As anyone involved in technology knows, keeping track of warranties and licenses for all your hardware and software can become a real struggle. You’re tasked with 101 things to do and reviewing end-of-service dates is definitely not one of your priorities. It essentially all gets forgotten about. Preventing this from happening is a new Cisco tool named Smart Collector.

Normally, it’s only when something breaks and you need to utilise a warranty that you realise it’s expired. By this point it’s too late. This critical fix could take days to complete instead of a couple of hours because the warranty needs to be renewed before any action can be taken. As a result, business function is interrupted due to a simple oversight.

Smart Collector is your solution to this problem.

Smart Collector (also known as CSPC) is the part of Cisco Smart Net Total Care that is responsible for modern network asset management and collecting inventory data. Below are four of its features we think you’d like to know.

You can easily maintain an up-to-date device inventory. Smart collector is a probe that lives in your network and will make a note of any new devices that enter. This way, you do not have to perform the strenuous and time-consuming task of manually noting and inputting anything new for your organisation.

Here you can see the option to schedule collection for a time that suits you.

Smart collector also collates all your devices’ end-of-service dates. It then plots these dates out and creates an accessible schedule for you to manage. With its proactive reporting, you can easily find out which of your devices need attention and when. You can utilise this critical information to better plan out your upgrade cycles.

Smart collector is the tool you need in order to notify you when any of your devices are vulnerable. For example if your phone system vitally needs upgrading as it is approaching its end-of-life date, you will be told with sufficient time to react and take corrective action before it’s too late.

Here you can see a collection in progress.

Most importantly, Smart collector significantly reduces the chances of you encountering prolonged downtime. As mentioned previously, if a piece of your hardware is no longer covered under its service contract, and it breaks, you can be waiting days for the problem to be rectified. Depending on the function of the hardware this could cripple your business and if it’s your job to keep track of end-of-service dates, you will most likely be in trouble. Smart collector prevents these dates being forgotten and gives you peace of mind that these unexpected problems will not arise.

For a quick start guide to Smart Collector, please click here.

To read the release notes, please click here.