The Cisco Lifecycle Services approach defines the minimum set of activities needed to help you successfully deploy and operate Cisco technologies and optimize their performance throughout the lifecycle of your network.

A network is more and more an essential part of a company. Much mission critical information is only visible through the network. Competitive and fast moving, the IT market is a challenging environment in which to operate. With product margins constantly under attack, service can offer valuable stability and continuity to resellers. In this environment you can play an important role for your partner: you can provide him with a complete solution, existing of hardware and software, and with maintenance and support. So besides extra revenue and margin selling SMARTnet is also offering an end-to-end solution that gives your customer complete satisfaction, so your customer is unlikely to go anywhere else for product sales. It will mean that their confidence in you grows as you respond to their requirements – and critically you will be keeping their network running at peak performance and protecting against downtime.

As you work with customers, your interaction should not just stop with the sale of the equipment. Your goal should be to build a relationship that includes:

• Providing them with a network support plan to ensure their success
• Ensuring they have access to the right technical resources and expertise to address any networking issues and maintenance needs that arise
• Helping them maximize their investment by keeping their networks up-to-date with latest technologies
• Demonstrating commitment to a long-term partnership in which your success is based on their success.

What are Cisco Technical Support Services?
Cisco Technical Support Services help protect your network investment by enabling you to extend and enhance the operational lifetime of your Cisco devices and Cisco IOS Software.  SMARTnet allows you to offer these services – even if your technical support facility cannot. Customers purchase Cisco SMARTnet services as an add-on to their networking hardware.

• Cisco SMARTnet Critical Technical Support for Your Success. Sell when your customer needs a complete, extensive support package to protect network investments and minimal downtime on networks running mission-critical applications.
  

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   1. Ongoing Cisco IOS updates with Cisco Software support (http://www.cisco.com/public/sw-center/) for maximum network uptime and availability. Cisco is continuously improving and evolving IOS software to address new opportunities and challenges and to ensure optimal hardware performance.
   2. Access to Cisco.com online tools and resources (http://www.cisco.com/public/support/tac/tools.shtml) for self-help with common network problems. A customer’s network engineers can access critical tools and technical resources that make them more self-sufficient and productive by enabling them to research software features and compatibility, identify and track bugs and receive customized analyses of show command output.
   3. Rapid assistance from Cisco experts via Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) (http://www.cisco.com/techsupport/) for troubleshooting hardware and Cisco IOS software technical problems:
      
      
      • Advanced networking expertise – complementing a customer’s in-house resources, Cisco’s TAC employs a highly skilled staff of advanced networking professionals.
      • Specialized Support – Cisco’s TAC is staffed with experts who are certified in numerous networking environments (voice, video and data communications) and technologies (access, IPT, switching, optical networking, security, content delivery, SAN and wireless).
      • Worldwide availability: 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in more than 139 languages.
        
      • Cisco’s Virtual Lab – a fully equipped networking environment which contains all Cisco devices and IOS versions to support research, troubleshooting, testing and resolution of network issues.
        

• Cisco SMARTnet onsite Includes all of the benefits of Cisco SMARTnet, plus it provides customers with the added assurance of a trained field engineer on call to install replacement parts at their site should the need arise.
  

• Cisco SMART Foundation Services Small and Medium-sized businesses can cost-effectively protect their network equipment and increase operational reliability using SMB-class products targeted to organization of up to 250 employees. Sell when the customer needs support specific designed for small and medium size organisations that don't have dedicated networking staff, an easy, affordable way to help organisations quickly resolve routine issues when they use Cisco SMB products or easy-to-use networking support for Cisco SMB products. Key features:

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   1. Essential network support with clear non-technical tools and resources
   2. Step-by-step guidance from Cisco SMB TAC engineers
   3. Next business day hardware replacement and software bug fixes.
   4. Affordable network support, with an annual fee lower than the cost of even a single uncovered service transaction.

• Cisco Software Application Support Services (SAS/SASU) strengthen the availability, reliability, and functionality of Cisco software applications. Two levels of Cisco Software Application Support Services are available:
  1. Cisco Software Application Support Services (SAS) include around-the-clock access to technical support, application software updates, and to a wealth of technical information on Cisco.com. Designed specifically for Cisco software applications, these services go beyond operating system software support.
  2. Cisco Software Application Support plus Upgrades (SASU) In addition to all of the SAS services, SASU includes major application software upgrades. Sell when the customer needs investment protection on software purchases and access to the latest software while eliminating unexpected budget revisions.
     

Services	TAC Access	Cisco.com Web Support	Software Updates/Upgrades	Hardware Replacement Options
Generic Services
SMARTnet	Unlimited	Full Access	SW Maintenance IOS only	STD,ENH,PREM,PREM2H
SMARTnet Onsite	Unlimited	Full Access	SW Maintenance IOS only	STD,ENH,PREM,PREM2H by engineer
SAS	Unlimited	Full Access	SW Maintenance, Minor releases	n/a
SASU	Unlimited	Full Access	SW Maintenance, Major releases	n/a
SMB Services
SMART Foundation Services	8x5 Access to SMB TAC	SMB Support Assistant Portal and client	SW Maintenance IOS only	STD
SBCS	Unlimited	Full Access	SW and IOS updates and upgrades	STD
Unified Communications Services
Essential Operate Services	Unlimited	Full Access	Application and IOS software updates and upgrades	STD,ENH,PREM,PREM2H
Essential Operate Services	Unlimited	Full Access	Application and IOS software updates and upgrades	STD,ENH,PREM,PREM2H by Engineer
Software Subscription (UCSS)	n/a	Full Access	Software Application Maintenance and major releases	n/a
Services for ISR + Voice	Unlimited	Full Access	IOS Maintenance, Minor and Major releases	STD,ENH,PREM,PREM2H
Security Services
Services for IPS	Unlimited	Full Access	OS Maintenance, minor and major upgrades	STD,ENH,PRM,PREM2H
Services for IPS Onsite	Unlimited	Full Access	OS Maintenance, minor and major upgrades	STD,ENH,PRM,PREM2H by engineer
Security IntelliShield Alert Manager	Unlimited	Full Access	n/a	n/a

Service Availability: A quick and easy way for you to check which service levels are available for a particular product is the ‘Cisco Service Finder' tool. Simply enter the product ID or description into the tool and check what service levels are available.

Selling Cisco Technical Support Services can help your company:

• Enhance Cash Flow and margins
• Penetrate new markets
• Improve your competitive advantage
• Increase customer retention
• Manage the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
• Maintain business credibility and continuity
  

Why Selling Cisco SMARTnet?
In implementing a networking strategy, customers seek networking solutions, not networking products. Strategic networking solutions include contingency plans to ensure that the network remains reliable, secure and available. In fact, customers’ daily operations increasingly depend on it!

• Peace of mind: the cost of a typical annual SMARTnet services contract is between 10-15% of its overall Cisco hardware investment. This relatively small investment yields a significant return, however, making Cisco SMARTnet and SMARTnet Onsite support services a worthwhile insurance policy protecting the customer’s mission critical applications and operations that rely on the network.
• Cisco SMARTnet enhances and extends Cisco warranties: SMARTnet support services contracts provide a variety of features and options that are not covered under many Cisco warranties. A warranty reflects Cisco’s assurance of the integrity of its product – Cisco’s commitment to the customer that the product will function correctly. The warranty states that Cisco is responsible for the repair and replacement of defective parts during a designated period of time. Based on warranty you can offer packaged services to your customer. Click <<here>> to check the warranty overview.
• SMARTnet vs. internal IT staff: when speaking with senior IT executives, it is not uncommon to hear: “I already have capable IT resources. Why do I need a Cisco SMARTnet support contract?” In addition to providing access to Cisco’s TAC, SMARTnet services include a variety of award-winning Cisco.com online tools and support materials. These resources augment the IT staff, which is increasingly being asked to do more with less. Without a SMARTnet contract time and materials charges customers pay by calling Cisco TAC on an incident-by-incident basis quickly add up. And unsupported customer is charged an hourly rate of $210 with a minimum of 4-hour charges on most major products. For the majority of customers, the fixed fee for an annual contract is substantially lower.
• With Multi-Year agreements, Cisco SMARTnet delivers extended coverage and long-term price protection to customers. Services also are a predictable revenue stream, the contracts enable resellers to earn revenue on an ongoing basis from hardware that has already been sold!You earn extra margin if you sell Multi-Year Agreements: up to 4% for 2 years and up to 7% for 3 years support.