ALTNET: Smarter Than Smartnet

ALTNET DOES MORE THAN CUT YOUR CISCO HARDWARE SUPPORT COSTS. WE OFFER FLEXIBLE SLAS TO EXTEND THE LIFE OF YOUR NETWORK EQUIPMENT.

USING ALTNET THIRD-PARTY MAINTENANCE IS A SMART ALTNERATIVE WHEN RENEWING YOUR CISCO MAINTENANCE

Cisco bundles SMARTnet support with your initial hardware purchases, and these contracts are typically structured for 1-3 years. Once that initial SMARTnet contract is up, your maintenance costs will skyrocket, as the cost to renew OEM support on older equipment is substantially higher than the cost to support brand new hardware.

It might make sense on the surface—older equipment is more likely to have problems than hardware that was just unboxed. What most people find surprising is that it actually costs Cisco less to maintain your equipment the longer it has been on the market.

That is because spare parts become more abundant and engineering talent less scarce. Cisco treats SMARTnet more like an insurance policy than a maintenance plan, so when your equipment is more likely to require support, the OEM chooses to bully you into purchasing new hardware instead.

MAINTENANCE SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON

Because Altnet works with a global market of secondary market hardware, our third-party maintenance solution is backed by certified, refurbished stock anywhere around the globe. This reach guarantees that we get the very best deal on the parts that our customers need most. Unlike OEMs, we follow the market. When we save, so do our clients. In fact, we ran the numbers on some typical Cisco equipment, and those who make the switch to Altnet Third-Party Maintenance can see up to 80% savings on their Cisco maintenance expenditures.

ALTNET PROVIDES IMPROVED SUPPORT AND FLEXIBILITY

The services and hardware we provide will be the same quality you are accustomed to receiving through your SMARTnet contract. However, because we define our SLAs more favorably for our clients, you’ll receive support faster than you’re used to. Cisco offers you a selection of SLA choices like 24x7x4 and 8x5xNBD, and while Altnet offers the same SLAs, our response rate is markedly different.

For example, Cisco’s 24x7x4 model promises 24-hour TAC availability, 7 days a week, with an assurance that a technician will call you back within four hours to troubleshoot your issues over the phone. Our 24x7x4 model promises the same level of TAC availability, but we don’t take 4 hours call you back. Our global network enables one of our certified technicians to call you back within 15 minutes, at any time of day.

Contact the third-party maintenance experts at Altnet today to begin your journey to cost savings with improved support.