Cisco SNTC Partner Sales Guide

Inventory management and analysis, customized security alerts, and proactive diagnostics

Opportunity Snapshot

Has TAC entitlement issues it takes too long to verify contracts and

Service Overview

Experiencing lifecycle planning issues and wants a heads up on EOS/EOL

Cisco Smart Net Total Care (SNTC) is a Cisco Branded Service that partners
can resell to their customers. SNTC provides extensive inventory and contract
management functionality along with foundational technical services, proactive
device diagnostics, and relevant alerts. The integrated solution improves risk
management, helps resolve problems quickly, and reduces operating expenses.

W
ants to improve operational efficiency for installed base management.
Trying to consume a new technology, such as a call center or VoIP, and

Customer Challenges

Looking to gain greater installed base visibility for Cisco devices to ensure

Page 1

proper support coverage.

Has support contract renewal issues - it is time consuming to renew
support contracts because there are disagreements about what is installed
and coverage levels.

2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

coverage when they call Cisco for support.

situations in order to plan and budget in a timely manner.

wants to ensure proper device coverage for new equipment.

Wants to reduce network risk - has too many alerts and too little

knowledge about how they impact the network.

Purchases from multiple Cisco partners and wants a single, consolidated
view of their installed base and contracts.
Has corporate compliance requirements and would benefit from better
tracking of inventory and security details.

NEXT >

Cisco SNTC Partner Sales Guide

Partner Benefits Include:
Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
The ability to expand service offerings without additional partner resources
involved.

Discovery of additional revenue opportunities from uncovered Cisco

devices.

Customer Proof Points

Selling replacement hardware as existing hardware reaches EoL.

When the customer grants CBR-user access to a partner, the partner can access
SNTC reports for contracts with which the partner is associated. Your contract
details are not visible to other partners your customer may have.

Customer Benefits Include:

Reduced operational risk by providing detailed Cisco installed base

visibility.

Quicker mean time to resolution because device details are readily

available when needed.

Improved operational efficiency by automating the gathering of inventory
details.
Improved contract accuracy and entitlement.
Ability to identify and track what is new, what has changed, what is
covered and what is not covered to improve risk management.
Preempting network disruption by proactively identifying the installed
devices impacted by Cisco published security alerts and advisories.
Improved efficiencies in support incidents, minimizing entitlement issues
and providing faster problem resolution.

Target Customer
The typical Smart Net Total Care customer meets at least some of these criteria:

H
as a large, complex or dynamically changing base of Cisco products.
Is getting too many alerts and has trouble knowing if they apply to their
Cisco products.

Has limited visibility as to whether critical Cisco products are covered with

the right service agreement.

Has limited visibility into where Cisco products or contracts are in their life
cycle, such as end-of-sale, end-of-life, and end-of support.
Contract renewals and issues resolution are labor intensive, involving
manual cross-checking spreadsheets, purchase orders, and other
paperwork.

When there is a problem, entitlement issues slow down resolution.

Trimax: Realized 90% time savings for inventory

management
George Mason University: Reduced mean time
to problem resolution by 30%
Alestra: Saved 3-5 hours per week in installed
base management

Sales Process
SNTC can be sold alongside a Cisco hardware sale or as part of a renewal or
true-up. Annualized SNTC pricing is based on the customers total Cisco installed
base dollar value, and not on the value of the renewal or true-up.

Prospect
Look for customers with
Rapid network growth, such as a recent acquisition.
Network redesign and consolidation as the result of a corporate merger.
New technology purchase plans and the need for an inventory of the
systems currently in place.
Recent participation in a Know the Network (KTN) service or Cisco
Discovery Service (CDS).
Approaching contract renewal.

Qualify

Does the customer have a total Cisco installed base of approximately $5M
or more? (this amount may vary with geography)

Is the customers staff willing and able to invest in installed base/contract

management support?

Will the customer allow a collector to be deployed? Are they an existing

NOS customer?
Does the customer understand the value of up-to-date asset information,
but currently relies on manual processes?

Position and Propose

Talk with executives and business owners about the basic benefits and
business value of Smart Net Total Care.

Show the specific value to the customer by reviewing sample portal reports
or scheduling a demo.

Speak with senior managers who are responsible for acquiring and

provisioning Cisco devices to discuss deployment and on-going asset

management processes.

Page 2

2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

< PREVIOUS

NEXT >

Cisco SNTC Partner Sales Guide

Questions to Start the Conversation
How do you identify and manage your Cisco inventory today?
How do you know when a device you own reaches end of support?
How do you track changes in your Cisco network?

The Pitch

Sounds like you have a lot of manual, error-prone, and time

consuming work in that process. What if you could have direct access
to that information and export that into actionable reports?
Ciscos Smart Net Total Care will identify your Cisco inventory and
analyze that against our Cisco knowledge base contract, security,
TAC, and manufacturing databases giving a comprehensive view
of your installed base, service contracts, and device specific alerts.
With greater insight into your infrastructure, you have the visibility
you need to become more efficient in managing your inventory and
contracts, while ensuring the stability of your network.
Can we schedule some time to better understand the impact this
could have on your operation?

What Reports are Availableand why they are useful

Use SNTC information to start a strategic business conversation with your
customers:

Discuss proper support coverage levels to ensure devices are covered

Page 3

at the appropriate level for their criticality in the network with Contracts
Report.
Help IT administrators mitigate risks to service availability by reviewing
Cisco OS information, installation address, and support contract number in
Inventory Report.
S how your customer all the changes to their network on a regular basis,
and ensure they know what is happening in their environment with
Inventory Delta Report.
Identify devices that are near or past last day of support (LDoS) to
assist customers with forecasting and budget planning for replacement
equipment with Contracts Report.
Preempt network disruptions by proactively identifying and notifying users
of installed devices impacted by Cisco published security alerts and
advisories with Product Alerts Report.
Develop a migration plan with the customer to remove the risk of network
disruption, allow timely replacement, and accurate budgeting of cost with
end-of-sale and last day of support information from the Aggregated
Report.
2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Handling Objections
I have a good handle on my Cisco Inventory.
But do you have the same understanding of your Cisco contract status? Could
you benefit from detailed reports showing the current, accurate contract
status for each device in your network? What about reports that show all the
moves, adds, and changes in your network?
Will my data be secure?
Cisco understands that the protection of customer data is of paramount
importance to its customers and partners. The Smart Net Total Care security
architecture provides an end-to-end secure solution for the collection,
transmission, processing, storing and reporting of customer data.
We dont allow network collectors on our network.
SNTC currently has hundreds of customers globally. Many of those customers
had similar concerns until they read the security whitepaper that discusses in
detail how security is implemented for SNTC. Would you like a copy?
Why is the installed base inventory process necessary? Dont you already know
what is covered and not covered?
Customers have complete freedom to purchase equipment and services
through any number of channel partners, or they may have obtained
equipment through acquisitions. The inventory collection process helps to
reconcile equipment with current records and invoicing, providing a baseline
from which contract status and coverage can be managed more effectively.
We have SMARTnet currently. Why do we need SNTC?
Smart Net Total Care includes all the important technical support capabilities
of SMARTnet, plus additional smart capabilities that provide better visibility
into the state of your IT assets to create actionable intelligence that helps you
make better business decisions. An accurate view of your Cisco installed
base is essential to reducing operational risk. Having up-to-date inventory
information correlated with Ciscos deep knowledge base can help ensure
the proper service contracts are in place to streamline entitlement and
speed problem resolution. Relevant hardware, software, and security alerts
and device diagnostics help prevent service disruptions and notify you of
the latest important information about your Cisco products thus conserving
valuable staff time and improving availability.

< PREVIOUS

NEXT >

Cisco SNTC Partner Sales Guide

I dont understand why I have to pay a price premium for Smart Net Total Care.
Wheres the added value?
Points to emphasize:

Consider the trade-offs between SNTCs minimal cost and the risk of
service coverage gaps.

Look at the cost of manual contract administration and the cost of

inventory collection errors.

Quickly and easily access device details, like serial number and location,
to help ensure rapid replacement in case of failure.

Manage your equipment inventory efficiently even with moves and

Our previous manual inventory methods couldnt effectively scale to meet

the growth of iYogis network maintenance requirements. With Smart Net
Total Care, we have the ability to scale efficiently around the world, which is
especially important when providing quality service to remote customers in
the United States during peak usage times. Ciscos solution gives us peace
of mind that we are acting proactively to prevent network downtime.
- IT Network Operations Manager, iYogi, Inc.
With our business rapidly growing, ensuring the smooth operation of our
network was a challenge. Our prior break/fix approach to network issues
was time-consuming and inefficient. Cisco Smart Net Total Care is the
proactive solution we needed. It gives us the visibility into our network that
was previously missing. - Network Operations Manager, Perfect World

changes in network devices.

Optimize the use of IT resources for strategic projects, not network

maintenance and manual asset tracking.

Measureable Outcomes

Best Practices / Lessons Learned

Successful SNTC deployments are dependent on the customers full

understanding and investment in the deployment process.

Most Cisco customers will allow the installation of a collector on their

network once they understand the details. Use the security whitepaper for
an in-depth discussion with the customer, if necessary.

Partners can have access to the SNTC Portal if their customer gives them
CBR-user access. This is a great benefit when working a renewal, true-up,
or contract reconciliation opportunity, as well as providing valuable EOL/
EOS data for account planning.

Positioning SNTC as a stand-alone sale 4-6 months prior to a service

renewal will allow the customer to benefit from SNTC contract data and
can streamline the renewal process.

Position SNTC even if the customer already has NOS as they are
complimentary services. Current NOS customers are great prospects since
they already have deployed the collector and developed the device list
needed to deploy SNTC.

Outcomes for Smart Net Total Care can be very tangible, and can create a
constructive and productive sales conversation.
Outcomes can measure reduction in the time and the people required for a
renewal, elimination of uncovered devices, wholesale consolidation of the absolute
number of contracts for easier contract administration, and time-to-resolution
improvements.

Customer Quotes:
By having Smart Net Total Care, we have reduced the risks of an outage or a
failure and not having service contract coverage to remediate it quickly. Now
we can be proactive and know whether or not something is covered, which
all adds up to increased reliability and availability for our users and clients.
- Sr. Network Systems Engineer, Quintiles
We found numerous devices that were off the radar using our prior inventory
management process and quickly updated their service coverage with the
information uncovered by Smart Net Total Care. - IT Director, 9 Kings

Resources
SNTC External Website
For more information, contact your local Cisco Partner Services Development
Manager.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Ciscos trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the
property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1009R)

Page 4

2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

< PREVIOUS

TOP >