Security Choice: Simpler Buying for more Effective Security

Security is difficult. Detecting and stopping constantly evolving attacks is a never-ending (and often thankless) challenge.

And worse, the current state of security finds companies working with many products that don’t fit or work together.  Managing so many product consoles and alerts makes complexity a primary security challenge.

Licensing Headaches

Adding to the challenge is staying on top of managing software licenses for these products — organizations are left managing dozens – if not hundreds – of licenses. IDC estimates that software license complexity costs organizations an average of 25 percent of their annual software license budgets. That’s massive.

Disparate product licenses – all being activated and expiring at different times – are hard to keep track of, and can lead to many problems including critical gaps in security, inability to quickly deploy technology needed to fight attacks, unused technology and wasted money and often large overages due at the end of the year, impacting future budgets.

We have to wonder, shouldn’t security vendors be making things easier, not harder?

Cisco Security Choice Enterprise Agreement

Cisco is uniquely stepping up to solve these issues. Our new Security Choice Enterprise Agreement lets organizations choose any three or more qualified security products and get all the benefits and flexibility of our buying programs.

As we consider how to simplify the way we see and respond to threats – we realize a key part of simplifying security is also making security simpler to buy.

Choice does this.

Software management gets streamlined with one single portal managing all software.  Resources go further since products are discounted and free growth is included.

You get anytime access to the Cisco security portfolio and even get payment flexibility over time.

What makes Choice so strong are the specifics so let’s look at the beneficial aspects:

Simple software management

• One single agreement with a simple portal – With Security Choice, customers get a single agreement for all Cisco Security software. What is more, all software licenses terminate at the same time and are managed through one easy-to-use portal.  Software management headaches become a thing of the past.  Security is only one part of the Cisco Enterprise Agreement along with networking, data center and collaboration.  All Cisco software can be included in the same master enterprise agreement and manged from the same place for simplicity.

Fast security responses

• Fast deployment of critical technologies – Through the portal, customers can quickly obtain the technology they need, when they need it, without complex and lengthy licensing processes. This means critical security and compliance functions aren’t put at risk over sales cycles.

Resources go further

• Product discounts – Products are discounted up front – the more products included, the greater the discount.
• 20 percent growth included – If customers grow during the course of a contract they have a growth allowance of up to 20 percent.
• ‘True Forward’ terms – Replacing the typical “true up” process for licensing, ‘true forward’ does not penalize success. Traditionally, in “true up” scenarios, if a customer uses more software than originally acquired, they owe money for the overages. Not so with Cisco. If a customer exceeds their free 20 percent growth allowance, they will only pay for this extra usage moving forward, starting at their next software check-in, not in arrears.
• Support and upgrades – 24/7 technical support, software release updates, and product upgrades are included.

Predictable billing

• Annual payments with 0% financing – Not only can customers pay annually over three or five years, but they can also finance at 0% interest.

A 70% Advantage

According to ESG, the simplicity of managing a Cisco Enterprise Agreement allows companies to reduce manpower dedicated to licensing by an average of 70 percent.

In more concrete terms, with the Cisco Enterprise Agreement, a U.S.-based health insurance company decreased the time it spends on licensing tasks from 40 hours per week to just five hours.

To find out more about this transformative new buying program, contact your Cisco sales representative or reseller, or click here to learn more.