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CASE STUDY - LARGE FEDERAL AGENCY


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Introduction: 2

The Problem – Overview: 2

AssetDatabaseReviewandIdentifiedIssues: 2

Excessive Support Costs: 3

Need or Asset and Contract Procedures: 3

The Solution: 4

Asset Database / CMDB Cleanup: 4

Recommendation for Contract Consolidation and Clean-Up Services – Ongoing: 4

XSi’s Holistic Model: 5

The Results: 6

Cost Savings, Accuracy and Reduced Downtime: 5

Additional Savings at First Contract Renewal Period: 5

Infrastructure Technology Asset Disposition (ITAD) Services: 5


INTRODUCTION: XSi is a “Maintenance Lifecycle

Support and Methodology

Provider” which involves all facets

of managing assets from the

point of acquisition until they

are decommissioned from your

environment. The full lifecycle

of services entails the following

components and is referenced in

this case study:

THE PROBLEM – OVERVIEW:

The client is a large Federal agency that is highly reliant on their IT infrastructure (network, server and storage) to deliver servicestothecitizensitsupports.Theagency’sprimarygoalwastosignificantlyreduceannualmaintenancecosts,while maintaining or increasing the level of support provided for their mission critical Cisco infrastructure. In particular, this agency contracted XSi to provide annual support services for a large percentage of their Cisco asset base (Cisco is the primary vendor comprising the client’s infrastructure). XSi’s support services include XSiAdvancedTAC™ services for configurationandtroubleshootingsupport,servicelevelagreement(SLA)hardwaresupport,andfieldengineeringservicesfor repair of failed equipment. XSi’s services exceed OEM SLA levels within all aspects of the provided service with faster response times on support calls (including Tier III support), on-site spares, and staffed by highly trained professionals within the United States.

AssetDatabaseReviewandIdentificationofIssues:The client initially provided XSi with a list of assets for annual maintenance renewal. The list was a report from the Cisco’s contracts database and XSi determined this list had the following issues:

» The list only showed devices Cisco currently had under contract and as such may not be an accurate representation of the equipment actively comprising the client’s infrastructure

» It was a listing of equipment sold to the client and as such may be showing assets for contract renewal that have been de-commissioned from the environment

» Assetlocationsareoftennotaccuratewithinthesereportsastheytypicallyreflectthelocationanassetwasshippedto,but not the actual install location.

» Multiple contracts have different start and end dates for items with the same SLA. This results from new contracts being issued each time equipment is purchased which creates the problem of multiple contracts with multiple start and end dates. Cisco Customer Online ID’s (CCO-IDs) are aligned to contracts and in order to open an incident with Cisco, a user’s CCO-ID must be aligned to the contract the device is covered under. This situation overburdens record keeping on the client’s technical and operations personnel.

» The problem stated above is further exacerbated by the fact that the OEM won’t provide coverage for assets that are unsupported without a purchase order (PO) being issued to add the unsupported asset to a support contract, resulting in frustration and potentially lengthy downtimes.


EXCESSIVE SUPPORT COSTS: The large Federal agency recognized that they had increasingly higher annual support costs with the same equipment and sought XSi’s expertise. By utilizing XSi’s holistic support model, the client was able to dramatically reduce costs, increase services levels,andcreateasimplifiedandaccuratesupport coverage model across their infrastructure. How the holistic model works will be discussed further in the Solution and Benefitssectionsofthiscasestudy.Youareentitled to IOS patches and updates within your existing feature-set under the OEM warranty agreement.

NEED FOR ASSET AND CONTRACT PROCEDURES: XSi visited with the agency at their data center location and performed a review of their asset data / CMDB. It is more likely that a client’s asset data (IT contracts associated with those said assets) are highly inaccurate forthereasonspreviouslyidentified.Whilea network audit to bring these assets into a clean and accurate state is a good idea, the reason the asset data and contracts became inaccurate over time is due to a lack of procedures around the components listed to the right:

PROVISIONING OF ASSETS: Add new equipment to the

infrastructure, ensure proper support contracts, and update

asset management and network monitoring systems

DECOMMISSIONING OF ASSETS:

Remove equipment from the infrastructure, ensure support

contracts are credited, and remove the equipment from

asset management and network monitoring systems

RETURN MATERIALS AUTHORIZATION (RMA): Whenanassetfails,thissetof

procedures is required to update the asset management and

network monitoring systems with the device’s new attributes (serial numbers, MAC addresses, etc.)

DEVICE RELOCATIONS OR CHANGES (MACD):

Whenanassethasanupdate (new IOS, new card, etc.) or is

relocated, these set of procedures governs the update of the asset

management system and network monitoring system toreflectthesechanges


The Solution:XSi went onsite to assess the

situation prior to the client’s

support renewal date. During

this assessment visit, XSi worked

with the client’s manager

to discuss the state of their

infrastructure and data centers,

persons or entities responsible

for infrastructure support

contracts, and to identify the

following solutions for the

environment:

XSi and the client were able to clean up a substantial amount oftheCMDBintheinitialaudit/visit.Ittakesasignificantamount of effort and teamwork to clean up a large agency or organization’s CMDB. XSi and the agency agreed that the ongoing effort to fully clean up and maintain the integrity of the assets and contracts would entail the following components:

Tools: XSi utilized custom scripts, discovery tools, topology maps, SSH, Telnet, and collaborated with agency technical and operations teams

Analysis:

» XSi discovered Cisco’s quotes (based only on sales history) were very inaccurate compared to the installed base

» Client did not perform intermittent and annual auditing of the installed base in order to prevent overpayment

» The client did not have a process in place to work with its Cisco VAR or distributor to obtain credits for decommissioned assets

» The client had been paying support for assets that were decommissioned

» The client needs to implement new processes and procedures to track new asset deployment, de-commission assets, RMAs, and asset location movement

» XSiidentifiedassetsthatdidnotrequireCiscoSMARTnet™ maintenance. These assets either fell within XSi’s Hybrid Model (equipment that only requires updates &fixesforcaseresolution)oritemsthatfellwithinXSi’sThird Party Maintenance Service (equipment that does not require a contract with Cisco to download IOS updates andfixesorequipmentthathasreachedEnd-of-Life,End-of-Support and/or End-of-Software Support)

OEM Contract Cleanup Services:XSiidentifiedhowtodramatically reduce number of client’s contracts. Cisco at a minimum requires one contract per SLA. VARs tend to start a new contract each time assets are purchased versus taking newly acquired assets and making them coterminous to the current contract. XSi can assist clients in aligning technical and operations personnel CCO-IDs to OEM contracts for incident creation.

ASSET DATABASE / CMDB CLEANUP:

Two XSi engineers spent two days on site to perform an initial review of the asset database. They worked with agency’s networkengineerwhowrotescriptsthatranagainsttheirnetworkmanagementplatformtoconfirmdevicesthatwerepresent on the network and to provide internal information on numerous critical chassis based systems that would allow XSi to optimize the clients support environment based on XSi’s holistic support model. XSi utilized custom scripts to parse the data provided from the agency into both their quote and asset template, which can be easily loaded via Excel / .csv into the asset center of XSi’s AdvancedTRACK™ portal.

RECOMMENDATION FOR CONTRACT CONSOLIDATION AND CLEAN-UP SERVICES – ONGOING:


XSI’S HOLISTIC MODEL:

XSi’s Holistic support model categorizes products based upon a number of criteria. The table and diagram below indicated the three “buckets” of support and how assets are categorized into each of these buckets.

– Current Models that Require OS Updates to Fix Issues

– Current Models that may Require OEM Escalation

– Emerging Technologies

– Requires Frequent Software Updates

Hardware Best Maintained by Third Party Maintenance (TPM) Provider:

Hardware Maintained by OEM or TPM Provider:

Hardware Best Maintained by OEM:

– Models Reaching or Have Reached EOL, EoSW or EOS

– Current Models Where Free Software and Firmware is Available – Other Criteria

0-20%Discount

40-60%SAVINGS

Holistic Maintenance Model Categories

No RiskNo Reward

Low RiskHigh Reward

No RiskHighest Reward

60-75%SAVINGS

TPM

EOS

OEM EOL

Third Party Maintenance

Provider

End of Software Updates = Last Date the Manufacturer will

Provide Bug Fixesor Updates

End of Support = Last Date the Manufacturerwill Provide Product Support

End of Life = Last Date of Hardware Resale of Product

Original Equipment Manufacturer

Acronym Decoder

EoSW

OEM SUPPORT

» Emerging Technologies» Requires Frequent Software Updates» Requires Frequent OEM Configuration Support

HYBRID MODEL

» Current and Stable Models Requiring Access to OS Updates for Bug Fixes

» Current and Stable Models Requiring Occasional Escalation to OEM Tier IV TAC

THIRD PARTY MAINTENANCE (TPM)

» Devices that have Reached “End of Support”, “End of SW Updates” and other Milestones

» Free IOS Updates – Available on Catalyst 4500 Models and Below with Base Images

» Devices that Receive their Updates from a Master Device (IP Phones, Light-Weight Access Points (LWAPS))


COST SAVINGS, ACCURACY AND REDUCED DOWNTIME: XSi’s Holistic Maintenance Model – XSi divided the client’s assets into three categories:

1. Assets best maintained by OEM support

2. Hybrid Support

3. Third Party Maintenance (TPM) support.

In addition, XSi educated the client on how it combines engineering, furnish and install services (EFI services) that deliver a level of service not available through OEMs, OEM channel partners or other TPMs. The result is outstanding cost savings while receiving a level of service thought to be previously unobtainable.

Contract Consolidation and Clean-Up Services – The followingbenefitswererealizedthroughthissuiteofservices:

» An accurate CMDB / asset inventory – This will prevent the client from paying for maintenance on assets that are decommissioned and ensure critical assets are covered. Also, XSi’s on-boarding and ongoing contract moves, additions, changes, deletes (MACD) services will ensure the client’s operations and technical employees OEM IDs are aligned to the appropriate OEM contacts such that incidents can be opened without delay.

Asset Additions, Decommissions, RMAs and Moves Procedures: These procedures ensure the following:

» Additions – new devices added to infrastructure are now placed under the appropriate support model (OEM, Hybrid, or TPM) and loaded into the XSiAdvancedTrack™ “Asset Center” module as well as the clients Network Management System (NMS) such that accuracy of these assets is maintained from a support and visibility perspective.

» Decommissions – as devices are removed from the network, XSi will delete these assets from the contract, notify the NMS system’s point of contact (POC) to remove the asset, and provide and track the appropriate credits as either cash / check rebates or as available credit to add future assets to the support contracts.

» RMA’s–Whendevicesarereplacedduetohardwarefailures, this procedural component will ensure that the asset record in the XSiAdvancedTrack™ portal is updated, andtheNMSsystem’sPOCisnotifiedtoupdatetherecords as appropriate.

» Moves – If an asset is relocated this procedural component will ensure that the asset record in the XSiAdvancedTrack™ portal is updated and the POC for the client’s NMS system isnotifiedtoupdatetherecordsasappropriate.

THE RESULTS: DUE TO THIS LARGE FEDERAL AGENCY CONTRACTING WITH XSI, THEY HAVE REALIZED THE FOLLOWING IMMEDIATE AND LONG TERM BENEFITS:


» 25% Reduction in Annual Costs – During this audit, XSi found that Cisco’s quotes (based on sales history) were 25% inaccurate compared to the installed base. The client is no longer paying maintenance on assets that are decommissioned.

» 50% of installed based moved to XSi’s Third Party Maintenance – XSi performed a detailed analysis on these assets including devices that Cisco provides free IOS updates, devices that were End-of-Life, End-of-Support and/or End-of-Software Support where updates were no longer being provided by Cisco. XSi’s TPM Support was able to allow the client up to 60% savings annually on these devices.

» 25%ofinstalledbaseidentifiedasXSi’sHybridModel(equipmentthatonlyrequiresupdates&fixesforcaseresolution) – Since these items had recently been installed, XSi made recommendations to wait a year before moving these items to XSi’s Hybrid Maintenance Model which will achieve additional savings for the client in year two of the contract.

» 50% of the contract items consolidated into one coterminouscontract–Thiswillsavesignificantoverheadinternally at client’s site. XSi will update this document with the estimated administrative savings obtained by the client after year one.

DRAMATIC SAVINGS ACHIEVED TheclientsimplementedXSi’sHolisticMaintenanceModelandtookadvantageofsignificantannual maintenance savings:

ADDITIONAL SAVINGS AT FIRST CONTRACT RENEWAL PERIOD: CiscoandmostotherOEMsincreaseannualhardwaremaintenancepricesby15%peryearforthefirst5years,andfrom25%to 100% annually afterwards. XSi never increases annual maintenance prices, so the more equipment that is transferred to XSi support vs. Cisco will increase the annual cost savings.

INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY ASSET DISPOSITION (ITAD) SERVICES: XSiisatruemaintenancelifecyclesupportandmethodologyprovider.Whentheclientdecommissionsassets,XSiwillprovidea professional analyst to present an asset valuation, and a quotation for erasure services, packing, removal and destruction or resale of de-commissioned assets if required. XSi can provide a credit on maintenance services for Government Agencies making it easier for the agency to receive value for decommissioned assets.

XS International, Inc. | [email protected]

Call XSi Today for Expertly Simplified IT Maintenance 1.800.256.6133 (US) | 1.770.740.0040 (INT’L)

Or Visit Us Online at XSnet.com

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