HP and Cisco Team Up for Support Services

Expanding their long-term strategic global alliance, HP (www.hp.com) and Cisco Systems, Inc. (www.cisco.com) today announced that they will deliver co-branded support services - via a single point of contact - to help customers maintain their enterprise networks on a global scale.

"Our network infrastructure from HP and Cisco is a productivity enhancer," said Shannon Ramsey, director of Retail Systems Automation, Valero Energy Corporation. "We've gained the agility to quickly bring to market the new products and services that our customers want. HP and Cisco fit our bill very nicely. It was as if we were dealing with one company; when we dealt with HP, we were also dealing with Cisco."

The agreement is part of Cisco's Global Services Alliance program, which was established by Cisco in June 2004. HP has been selected by Cisco for this new alliance program focused on services.

"HP and Cisco understand that business success depends on proactive network management," said Mike Rigodanzo, senior vice president, Technology Services, HP.

In addition, HP is the first partner to have earned Cisco's Global Certified Partner status, based on HP's global reach and investments in Cisco-certified personnel, round-the-clock operations and the ability to handle calls within an hour.

Under the Cisco Systems Global Services Alliance program, HP and Cisco will initially provide a single source for network support and problem resolution, and ready access to Cisco product knowledge and expertise.

Over time, the combination of HP and Cisco offerings will be designed to address the full lifecycle of services from planning through deployment to management and support, providing greater consistency throughout the world and helping global customers to realize greater return on their network investments.

To adapt to fast-changing business needs, managers in IT, networking and telecommunications need to create a network infrastructure that is agile, flexible and reliable. HP and Cisco address these issues by combining the strengths of their powerful network services organizations to provide an all-encompassing service and support solution for both local and global network infrastructures, solutions and applications.