Cisco Licensing

Customer Smart Accounts

What is a Smart Account?

The first step in using Smart Licensing is setting up a Smart Account for your company. It serves as a repository providing you with full visibility and access control to your Cisco software licenses, devices, and license agreements. When ordering Smart license-enabled products from Cisco Commerce Workspace (CCW), you must assign them to a Smart Account before submitting your order.

BEST PRACTICES

• Create only one Smart Account per company domain to provide you with a comprehensive view of your licenses and to avoid confusion and errors during ordering and license assignment. If multiple accounts are needed for independent entities, differentiate them by adding a prefix to the domain (e.g., abc.xyz.com) but keep the number of accounts limited to prevent wrong assignments.
• Using a team email alias to create a Cisco Smart Account is possible but not recommended because it limits the audit trail and notifications. The Smart Account creator must be an individual with a company domain email and a Cisco CCO ID to ensure proper accountability.

What is a Virtual Account?

Smart Accounts are organized using Virtual Accounts. When you create your Smart Account a default Virtual Account is automatically created. You may then add more Virtual Accounts to help organize your licenses by department, network, location, or other designation. Think of the Smart Account as a folder, and each Virtual Account as a subfolder, all organized based on your business.

BEST PRACTICES

• When setting up your Virtual Account structure within your Smart Account, keep in mind that Virtual Accounts enable access control for licenses. Virtual Account users can only perform activities granted by their role within their assigned Virtual Account.
• Virtual Account names are visible to partners in Cisco Commerce Workspace (CCW) so avoid including internal or confidential company information in these names.

What is a Nested Virtual Account?

A nested Virtual Account is a sub-Virtual Account which is “nested” under an existing Virtual Account. This allows you to create multiple levels of Virtual Accounts (up to 10 levels). When creating a new Virtual Account within your Smart Account you can choose if you want to create it at the top-level or nested under an existing Virtual Account.

Smart Account Roles and Organization

When setting up your Smart Account, you must decide how to structure it using Virtual Accounts and nested Virtual Accounts. Additionally, you will determine which individuals should be assigned to the Smart Account and each Virtual Account, along with their respective access roles.

Smart Account Roles

Smart Account Administrator: This role is for users who need full control over the Smart Account, including managing users, licenses, and Virtual Accounts. They can edit account properties, add or edit users, and manage licenses for the entire Smart Account. They can also accept agreements and view event logs.

Smart Account User: This role is for users who need access to manage licenses but do not require administrative privileges. They can view and manage licenses but cannot edit account properties or manage users.

Smart Account Viewer: This role is for users who only need to view the account details and licenses without making any changes.

Smart Account Approver: This role is for users who can review notices and approve agreements but cannot manage licenses or users. This role is less commonly used.

Virtual Account Roles

Virtual Account Administrator: This role is for users who need to manage all aspects of a specific Virtual Account, including adding or editing users, managing licenses, and creating subfolders within the Virtual Account.

Virtual Account User: This role is for users who need to manage assets (licenses and devices) within a specific Virtual Account but cannot add or delete Virtual Accounts or manage user access.

Virtual Account Viewer: This role is for users who only need view-only access to a specific Virtual Account.

BEST PRACTICES

When assigning Smart Account and Virtual Account roles, consider the following:

• Determine the appropriate level of access and control for each individual based on their responsibilities. For instance, IT administrators who manage licenses organization-wide typically require the Smart Account Administrator role, whereas managers for specific departments may only need Virtual Account Administrator or User roles.
• Organize access according to your company’s structure, geography, or business functions by using Virtual Accounts. Assign roles to ensure users can only access licenses and devices relevant to their duties.
• Limit administrative roles to reduce the risk of unauthorized changes. Assign Viewer roles to users who only need to monitor account activity without making changes.
• Users can hold multiple roles across different Smart Accounts and Virtual Accounts. For example, a user might be a Smart Account Administrator in one account and a Virtual Account Administrator or User in another. However, within a single Smart Account or Virtual Account, a user can have only one role at a time.

For high-level examples of different ways to set up and organize your Smart Account, view Customer Smart Account Organization Examples.

Partner Management of Customer Smart Accounts

A customer may choose to have a trusted expert handle their software license management responsibilities by authorizing a partner to handle their entire Smart Account or a specific Virtual Account on their behalf.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Partners can request a Customer Smart Account for their customers by following the standard Smart Account request process in Cisco Software Central. When a partner requests administrative access during Smart Account setup, the customer must approve or reject the request to complete the process.
• If your Customer Smart Account already exists and new partner users require access, the customer must explicitly assign the appropriate roles to those partner users within their Smart Account or Virtual Accounts. The customer always controls which partner users get access and what level of access they have.
• By authorizing a partner user, the customer acknowledges that the partner user will have access to all information within the Smart Account, including licenses and devices. The customer remains responsible for all actions performed by their partners, including licensing transactions.

BEST PRACTICES

• Assign partner roles carefully to control the extent of their access and management capabilities.
• Leverage Virtual Accounts to limit partners’ access only to the licenses they need to manage, enhancing security and organization. When multiple partners manage your licenses, it is recommended to grant each partner access to different Virtual Accounts.
• Establish Smart Accounts and Virtual Accounts before ordering licenses to simplify license assignment and prevent delays.
• Inform your partner which Virtual Account to assign the licenses to, ensuring they select the correct Sales Account and Virtual Account combination when ordering. This ensures the licenses are delivered directly to the specified Virtual Account, eliminating the need for you to transfer them later from the default Virtual Account.
• Periodically review partner access and roles to ensure they remain appropriate as business needs change.