Cisco launches new 'simplified' enterprise agreement for partners and customers

Software vendor claims the new EA will make it easier to do business by offering increased flexibility

Cisco has launched a new enterprise agreement for partners and customers which it claims will make it easier to "buy, sell, and manage Cisco software and services".

Using its annual Partner Summit conference to announce the news, Cisco says the new agreement will provide partners and customers with simplified cross-portfolio access, more financial flexibility and increased business agility while aiming to accelerate digital transformation and fuel software revenue growth with partners.

"Cisco's new Enterprise Agreement gives our customers and partners a powerful, simple, and extremely flexible way to buy and consume our great software products," said Gerri Elliott, EVP, chief customer and partner officer.

"Our incredible partner ecosystem has already built a multi-billion dollar software business but we're clearly just getting started.

"Innovations like the ability to shift investments across the portfolio will help us better serve our customers, push further into our business transformation, and drive higher profitability for our partners."

The new enterprise agreement will include one set of terms and conditions across the five portfolios of Applications Infrastructure, Networking Infrastructure, Collaboration, Security, and Services, as well as a lower minimum spend threshold which Cisco says will allow partners to face the challenges of managing various licence agreements while making it easier for customers to access EA benefits.

Cisco has also unveiled new financing features such as Value Shift - which allows customers to "shift committed spend across Cisco DNA software and Meraki software" - and True Forward which brings future billing cycles in line with new usage levels.

Moreover, the Cisco Enterprise Agreement Pay, a new offer from Cisco Capital, offers extended payments at no cost to customers for select EAs and a-la-carte software and will mitigate credit and currency risk, features billing and collecting through Cisco Capital, and will see partners paid upon the start of a customer's contract.

And the new enterprise agreement will also "increase access to innovative technology", Cisco claims, while offering "simple administration with one place to view, manage, and renew licenses".

"Cisco has had enterprise agreement for quite a few years now. We have, by now, 10,000 customers who have already purchased through this way," Cisco's EMEAR partner lead, Elisabeth De Dobbeleer, said at a media briefing announcing the new agreement.

"But the new agreement brings together one agreement, one experience, one set of terms and one renewal motion to the entire portfolio - products and services.

"It's a simple and flexible way for partners and customers to buy and consume our software products, so we expect a lot from this. This is really important to us.

"It's also a cornerstone to continue to enhance and invest in partner profitability and it's designed as a single contract to ultimately make it easier to buy, manage and consume Cisco software and services."

The new Cisco EA is currently available through select partners with plans to expand partner availability in early 2022.

The current Enterprise Agreement programmes will remain available to customers and partners while the transition to the new Cisco EA takes place during the first half of 2022.