Cisco to Add Exclusive Partner Smart Care Service

By Khali Henderson

Cisco Systems Inc. announced its partners will be given exclusive access to a new managed services offering called Smart Care Services. It will be made available on a limited basis this summer and generally by fall.

Cisco Smart Care Services represents a new middle ground between reactive SmartNet tech support services and full-on managed services, according to Karl Meulema, vice president of marketing and channels. Meulema explained Wednesday many partners are trying to serve the gap themselves but are finding their home-grown offers often are not scalable. To solve this problem, Cisco has productized and the offering will only be available to customers through Cisco channel partners.

Smart Care Services lets partners monitor the status of all devices on the network, monitor the health of the network, receive proactive notifications of problems and remotely mediate trouble.

More importantly, said Meulema, it enables partners to know more about their customers networks and be able to give them better advice for their future network needs, which should result in more sales and professional services revenue.

Partners can set their own price and margins for the service.

Cisco Systems Inc. www.cisco.com