By Faiz Askari, NWC, July 7 2008, 1200 hrs
Cisco recently introduced Cisco Smart Care service to the Indian market. The service is designed to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and mid-market customers simplify network maintenance through regular, proactive network assessments, remote software repairs, and technical support.
The networking major, however, is also planning to introduce similar network management services for enterprise customers.
As the network becomes the platform for business success in companies of all sizes, the service and support needs of SMB and mid-market customers are becoming more sophisticated. “As a result, the demands placed on technology partners have increased and have been a key driver for us in developing a collaborative approach for delivering services,” said David Rubio, Vice President, Cisco Services Asia Pacific. “Although we are ready with the Cisco Smart Care service for the SMBs, we will soon be coming up with similar offering for large-sized customers,” he added.
While the name of the service for enterprise customers is not yet finalized, the launch is expected to be in September this year.
Further elaborating on Cisco Smart Care, Rubio said, “Based upon a collaborative approach in delivering services, this service for the SMB segment will combine the complementary strengths of Cisco and its channel partners to proactively verify that a customer's network is secure, reliable and functioning optimally at all times.” This global collaborative service will be delivered exclusively through Cisco-certified channel partners via a single customer service contract.
Cisco Smart Care service includes a software client or a hardware-based network appliance that is deployed at the customer site, after the service is purchased, to collect predetermined data. This data is securely provided back to the channel partner through a Cisco-hosted server, on a scheduled basis, to report on the health and security of the network. Channel partners can then receive proactive notifications about any identified risks or issues and, in many cases, can also obtain a suggested fix specific to the issue, as well as the ability to remotely apply that fix to a device in the customer network. The customer is given access to a snapshot of the overall health, availability and security of all of the devices in its network through an easy-to-use Service Dashboard. The client or appliance also serves as a platform for providing a broad range of proactive assessment and repair services and can cover from five up to a maximum of 105 Cisco devices.
|