I'm excited to share that the Enterprise Agreement (EA) 3.0 is now generally available for Cisco partners. This means all eligible partners can enroll in the EA 3.0, including our tier 1, tier 2 and distribution partners.

One of the biggest opportunities the EA 3.0 brings to our partners is leveraging the agreement in your lifecycle selling motions to develop deeper relationships with your customers. As you identify new business needs and use cases with your customers, you can easily add Cisco software products to an existing EA.

Network refresh use case example

Let's look at network refresh as an example use case. Without an EA 3.0 in place, it can be a 6-to 18-month journey for partners and customers dealing with 100s of licenses, multiple contracts and locations, and varied start and end dates. The EA 3.0 eliminates this huge administrative burden, providing a single platform where you and your customers can find all the Cisco software licenses you need in one place.

Security use case example

Let's look at another use case that is less predictable, like a security breach. Suddenly your customer needs a critical solution to respond to a cyber attack. With the flexibility provided through the EA3.0, your customer gets access to software licenses to stop the breach without a long procurement cycle. Later, they can expand and roll out the software enterprise wide.

Deliver benefits for your customers with the EA 3.0

Let's recap some of the unique customer-oriented features and benefits provided by the EA 3.0:

• Partial commit:This is the feature used in the security use case described above where your customer can test software without requiring an enterprise-wide commitment.
• Not-to-exceed pricing:The EA 3.0 includes not-to-exceed pricing, which means the price per license is locked in for the 3- or 5-year term of the enterprise agreement. If the customer needs more licenses, they'll pay the same price and avoid a surprise bill at the end of a contract period. That's true price predictability.
• True forward:True Forward is another cost saving feature included in EA 3.0. This feature allows customers to add licenses to an existing enterprise agreement and pay later; there is no retroactive billing.

Cisco partners also receive benefits

Our partners also benefit from the EA 3.0:

• Drive more customer relevance by addressing your customers' software needs more quickly and easily
• Drive more predictable, recurring revenue growth for your business by making Cisco software easier to consume by your customers

Remind your customers that the EA 3.0 is Cisco's flagship buying program that offers a premium experience where it's easier to buy, manage, and consume software licenses, while also helping to drive business agility.The EA 3.0 also provides unmatched value with flexible access to Cisco's entire software portfolio. We consider the EA 3.0, the lifecycle and our Cisco partners to be a perfect combination that drive value for everyone involved.

Get trained on EA 3.0

Cisco also provides a full portfolio of enablement that will show you how the EA 3.0 is truly the best-of-breed software licensing solution for you and your customers. I encourage our partners to learn, lean in and lead with the EA 3.0 today!

Learn more about EA 3.0 here!

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