EnGenius has been primarily an enterprise networking player, but they see a strong opportunity in the small business market, and have crafted a new and simple to use portfolio to address it.

Costa Mesa CA-based networking vendor EnGenius has moved into the small business space, which they define as being 50 seats or less. The new EnGenius Fit WiFi networking portfolio is designed to provide state of the art gear to small business at a price which they can afford, and which is easy to manage. It will be sold both through EnGenius’s large network of partners, as well as through ecommerce sites.

Engenius has been around since 1998, although for years they focused mainly on OEM and ODM work.

“We started with point to point solutions, and from approximately 2000 to 2015, we were focused on premium solutions,” said Eddie Lee, a product line manager at EnGenius. “Three or four years ago, we launched a cloud solution, as all the big vendors were also developing a cloud solution with router, gateway and switches. Since we launched the cloud solution, we have been more focused on the enterprise market.”

EnGenius Fit thus goes against the grain of the company’s strategic direction somewhat, because while this is a small business product, they are not a small business-focused company.

“We have a lot of features coming for the enterprise, but EnGenius Fit is focused on small business,” Lee said. “The audience for this is not tech savvy, and Engenius Fit helps them stay competitive with a limited budget. It is simple to install and manage, which is essential for this market. There is a simple three-step onboarding process when you install our product, which is easy even if you aren’t tech savvy.”

The definition of small business can vary considerably at different companies, but Lee said that they are defining the market for EnGenius Fit as 20-50 seats.

“Sometimes it can be less than 20 seats, and typical markets include law, medical and dental offices, as well as single location retail,” Lee indicated. For slightly larger companies with an IT staff, EnGenius offers more management options. These include a local portal to examine deep-level analytics on any device, and  a plug-n-play network controller with pre-installed network management software, which even less experienced IT staff can use to set up a cloud-based or on-premises network management infrastructure.

EnGenius’s primary competitors with a true B2B focus are Cisco Meraki, HPE Aruba and Ubiquity.

“Many customers in this space also buy prosumer and consumer products at retail and this usually doesn’t go well for them,” Lee said. “Even for a small business, trying to use a consumer product for business use is problematic. Ultimately, with this product line, we want to provide product that is cost effective, but also has the latest and greatest technology, with high performance. We have great buying power and a business grade product, and we are also more flexible with our cloud and premium solutions. We also have a strong support team in our Costa Mesa headquarters, which provides better support than our competitors.”

The EnGenius Fit family of access points and switches is supported by new, subscription-free EnGenius Fit cloud-based management options. Customers can select any combination of two access points and one switch to complete a budget-conscious Fit solution. The L2 PoE switches available are the EWS2910P-FIT, the EWS7928P-FIT, the EWS7928P-FIT, the EWS7928FP-FIT, the EWS7952P-FIT and the EWS7952FP-FIT. Two indoor access points are available, the EWS357-FIT, and the EWS377-FIT. The outdoor access point is the EWS850-FIT.

While EnGenius’s enterprise products go to market only through their network of over 5000 channel partners, EnGenius fit will be sold through ecommerce sites as well.

“Distribution partners are key for us, and we use Ingram Micro, TDSYNNEX, D&H and CDW,” Lee said. “We will also sell this on ecommerce sites like Amazon.”