New Cisco Managed Service To Boost Partner Profit

Dubbed Cisco Smart Care Service, the new offering will give partners full visibility into the status of all Cisco devices in their customers' networks, as well as enable them to offer scanning, monitoring and security auditing services.

Addressing a packed house of nearly 2,500 partners at the Cisco Partner Summit in Las Vegas, Karl Meulema, vice president of services marketing and channels at Cisco, said the Smart Care Service proactively notifies partners of any changes taking place in the devices on their customers' networks.

In addition to heightened visibility, the service will allow Cisco partners to remotely remediate problems once they're discovered, giving them a way to cement their roles as trusted advisers to their customers, Meulema said.

"When you know much more about the customer's network, you're in a better position to give advice on how their network is going to change as it grows," he said.

Cisco Smart Care Service rollouts will begin this summer, with full availability in the United States slated for the fall.

Keith Goodwin, Cisco senior vice president of worldwide channels, told attendees that Cisco has doubled its investment in partner enablement over the past fiscal year, delivering tools, training and marketing programs to help partners sell Cisco solutions.

Last month, Cisco launched Service Contract Center, a Web-based solution that allows partners to track service contracts and renewals online and generate quotes with the push of a button.

The San Jose, Calif.-based networking giant in May plans to launch Cisco E-Consulting For Partners, an automated tool that gives a dashboard view of partners' services renewals and attach rates, helps them measure their performance against other partners, and offers recommendations for improvement.