Are you new to your role as an IT manager and want to understand all the value that Cisco Smart Net Total Care® can deliver? Or perhaps you’re a seasoned IT professional hoping to find applicable resources that can help you maximize your investment in this technical support service. Regardless of your experience level, you may not have the time to seek out best practices and information on how to get the most out of Smart Net Total Care. In addition, you may want to understand how your support service maps to your Cisco products, what the different service levels are, how your licenses are mapped, and more.
With Smart Net Total Care, you have access to a maintenance package that can help you gain visibility into your network, reduce risk, save time, and unlock critical insights. I will walk you through some ways to boost the benefits you get from your Smart Net Total Care contract.
After all, your IT infrastructure is the lifeline that connects your business to customers. Your success depends on you keeping the network up and running while reducing costs and maintaining high service levels as your network expands and your business grows. That’s where Cisco Support Services, and Smart Net Total Care, can help you keep your Cisco products running and up to date – from reducing risk of downtime and resolving issues faster to expediting hardware replacement.
Where does Smart Net Total Care fit in the Cisco CX Success Portfolio?
Smart Net Total Care is one of Cisco’s Support Services. It provides hardware support along with entitlement to smart capabilities that can simplify incident management and provide additional tools for service coverage management, security and product alerts, and product lifecycle management.
What do I get with Smart Net Total Care?
Here’s a glimpse at several key features you have at your fingertips with Smart Net Total Care that help deliver value and results:
- Cisco Technical Assistance Center – The Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) provides around-the-clock technical support services online or via phone, email, or mobile app.
- Hardware returns and replacements – Easily understand and submit hardware returns and replacements (RMA) and have visibility into existing RMAs.
- Smart Net Total Care portal – Follow easy step-by-step instructions to complete portal setup, so you can help reduce risk and ensure compliance.
- Online tools and software upgrades – Understand how you can increase performance of software, add new functionality, and enhance the stability of your network and business applications.
You also have access to the Cisco Community for Smart Net Total Care, where you can ask questions and get help from your peers. Always on the go? Check out the Cisco Technical Support mobile app, where you can get expert support and connect with a TAC engineer anywhere, anytime. With Smart Net Total Care, you can operate more securely and efficiently.
Visit the Smart Net Total Care resource guide to explore each feature in-depth and learn how to enhance the value of the service in your particular environment.
How can I get more benefits and value from my Smart Net Total Care service?
Whether you need to free up your team resources to focus on innovation and strategy, or you are looking for ways to save time – by no longer having to manually implement repetitive device inventory procedures, maintenance tasks, and fundamental support processes – the Cisco Smart Net Total Care portal may be the tool for you. The portal is a valuable tool that provides inventory, contract, and product alert management with in-depth, actionable information that is always available to you.
Use the portal’s:
- Automated inventory tool for installed base management to gain greater visibility and know exactly what’s in your network.
- Centralized alerts for risk management, to save time and stay one step ahead, enabling you to proactively identify risks that require mitigation and reduce time chasing irrelevant alerts.
- End-of-Life / End-of-Support information for lifecycle management, including network planning, migration planning, feature readiness planning, and hardware refresh.
- Consolidated view and inventory resource for device change management to keep your network current and optimized.
Having these capabilities at your fingertips can help you simplify your network support operations, simplify renewals, and verify entitlement, giving you an edge in IT management.
What about Cisco licenses?
Cisco Smart Accounts are different from Smart Net Total Care. While Smart Net Total Care is a service for hardware protection, Smart Accounts are the portal in which you manage your smart licenses.
Licenses should be attached to a product around various architectures. You can purchase licenses in various ways (as perpetuals, downloads, PAK codes, and more). It can become complex to administrate licenses as quantities and number of license ID’s increase and end dates approach, so we’d recommend gaining full control and visibility via a Smart Account. Cisco Smart Accounts offer a centralized solution to manage software entitlements and users across your organization, so you can easily deal with licenses. You’ll have visibility into your license use and gain insights to help inform purchase decisions, lower operational costs, and ensure compliance.
This all makes sense. Now what?
Now, explore the Smart Net Total Care resource guide to understand each of the service features and you’ll be well prepared to start maximizing your investment.
If you’re in need of support for your software applications or Cisco solutions, or if you want help in accelerating business transformation, consider these related Cisco CX services:
