What is SMARTnet, how does it work and how much does it cost?

BradReese.Com SMARTnet sales manager - Reggie Grant, received an interesting email this week. Hi, Can you please explain to me what Cisco Smartnet is, how does it work and how much does it cost? Many thanks and kind regards,

Reggie Grant's response:

SMARTnet is a Maintenance Contract for a specific piece of Cisco Equipment.

Price of the contract depends on the piece of equipment and the level of service.

Basically you receive on-line or over the phone technical support, or on site support if you buy that level of service and the ability to download any software updates (revisions) for your piece of equipment.

Lastly, if there is a problem with the equipment, Cisco will replace part or all of the unit, either next day or up to 4 hours, depending on your level of service contract.

Cisco support is very good with SMARTnet contracts, and I believe it is one of the keys to their success!

I also have customers who have had support contracts with Lucent as well as Nortel, but both companies provided support that was a frustrating experience compared with Cisco's support.

Also, you don't receive support from Cisco without SMARTnet.

Finally, new Cisco equipment is sold with only a 90 Day Warranty.

As a comparison - Adtran equipment is sold with a 5 Year Warranty.

Also Adtran has a similar program to SMARTnet called ACES.

Adtran's technical support is probably the best in the industry, and you don't need to have an ACES contract to get tech support from Adtran.

What has been your experience with support from various vendors?

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