How Cisco Enterprise Agreements simplify IT management

Some business goals transcend industries. Whether you’re a manufacturer in India, a bank in New York City  or a hospital in Zimbabwe, you’re always looking to streamline your operations, save money and use technology in more efficient ways.

Cisco, a global leader in networking solutions, offers a powerful tool to help you address these needs: the Cisco Enterprise Agreement. Designed to meet the unique IT needs of large organizations, the Enterprise Agreement can help with everything from budgeting to user management.

Let’s explore what Enterprise Agreements are, the value they bring to your organization, and why you may want to consider going this route for your organization.

What is a Cisco Enterprise Agreement?

A Cisco Enterprise Agreement is a licensing model that simplifies acquiring, managing and optimizing Cisco software and hardware across your organization. It provides a unified framework for purchasing, licensing and deploying Cisco products and services, making it easier to meet your network and IT needs.

It typically includes:

• Enterprise License Agreement: The core of the agreement, covering a range of Cisco products and services – and flexible enough to allow you to make changes as your business requirements evolve.
• Term-based licensing: Enterprise Agreements often come with multiyear terms, which can help you plan your IT budgets more effectively.
• Software suites: Cisco offers solution-driven bundles within its Enterprise Agreement. These software suites combine collaboration, networking and security titles for a single, specific outcome.
• Subscription-based licensing: Some Enterprise Agreements include as-a-service models and operate via subscription-based licensing. These allow you to access new features and updates as they become available.

The value of Cisco Enterprise Agreements

1. Simplified licensing: Enterprise Agreements merge multiple licenses into a single agreement, making it easier to manage your organization’s software and hardware assets. This reduces your administrative overhead and helps you comply with licensing terms.

2. Cost savings: By buying products and services through an Enterprise Agreement, you can achieve significant cost savings. The volume-based pricing and bundled offerings of these agreements can result in a lower total cost of ownership than you’d have with individual licenses.

Working with a global financial services provider, we were able to reduce their direct costs by USD 1.7 million a year. The close relationship between the client, NTT DATA and Cisco facilitated the evaluation, formulation and implementation of a five-year Enterprise Agreement. This put a single global contract in place with overall governance of all the client’s software licenses, and allowed them to charge their regional offices according to the licenses they used.

3. Unified management: With an Enterprise Agreement, you can manage your licenses, renewals and support through a single portal. This simplifies tracking and compliance, reducing the risk of unexpected license expirations or compliance issues. Furthermore, thanks to our application programming interface links into Cisco, you can enjoy an improved user experience through NTT DATA.

4. Scalability: As your organization grows, your IT needs change. Enterprise Agreements allow you to add or remove licenses without the need for complex procurement processes.

5. Access to Cisco’s full portfolio: Enterprise Agreements give you access to Cisco’s entire portfolio of products and services. So, you get to use the latest technologies to help you innovate and stay competitive.

6. Enhanced collaboration: Enterprise Agreements often include collaboration tools, such as Cisco Webex, which promote productivity and communication among team members, whether they are in the office or working remotely.

• ALSO READ → Software-defined infrastructure: why NTT and Cisco are better together

What to consider before you decide on a Cisco Enterprise Agreement

Enterprise Agreements are a cost-effective way of procuring and managing Cisco products and services, and can therefore reduce your overall IT expenditure. Streamlined management through a single portal reduces administrative complexity (in the long run) and improves compliance, and you always have the latest Cisco technologies at your disposal.

Before you sign, however, consider the following:

• Initial complexity: Setting up an Enterprise Agreement can be complex and time-consuming, requiring thorough planning and negotiation. Meeting this challenge is a key area where NTT DATA adds value. We are highly experienced in helping our clients (and Cisco) through the daunting early stages.
• Commitment: Enterprise Agreements often come with multiyear terms. While this offers stability, it may be restrictive for organizations with rapidly changing requirements.
• Not suitable for all: Smaller organizations with limited IT needs may find Enterprise Agreements excessive, as they may not feel they will make full use of the bundled products and services. That said, it’s always worth considering the potential benefits, and we can consult on the best products to help even small organizations take advantage of Cisco’s products.

Why Enterprise Agreements matter for large organizations

Enterprise Agreements make sense for many reasons, but the bigger the organization, the greater the imperative to act. Here’s a brief recap and a look at how we can help your organization unlock the value of these agreements.

1. Comprehensive solutions: Large organizations often require a mix of products and services to support their complex operations. Enterprise Agreements are an excellent tool to bring simplification to multiple departments and use cases, all while simplifying the procurement process. Our Technology Solutions business has deep experience across industries and solutions. We help diagnose the right mix of original equipment manufacturer products and services to support the complexity of large organizations.

2. Cost management: Managing licenses and costs can be overwhelming. Enterprise Agreements bring predictability to the budgeting process, making it easier to allocate resources efficiently. Increasing your buying power, securing the benefit of scale and driving adoption of new technology to drive efficiency: this is how we help organizations with expansive IT infrastructures to improve their cost base.

3. Security and compliance: Large organizations handle a substantial amount of sensitive data. Enterprise Agreements often include security solutions, helping them to maintain robust security measures and remain compliant with industry regulations. We are a Global Cisco Gold partner with large practices in consulting and implementation Cisco’s full suite of security solutions.

4. Collaboration: Remote and hybrid work is now the norm, so collaboration tools like Cisco Webex (included in Enterprise Agreements) have become invaluable for large organizations to promote communication and teamwork. From our Technology Solutions business to our CX Managed Services practice, we have the right solution to ensure your workforce operates as a cohesive unit.

5. Simplified management: Managing licenses across a vast organization can be daunting. We prioritize the merging of multiple agreements with varying contract dates into a central Enterprise Agreement, reducing the risk of noncompliance and simplifying audit processes. We then leverage the best of Cisco’s cloud solutions and NTT DATA’s multivendor platform for software-defined infrastructure for ease of management. 

• ALSO READ → Why Whole Portfolio Agreements are the future of buying software in bulk

Take the next step

Cisco Enterprise Agreements are a comprehensive solution for large organizations that need to manage their networking and IT needs efficiently – and the pros far outweigh the cons.

NTT DATA and Cisco have collaborated closely for more than three decades in a technology partnership that has stood the test of time. Get in touch to see how we can supercharge your business.