3rd Party: The Microsoft support Show – Episode 2.

Well, it’s the green jacket club, Tip.

It’s blue/green.

You’re in.

Yeah. So you’re seeing this shift in the Microsoft-specific landscape more towards a partner-led model. Essentially, what Microsoft has done is based their unified support cost and model on what you spend, not on a need for support.

What the market is seeing is skyrocketing costs. And with that, unfortunately, comes a lapse in the quality of support. So you’ll see customers saying, “Well, I’m paying for everything. It’s an unlimited model. I’ll throw everything at Microsoft.” So there is this inundation of support requests, and they can’t keep up.

Oh yeah, absolutely. What you’ll see right now, as of 2024, is there’s an uptick in Azure-related incidents. And that’s all things Azure, right? Not just related to infrastructure or platform. There’s security-related Azure, Data Analytics, Databricks, AI. All of those things are amassing enormous queues with Microsoft support teams. But on top of that, it’s critical issues that are waiting in queue for a long time.

So there’s the old quote: “A CIO never lost their job by staying with the OEM,” but in this case, you might lose your job if you continue forward with the quality of support and the attention you’re not getting from the direct OEM. So this is a win-win for a lot of procurement teams.

You really should look at a couple of key components. One is you want to look at the breadth of services you’re looking to accomplish, especially in the Microsoft stack. There are a lot of different technology areas that you can look at. Be very clear on what your organization’s direction is and what you’re looking for. Are you looking for a partner that is providing just the support services, or are you looking at replacing your licensing purchasing through potentially a partner versus Microsoft, or are you looking at more transactional partners that are selling you software services ad hoc or hardware?

Second, what type of organization from an IT perspective do you have? What kind of skill sets do you have? What kind of skill sets are you lacking? And third, it’s really about the service delivery model. Do I need 24/7 support? Do I need US-based support versus anywhere in the world? What type of time zones do I need to support within my organization, if you’re a global or international customer?

No. You can absolutely consider them separately, and I would actually encourage customers to do this. When you’re looking at licensing, specifically if you’re an EA customer or you’re doing an MCA (Microsoft Customer Agreement), which are kind of the popular agreements nowadays, you definitely want to look at both, but not necessarily tie them together. One partner may be very specialized in the licensing aspect but can’t necessarily support the type of need your organization requires for those products.

So I say keep them separate. Yes, you may find a partner that can also fulfill the CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) role that can sell the licensing to you as well. But that doesn’t mean they’re capable of supporting an enterprise customer.

Every RFP is going to have ten substantial areas that you want to focus on. One of them is your introduction: What scope are you looking for? You’re saying, “Hey, our company is going out, we’re doing this, we’re looking for Microsoft support.” Second, you’re going to look at a scope of work. What is included in this RFP? Are we looking for Microsoft support specifically? Are you looking for proactive licensing purchasing? Third, you’re going to look at your technical requirements. What SLAs do I need behind that? What type of service model will work for our organization? If you’re looking to compare Microsoft, you want a partner that is specialized in the Microsoft stack, not just one of 20 things they do in their organization.

Then you look at the service delivery model, right? What does that look like? Is it 24/7? Do I need US-based resources, or do I not care where they are located? How do they staff across global and international areas? Next, you’re going to look at vendor requirements. Vendor requirements typically include things like client references, whether they provide a paid trial, or whether it’s a one-year, three-year minimum commitment. You need to be able to negotiate what you’re looking for. I typically always recommend a one-year plan, especially for support.

Next, you’re going to focus on service management. When you’re looking at service management, you’re talking about SLAs. How does that partner deliver the service from an SLA standpoint? Are they financially backed, or are they just contractual? If they miss an SLA, what happens? Do they have escalation SLAs? What kind of KPIs do they provide as part of the service? Do they have defined KPI sets that they can share with you? Then there’s reporting—do they have the ability to be transparent with their information? Do you have access to their ticketing system, or time log entries, in case you want to audit the service provider?

Finally, there’s pricing. Is it an unlimited model? Is it a consumption-based model? How do they estimate the pricing during the RFP process? There’s a lot of things to consider here, and it’s all negotiable. After that, you want to set submission deadlines, along with your evaluation criteria. This is where procurement works with the stakeholders to define what the service should look like and the quality they expect. Lastly, you’ll want to include an appendix for any additional information, such as your RFP schedule, legal confidentiality requirements, and other extra information that could be needed.

You can either speak to us directly, or you can go to our website. We have articles and blogs specifically on how to craft an RFP.

We did kind of prepare for that.

Yeah, so it’s different for everyone, but I would suggest a starting point of about a 30% reduction in costs if you’re a Unified customer. You should trim quite a few dollars and cents just by looking at a third-party option, without sacrificing quality—if it’s done well.