The Subscription Economy and Cisco Easy Pay Constructing an Evergreen Approach to your Technology Lifecycle

Co-Author: Sven Jirgal, VP WW Sales and Field Marketing, Cisco Capital.

The subscription economy has flipped many industries on their heads – redefining the business landscape in which traditional pay-per-product companies are moving toward subscription-based business models. To compete in the digital age, companies must tailor their sales strategies to the needs of the customer.

Reliable, predictable access to the latest technology is a crucial need for businesses of all sizes today. But customers don’t want to pay outright for technology that is changing all the time. They want the flexibility of having the latest and greatest product(s) when and where they need it. Enter the subscription model. Simply put, the subscription model is an easier to consume, more flexible financial model that enables customers to save cash through recurring, predictable payments. The larger the company, the larger the need for this flexibility becomes.

Let’s look at a hypothetical example – an insurance company with over 15,000 employees spread throughout New Zealand, Southeast Asia, with a headquarters in Sydney, Australia. Multi-national companies like these require a sophisticated digital architecture that enables their business both internally and externally. Much to the vexation of IT administrators and CTOs around the globe, the network is a key part of any digital business, and technology is always changing. Because of the rate of change, companies don’t want their cash tied up in an investment when a better-tailored technological solution comes along.

At its core, the subscription model bridges a very fundamental gap between supply and demand by allowing customers to use what they need when they need it. With more flexibility, this business model provides customers with the type of agility many individual consumers now enjoy through various apps and services. It positively impacts the customer experience, and this new financial paradigm provides more convenience and affordability. In enterprise terms, this means that companies can now access the latest technology or products while limiting up-front capital investment with an asset-light financial plan.

Cisco offers Easy Pay to address this need. With Cisco Easy Pay, organizations of all types and sizes can utilize the same sense of financial agility and cash preservation supplied by the various subscription-based, consumer-focused apps and services of the world. Many CEOs share the desire to reduce operating costs. On top of saving money, CEOs oftentimes also want to overhaul their technological infrastructure to accelerate the company’s digital transformation.

Equipment upgrades to enable these transformations can be costly. By partnering with a trusted advisor like Cisco for the network design and implementation and Cisco Capital from a financial perspective, companies can drive their digital transformation without breaking the bank through tailored solutions.

We work side-by-side with our customers — to ensure that our solutions cover every possible angle of their digital transformation, in as straightforward a way as possible. Easy Pay enables organizations to save cash, while transitioning their technology refresh expense to a more predictable OpEx line item. Large companies can overhaul their technological infrastructure and digitize their workflow with a tailored refresh in a more predictable way with no upfront costs. With that type of cash preservation, employees can keep up with the accelerating pace of technological development, enabling more effective digital collaboration throughout worldwide offices.

Easy Pay offers you the benefits of the subscription economy applied to your technological acquisition and refresh methods. By leveraging these benefits, you get a quadruple win – preserve cash, spread costs over time, and protect credit, all while avoiding a large capital investment.

The world is changing fast. This approach gives you the agility you need to keep pace in today’s digital economy. Ensuring access to the latest technology enables you to add business value and deliver against evolving organizational imperatives. We are excited to work with you to tailor a solution to enable your business ourcomes.

Visit www.cisco.com to learn more about Cisco Easy Pay or contact your account manager to see how you can pay for your Cisco technology.