Cisco Expands SMB Portfolio

by Ray Horak, Technology Editor, http://www.telecomreseller.com/

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) has just announced a range of new products and enhanced services and support offerings, all designed to help small businesses grow their business, improve security, and boost performance while controlling costs. New products include a new class of Cisco small business switches, new IP phones and new video monitoring software with alerts. We have followed Cisco pretty closely for the last 20 years here at Telecom Reseller and we have always been impressed with the company, people and products. We recently had the privilege of spending some time with David Tucker, Vice President and General Manager of the Small Business Technology Group, who explained the significance of this launch.

Tucker explained that “Cisco small business technology focuses on three buckets—Connect, Secure and Communicate. Connect encompasses everything required to connect Point A to Point B, simply, reliably and affordably. That includes switching, routing and wireless technologies. Secure includes network security and video surveillance technologies. Communicate refers to collaboration technologies that enhance productivity. Voice, e-mail, text, video and conferencing technologies all are included.”

Cisco 300 Series Managed Switches are a new portfolio of affordable, energy-efficient managed switches. Cisco 300 Series switches, some of which support Power over Ethernet (PoE), come in a broad range of port sizes and are designed to save up to 74 percent on power. The new line offers improved QoS granularity, enhanced security features, limited auto-discovery and auto-configuration support, initial support for 7 key languages, a lifetime warranty with advanced replacement options, and support for IPv6.

Three new IP phones and a new desktop administration tool are designed to help small businesses communicate more effectively. With these new additions, Cisco now offers HD voice (i.e., wide-band audio) across the entire Cisco Small Business IP Phone portfolio. The Cisco SPA 300 Series is a portfolio of affordable, entry-level IP phones with robust features supported with the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series and hosted IP telephony systems. The Cisco SPA 525G2 IP Phone is a full-featured, wireless IP phone with Mobile Link, a feature that pairs with a mobile phone to allow the smooth transfer of calls back and forth, plus the import of contacts wirelessly. The Cisco SPA 525G2 IP Phone is Bluetooth-enabled, includes a USB port to charge a mobile phone, and boasts built in Wi-Fi and an MP3 player.

Office Manager, available as a free download, is an administrative tool that can be customized by the Cisco partner and left behind with the small business office administrator or IT person for handling routine operational tasks for the Cisco Smart Business Communications System.

New cameras and video software are designed to help small businesses secure the business. The Cisco VC 220 Dome IP Video Camera provides outstanding image quality in both bright and low lighting conditions. The Cisco VC 240 Bullet IP Video Camera also provides outstanding image quality as well as weatherproof housing for outdoor environments. Cisco Advanced Video Monitoring System (AVMS) software offers easy-to-use, high-quality monitoring and control with advanced analytics for small business video surveillance deployments of up to 64 cameras. By adding licenses, the business can detect motion, receive alerts if items appear, disappear or move, and integrate video cameras and point-of-sale equipment.

With regard to services and support, Cisco Small Business Support Service is now available across the entire Cisco Small Business portfolio on a subscription basis. According to Tucker, “That means that small customer with a single router as the entire network can get same level of support as a customer with a UC500 and considerably more sophisticated switching.” The service delivers three years of peace-of-mind support, including next-business-day advanced hardware replacement, software updates, access to the Cisco Small Business Support Center and Small Business Support Community, and online chat support. Cisco has also simplified and enhanced the level of warranties for all Cisco Small Business Series products, including routers, switches, storage devices and wireless access points. There is now a single, uniform warranty across four simple price bands ($19, $69, $149 and $499) sensitive to the level of device complexity.

Tucker noted that “Cisco’s primary route to market is through resellers and partners so we spend a lot of our time and focus to ensure their success. With that in mind, we have simplified profitability programs and worked to enhance the partner experience, overall.” Cisco is enhancing Partner Portal and streamlining Partner Development Fund (PDF) to four tracks instead of eight to help simplify the program for partners while helping create opportunities for partners to increase their profits.

To make the process easier for partners, Cisco is implementing automatic re-enrollment for eligible partners enrolled at the end of Cisco’s fiscal year 2010. Cisco also is making it easier for partners to do business with Cisco by fundamentally simplifying their Cisco.com experience through My Cisco, which provides immediate access to the Cisco business applications and information that partners use most frequently to help improve productivity. More at http://www.cisco.com.