable of supporting X.25, Async, SDLC, Videotext and VIP. The 8 port entry switch costs $9,200 including the optional SDLC software ($1,200). Additional 8 port boards cost $2,670. The ECOM 25M an 8 to 72 port unit costs $13,200 for the entry 8 port unit and uses the same 8 port cards as the ECOM 25L ($2,670). OST is currently introducing a new ECOM-IS family with Frame-Relay links up to 512 Kbps but this new family is completely incompatible with the former ECOM (incompatible Hardware) and lot of OST customers are looking for other switches vendors. Strengths . Family of switch/PAD products . Many protocols supported (especially Bull/VIP and Videotext in France) . Technologically advanced Weaknesses. Hardware reliability (ECOM MPUs & I/O cards) . Support done through incompetent small Third-Party companies . Proprietary network management station/hardware . Very much a French only market player ie. all developments driven by local needs . Limited support outside France/Europe How to win against OST . Reliability of the HP Model 45 Plus : MTBF of 35 years versus OST's poor reliability - current HP customers are currently moving from OST's ECOM to HP Model 45 Plus's for this reason, . HP support international coverage - some OST French customer are currently installing HP Model 45 Plus in Germany and Eastern Europe countries, . HP support superiority - a lot of OST customers are fed up with bad support services they get for their OST switches and come to HP Model 45 Plus, . HP OpenView Network Management versus their proprietary Network Management - OST had an HP OpenView program but they stopped it for financial reasons.