Softcat launches Softcare for Cisco kit

New maintenance offering to support its Cisco customers

Reseller Softcat has launched its own support service for Cisco customers, claiming its offering has "noticeable improvements" when compared with the vendor's offering.

The Softcare service, which was launched today, provides customers with telephone support, hardware replacement, field-based engineers and software updates and has been developed in response to customer feedback.

The reseller said its new offering is very similar to Cisco's own SMARTnet support scheme but insisted its service has significant improvements.

Softcat's Cisco business manager Kevin Rama said: "The key differentiator between SMARTnet and Softcare is our fix SLA. What does that actually mean? When hardware breaks in your infrastructure, with SMARTnet there is a response time, but not necessarily a guaranteed fix time. With our service, you have the reassurance of that fix time.

"On top of that, we can provide software updates and one of the key areas which is handy for all customers is the support of old, end-of-support hardware – we are still able to provide support on that hardware and hardware replacement."

Softcat claims it has Cisco spare parts worth about £10m in 48 logistics locations around the UK and more than 100 field-based engineers ready to help.

Simon Walker, Softcat's managed services director, said there are key benefits for customers who take advantage of Softcare.

"Many of our customers look at this for varying reasons – the first reason is return on investment," he said. "Another area is [minimising] business risk. We recommend all customers have some element of break-fix maintenance on their infrastructure because if a component fails, it could take a lot longer to get a part out if you don't have a maintenance agreement."