Cisco Systems 4500 manual Technical Support Services-Components, Software Support, TAC Support

Tables 12 and 13 list the components and competitive differentiators of Cisco Technical Support Services.

Table 12. Technical Support Services—Components

Service Feature Overview			Benefits
Software Support			Offers maintenance and minor and major updates for licensed feature set. Downloading new maintenance
			releases, patches, or updates of Cisco IOS Software helps to enhance and extend the useful life of Cisco
			devices. Through major software updates it is possible to extend the life of equipment and maximize
			application technology investments by:
			∙	Increasing the performance of current functions
			∙	Adding new capability that, in many cases, requires no additional hardware investment
			∙	Enhancing network and application availability, reliability, and stability
TAC Support			With more than 1000 highly trained customer support engineers, 390 CCIE® certifications, and access to
			13,000 research and development engineers, Cisco TAC complements your in-house staff with a high level
			of knowledge in voice, video, and data communications networking technology. Its sophisticated call-routing
			system quickly routes calls to the correct technology personnel. The Cisco TAC is available 24 hours a day,
			365 days a year.
Cisco.com			This award-winning Website provides 24-hour access to an extensive collection of online product and
			technology information, interactive network-management and troubleshooting tools, and knowledge-transfer
			resources that can help customers reduce costs by increasing staff self-sufficiency and productivity.
Advance Hardware			Advance replacement and onsite field-engineer options supply fast access to replacement hardware and field
Replacement			resources for installing hardware, minimizing the risk of potential network downtime.
Table 13. Technical Support Services—Competitive Differentiato rs
Feature		Benefits
Worldwide Virtual Lab		This extensive lab of Cisco equipment and Cisco IOS Software releases provides an invaluable engineering resource
		and knowledge base for training, product information, and recreation and testing of selected network issues to help
		decrease time to resolution.
TAC Training		Cisco is committed to providing customers the latest in technology support. These TAC training programs assist
∙	Boot camps	customers in case avoidance as well as provide knowledge transfer of Cisco networking expertise.
∙	Tech calls
∙	Tech forums
Cisco Live		A powerful suite of Internet-enabled tools with firewall-friendly features; these secure, encrypted Java applets
		can turn a simple phone call into an interactive collaboration session, allowing a customer and Cisco TAC support
		engineer to work together more effectively.
Global Logistics		Delivers award-winning, worldwide hardware-replacement support with 650 depots, covering 120 countries, at a
		US$2.3 billion investment in inventory, using 10,000 onsite field engineers.
Cisco IOS Software		Employs 100 discrete technologies with more than 2000 features. 400 new features are added each year. Cisco IOS
		Software is installed in more than 10 million devices and is running on more than 10,000 networks worldwide. It
		operates on the world’s largest IPv6 and VoIP networks and in all major service provider networks worldwide.

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