The Internet of Everything (IoE) completely reinvents the way we operate. It makes us more productive and competitive, and opens new opportunities for business.

At the heart of this innovation is the NETWORK.

The IoE puts new demands on the way the network is managed and operated. The network must securely support apps, devices, clouds, and enable personal experiences. As a result, customers must become more proactive to prevent network problems before they occur. The best way to do this is to:

• Improve accuracy in network inventory management
• Deploy proactive diagnostics
• Eliminate service coverage gaps

A real-world example is iYogi, a global technical support provider. By taking a closer look at their network performance, their operations team was able to reduce time spent on updating the network inventory each week. They saw a significant difference and what used to take two to three hours to accomplish now only takes a few minutes.

As I indicated in a previous post , we have evolved our portfolio so you can better address customer needs and care-abouts. We listened to and understood your requirements, and have updated our services accordingly, so you can better support your customers.

Cisco SMARTnet? Service is merging with Cisco? Smart Net Total Care.

This new service keeps theSmart Net Total Carename and combines the award-winning technical service capabilities of SMARTnet with smart capabilities. We took the best of both, and combined them into one.

Our customer Pella, for example, didn't have visibility it into each network device. It was difficult to identify end-of-life devices, or support contract renewal dates. They manually combed through hundreds of known security bugs to determine which was relevant to one of their devices.

With Smart Net Total Care, our customers can quickly solve a network problem, reduce overall operating cost, and manage support risk better. This allows more time to focus on business innovation while proactively supporting their infrastructure.  According to Rajiv Kumar, Managing Director and CEO, Proactive Data Systems:

"Smart services is a truly innovative offering that will help further differentiate us with customers. With this secure visibility into a customer's network, we gain actionable intelligence that helps us foresee potential problems before they affect the customer's business. At the same time, it reduces the time and effort."

What's in it for you as our partners?

The advantages of combining SMARTnet capabilities with Smart Net Total Care are significant. This new service makes you more competitive and allows you to provide more differentiated services. You can:

1. optimize your customer's lean IT organization
2. tailor your services directly to your customer's business
3. discover security vulnerabilities of devices and determine how to mitigate them
4. find gaps in coverage of the customer's network
5. create value add wraparound services

Note that these capabilities are already available in Partner Support Services (PSS) and partners have already build successful service practices leverage these capabilities in their brand.

Next Steps

I believe the updated Smart Net Total Care represents a large opportunity. If you are looking to expand your services practice, start using Smart Net Total Care today. It will help you better understand your customers' network, identify gaps, and develop new opportunities.

Cisco is ready with Smart Net Total Care. Are you ready?

Learn more about the updated Smart Net Total Care and your opportunities on our partner site (partner log-in required):

http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/services/smart-net-total-care/index.html#~Resources