Cisco Accelerates Digital Transformation with Enterprise Agreement Launch

This is exciting.

It has been just over a year since my first blog in which I stated, “To win in today’s market where disruptive startups and agile competitors are advancing on all sides, digitizing the enterprise to infuse greater agility and innovation is critical. This means transforming your operating model, which includes reimagining products and services and business models…” And in almost every blog since, I have touted the necessity of transforming your business and operating models to become a digital company.

By helping our customers reimagine both how they work (operating models) and the value they deliver to customers (business models), the completely refreshed Cisco Enterprise Agreement enables them farther along their digital transformation journeys and accelerates the pace of future progress. Here’s why.

A key barrier to digital transformation is complexity. In fact, the average amount of overspending due to complex software licensing is 25%*.  The evolution and alignment of Cisco’s operating model with its portfolio allows customers the flexibility to consume our innovation in a far more integrated way.

With the new EA, we have turned complexity into simplicity, a key enabler of digital business transformation. Now customers have a simplified buying model, a real-time consumption model view of licenses, and a blanket enterprise-wide contract. These capabilities allow customers to centralize license management, predict budgets, and have a strategic, multiyear relationship with Cisco.

The Cisco EA Improves Simplicity, Flexibility, and Growth—Three Keys to Digital Business Transformation

A guiding principle of Cisco’s own digital transformation is to provide more value through new business models and continuous innovation. Importantly, the new EA delivers the same abilities to our customers. They now have access to the latest improvements in Cisco software and applications across our networking, collaboration, and security portfolios. With this foundation, they can more quickly create and launch new business models that to win against disruptive competitors.

Next, the new EA encourages business success by giving customers a 20% growth allowance, eliminating retroactive charges, and providing a credit for existing solutions so customers always know the value of their Cisco investment is protected. In short, there is no longer a penalty for growth, a top business priority for any company fighting every day to thrive in a world of digital disruption.

The enemies of digital transformation are complexity, rigidity, and stagnation. The new Cisco EA removes these barriers and replaces them with simplicity, flexibility, and growth. This will enable our customers to transform their business faster, more successfully, and more securely than ever before.

* IDC Software Licensing and Pricing Predictions, 2016