In many circumstances, both resellers and customers falsely assume that when a customer is protecting their equipment under a robust service offering like SMARTnet, both their hardware and software are covered within the terms of their contract.

While it is true that SMARTnet does provide new releases and support for Cisco IOS Software, it does not provide support to the other network applications software that a customer may have running on the network.

Customers must purchase separate, individual SAS or SASU contracts to cover these applications. This can provide you with opportunities to sell SAS and SASU service contracts as additional “add-on business” to other Cisco or partner-branded service programs that you are currently promoting with your customers.

For example, SAS or SASU service contracts are often a nice complement to the services provided to customers under a SMARTnet or partner-branded support contract.

In summary, you can position the SAS and SASU service programs with customers as:

		Supplemental, “add-on” business to add additional value to other service packages such as SMARTnet.
		Cost-effective, stand-alone service packages that can offer customers paying for new software releases and updates on an “as- needed” basis with additional savings.