3Com Corporation Helps Old Republic Title Company Enhance Operations with WAN Solutions

Strategic Insights -

Old Republic Title Company, a leading West Coast provider of real-estate transaction services, is transforming its business operations by deploying a wide area network (WAN) built with 3Com technologies. The new infrastructure will link 115 remote sites in five states, facilitating the company's key business operations, such as title searches and data sharing. The WAN will feature a 3Com-based virtual private network (VPN) solution, ensuring the secure delivery of confidential files between all sites.

Key Takeaways:

  • Old Republic Title Company selected 3Com LAN/WAN systems due to their cost-effectiveness and ability to meet the firm's needs more efficiently than solutions from Cabletron and Cisco.
  • The new WAN network will reduce the time required for vital business processes by hours and days, allowing remote users to access databases from vendors like TRW and quicken the delivery of services.
  • The network supports centralized custom-built databases that are automatically updated within minutes whenever a remote user enters data for a real-estate transaction.
  • The VPN capabilities of 3Com WAN routers will enable mobile or telecommuting employees to securely dial in via Internet Service Providers (ISPs), safeguarding the firm's traffic over public IP networks.
  • Old Republic is implementing 3Com's Transcend(R) Enterprise Manager network management application to configure and control the infrastructure from a single management console.
  • The company is also enhancing the performance of its local area networks (LANs) by installing 3Com switches and SuperStack II switches, which will provide Fast Ethernet backbones and connect to the NETBuilder II WAN routers.
  • Old Republic's new enterprise network is a response to the limited connectivity of its prior system, which used modems and dedicated desktops to dial into servers at the firm's data center.

Statistics:

  • 115 remote sites in five states will be linked by the new WAN network.
  • The company will install a total of 1700 desktops into a reliable enterprise network via a Frame Relay WAN.
  • 7 1.54 megabits per second (Mbps) T1 lines will be used at the data center.
  • 15 largest sites will be equipped with NETBuilder II routers with dual WAN ports that link to T1 lines.
  • Smaller sites will use 100 OfficeConnect NETBuilder(R) routers that connect to the WAN via 128 kilobits per second (Kbps) and 384 Kbps fractional T1 links.
  • The network will support centralized custom-built databases that are automatically updated within minutes whenever a remote user enters data for a real-estate transaction.

Sources:

  • 3Com Corporation press release, September 8, 1999
  • Business Wire article, September 8, 1999