It's that time of year when… … select vendors (it's by invitation only) prepare a Magic Quadrant submission in powerpoint form that defines the Vision versus Execution axis. It's an exciting process for inflection, proof-oriented documentation (technology is such a hype-filled industry), flags the vendors' understanding of the marketplace, highlights the innovations, reviews the marketing and sales strategy and then considers the elements of Execution.
This year, 3Com has many better powerpoints to present on marketing execution and a cleaner view of the major customers. It's our hope that 3Com can move out of the niche quadrant, and be a challenger. [I like to call it a contender position.] I think with the customer wins – Edward Jones and other major enterprises – the strong marketing (that's me) in thought leadership, demand stimulation, N+I and stuff that the groundwork had been laid.
