Cisco has announced a new Enterprise Agreement (EA) to make it easier for partners and customers to buy, sell, and manage Cisco software and services.  

 

The single contract increases access to Cisco’s portfolio and solutions, offering predictable costs, more choice, and greater flexibility for organisations looking to accelerate their digital transformation, Cisco said at its 26th annual Partner Summit conference. 

 

“Cisco’s new Enterprise Agreement gives our customers and partners a powerful, simple, and extremely flexible way to buy and consume our great software products,” said Reem Asaad, Vice President, Cisco Middle East and Africa. “Our incredible partner ecosystem has already built a multi-billion dollar software business but we’re clearly just getting started. Innovations like the ability to shift investments across the portfolio will help us better serve our customers, push further into our business transformation, and drive higher profitability for our partners.”

 

The new Cisco Enterprise Agreement is a cornerstone of Cisco’s ongoing transformation and commitment to supporting partner profitability, as well as streamlining the customer experience. Since their introduction more than 10,000 customers have purchased software & services via the Cisco Enterprise Agreement. The new Cisco EA will bring three key benefits to customers and partners:

 

Simplified Cross-Portfolio Access: As organisations adopt more innovative technologies, they face the challenge of managing various licensing agreements. Cisco’s new EA simplifies the experience with: 

•One set of terms and conditions across  five portfolios (Applications Infrastructure, Networking Infrastructure, Collaboration, Security, and Services).

•A lower minimum spend threshold to make it easier for customers to access EA benefits. 

•Multiple partners in a single agreement with customers able to see all their licenses.

 

More financial flexibility: Organisations facing increasingly complex IT environments are looking for new software and services that offer predictable costs. With the new Cisco Enterprise Agreement:

•Cisco Networking customers can take advantage of Value Shift – a feature that allows them to shift committed spend across Cisco DNA software and Meraki software.

•Organisations can quickly activate licenses and deploy what is needed, when it is needed, and with the True Forward feature, future billing cycles are adjusted to align with new usage levels. 

•Cisco Enterprise Agreement Pay, a new offer from Cisco Capital, provides extended payments at no cost to customers for select EAs and a-la-carte software. For Cisco partners, the complementary financing option mitigates credit and currency risk, features billing and collecting through Cisco Capital, and partners are paid upon the start of a customer’s contract. 

 

Increased business agility: Managing and updating software has traditionally been complex and time-consuming for large organisations.  The new Cisco Enterprise Agreement:

•Increases access to innovative technology without an enterprise-wide commitment. 

•Streamlines licence procurement, offering simple administration with one place to view, manage, and renew licences.

 

The new Cisco EA is currently available through select partners with plans to expand partner availability in early 2022.  The current Enterprise Agreement programmes will remain available to customers and partners while the transition to the new Cisco EA takes place during the first half of 2022.-- TradeArabia News Service