KUALA LUMPUR -- 2 February 2000 -- Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, has launched its SMARTnet service offering in Malaysia. This service offering is also available in other Asia Pacific countries including China, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

The SMARTnet support product is based on the Cisco philosophy of moving beyond traditional business barriers by providing customer access to Cisco information, services, and support on demand. SMARTnet augments the resources of a customer's operations staff, providing them with access to a wealth of expertise, both on line and via telephone, along with the ability to refresh their system software at will, and a range of hardware advance replacement options.

"In the fast paced competitive landscape created by the Internet Economy, all companies have to focus on creating value for their customers rather than to spend a lot of time trying to make their network solution work," said Ong Teng Beng, Managing Director of Malaysia for Cisco Systems. "Cisco's entire product development and service support model is premised on taking the complexity of network management out of our customers' hands, allowing them to focus on their core business. SMARTnet will take that one step higher for our customers."

SMARTnet will be primarily sold through Cisco system integration partners (SI's), increasing the SI's service portfolio while minimising their support infrastructure investment.

SMARTnet is also available through Cisco 2-tier distributors, enabling customers to purchase SMARTnet packages from their preferred Cisco resellers.

SMARTnet features include:

• Internetworking Operating System (IOS) software refresh on demand.
  
• 24 x 7 x 365 access to Cisco Connection Online (CCO), the highest rated online support tool in the industry.
  
• 24 x 7 x 365 access to highly skilled networking technology personnel in Cisco Technical Assistance Centers (TACs)
  
• 3 response options of advance parts replacement including 8x5xNext Business Day, 8x5x4 and 24x7x4 response.

Cisco IOS Software Updates

Cisco responds quickly to changes in networking environments and provides immediate Cisco system software updates (such as IOS), thus enhancing and extending device life. Cisco spends more development dollars enhancing its system software than most of its competitors spend in total R&D. SMARTnet provides automatic updates, on request, of all major releases, with sophisticated upgrade planning processes, as well as maintenance fixes. Through the CCO, these updates are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Cisco Connection Online

The Cisco Connection Online (CCO) is the industry-leading online support and information service from Cisco, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. CCO provides users with a wealth of up-to-date information with hundreds of new documents being added or updated each month. Cisco SMARTnet customers have access to a comprehensive collection of online technical which include: Bug Toolkit for anticipating and addressing bugs; Troubleshooting engine for diagnosing hardware problems; IP Calculator for assigning IP addresses; and Cisco IOS Planner to ensure the correct software versions are used.

Technical Assistance Center (TAC)

The Cisco TAC is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can be contacted via the telephone, electronic mail, or the CCO case submission tool. The TAC is staffed by more than 1,000 customer support engineers with over 5,000 combined years of experience with the Cisco product line and all aspects of data communications networking technology. Support is available in more than 144 languages.

Advance Replacement of Hardware Parts

Over 90% of networking problems can be resolved with a software solution. However, in the unlikely event of hardware failure, SMARTnet Advance Replacement provides a hardware replacement unit delivered in as little as four hours upon receiving the request.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco news and information are available at http://www.cisco.com.

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