Cisco Collaboration Enterprise Agreements Introduction

Cisco Enterprise Agreements are a way for businesses to collate all the licensing required to use multiple collaboration platforms into a single contract. The Cisco Collaboration Enterprise Agreement might also be communicated as a “Flex Plan” thus if you see that wording, you’ll now be aware of their interchangeable nature. The agreements are the most flexible (no pun intended!) in the line up of EA’s due to their ability to scale down to a minimum level of 250 knowledge workers. This is over a term of 3/5/7 years.

A “knowledge worker” is simply anyone who will be using that service or platform during the term of the contract.

The 3 Options

As the collaboration portfolio grew in its offerings through decades of evolution, the agreements have been split into 3 methods of consumption for ease of alignment.

Regardless of the option you choose, you’re still eligible for a 20% free growth factor during the term of your contract. The “True Forward” also applies to either option.

Meetings

Flex Plan

Enterprise Calling

Flex Plan

Contact Center

Flex Plan

This option gives you the full power of Webex meeting on-premise, in cloud or both. Your organization also receives full access to Webex Team, an immensely powerful and fully cloud-hosted IM platform; think corporate WhatsApp. Webex Teams is fully integrated into Webex Meetings so you can have a unified platform for all your communications. The minimum entry point is 250 knowledge workers across the organisation.

For existing Cisco UC users and those looking to migrate to Cisco from other platforms for their telephony needs, the Enterprise Calling Flex Plan gives you full access to the entire Unified Communications suite of products from Communications Manager and Unity, to Jabber and Expressway. The deployment type is also flexible between on-premise and hosted giving you great flexibility across regions. The 250 minimum knowledge workers over the term of a 3/5/7 contract apply here also.

Cisco’s robust customer service centre offerings are broken up into 3 platforms; UCCX, PCCE and UCCE. You get full access to *all* of the platforms and can deploy them at your discretion. This means you could have UCCX for one business unit or region while having UCCE deployed for another. We recommend that 250 agents are used as a baseline for it to make commercial sense. The term limits are still 3/5/7 years.

Example of a Cisco Flex Plan

Meeting Flex Plan for a Global Energy Company

A multinational energy company who frequently add or offload assets were looking to ensure consistency in their collaboration suite while controlling costs. Their current onboarding and decoupling of assets were a time-consuming process that started to slow down the speed of integration and communication consistency across the organisation was lacking.  

 

The Meeting Flex Plan not only delivered immediate savings of 40% of ad hoc purchase of license but also gave them the 20% headroom of growth when taking on new assets. With cloud–based registration, onboarding a new location and enabling video conferencing required no effort other than ensuring the equipment was powered on. Webex Teams connected remote and offsite workers seamlessly across any platform. Utilisation was clearly visible through a central portal so the rate of adoption could be measured and efforts could be made in key areas to drive further adoption.

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Benefits of a Cisco Collaboration Enterprise Agreement

Immediate compliance

Investing in an Enterprise Agreement through Tesrex ensures you can have full confidence that you are fully compliant when it comes to your licensing. We will work with you to verify that you are paying for exactly what you should be. No more, no less.

Financial savings

One of the most attractive benefits of a Cisco Flex Plan is the financial savings it brings. With this licensing model, there is a large reduction in cost versus buying perpetual licenses and software support.

Free growth

As with all of Cisco’s Enterprise Agreements, there is a 20% free growth buffer built into the contract. This means that you can increase your Cisco estate by a fifth over your contract period without having to pay a single penny more.

Flexibility

You can use a Cisco Flex Plan to mix and match between on-premises and cloud services while still being under only a single contract. You can also use the portal to add new users rapidly and for free, if you are still within the 20% free growth buffer.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What if I’m using Webex and UC? Can they be combined?

    Yes. The options are presented to distinguish between the platforms. Since both the UC and Webex follow the 250-knowledge worker minimum, combining them into a single contract is not an issue.

  • Do I have to choose between Jabber and Webex Teams for my IM platforms?

    You do not. It’s not uncommon for organizations to have both platforms deployed. Jabber users and Webex Teams users can communicate with each other, thus, you’re not forced to choose a platform. There could very well be viable use cases for both and it’s common to see both deployed. Both products are continuing to evolve and improve.

  • How many instances of UC can I deploy?

    There is no general hard limit. The decision will come down to managing all those instances.

  • What happens to my current licenses?

    All eligible licenses that would be converted under the EA would be rebated on a pro rata bases. At Tesrex, we believe in great transparency thus you’ll be provided with a line-by-line breakdown of each item and its rebate value. Your confidence is critical to us.

  • How can you mix between hosted and on premise?

    The entitlement is based on the license count, not the deployment platform. In any hosted platform that requires you to own or bring your own license, the same entitlement carries over thus the agreement covers both instances.

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