Is Microsoft Premier/Unified Support Necessary?.

Microsoft would have you think that they are the only option for Premier/Unified Support, which somehow justifies a price hike each year.

What they won’t tell you is that their support isn’t even necessary if you have a third-party Premier/Unified Support expert to handle your support needs. You don’t have to use up your IT budget on services you don’t use at an inflated price. There are options available to keep you away from Microsoft’s predatory practices.

Have you ever wondered why you’re paying as much as you are for Microsoft Premier/Unified Support when the result are tickets sitting in limbo for days or weeks with minimal resolution at the end of the process?

It’s frustrating to wait for an answer that you need to continue your work, and your support provider sits on it for ages. What good is all that money spent on their services if they aren’t going to help?

You use Microsoft products every day, so when Outlook is throwing up errors or SharePoint isn’t synchronizing correctly, you would naturally go to an internal help desk and let them handle the problem. Some companies don’t have that luxury or have more in-depth issues that need rapid resolution. If a critical business system goes down, Microsoft Premier/Unified Support is your only advanced support option. But if they’re the last line of defense, why do they take so long and offer so much bloat in the support contracts?

The answer is simple: they know they’re the “only” option on the market, so they can dictate the price. You need a Microsoft business support service that offers consistency and quality. You can’t avoid problems in the workplace around technology, but you can avoid long delays and IT budget overspending by switching to US Cloud.

Microsoft Unified Support offers four-hour standard response times to any issues that arise, with a 30-minute rapid response time for emergency issues. This used to be based on how much you were paying for your support package with Premier, but since people realized they could mark everything as high-priority to get faster resolution times, Microsoft changed the rules for Unified.

Your account service team through Microsoft consists of a Customer Success Account Manager (CSAM) and a Critical Situation (CritSit) Manager.

Most of your tickets will be through the CSAM, with any escalations being done on an as-needed basis. Tickets are either resolved by Microsoft employee support professionals or third-party contracted offshore technicians. Most of these overseas technicians are contracted through WipRo or TaTa and may be a compliance issue if your business is in a regulated industry. Always keep track of where your tickets are going. If you see a v-dash at the end of a support email, your ticket and data is being handled overseas, outside of US regulations and restrictions.

Microsoft also has a variety of online DIY resources and engineer-led proactive solutions. Depending on the support assistance hours in your package, you may be spending more than you’re comfortable with. However, this high price comes with peace of mind and expert support services, right? Your Microsoft Unified Support bill went up roughly 20% this past year because the quality has improved, right? The fact that they are sending tickets overseas should give you an idea of the current state of Microsoft Unified Support. It isn’t all bad, but as prices rise and support delays increase, it makes you wonder where all that money is going.

The short answer: no. You are spending far too much money on what is pitched as an “essential service” when you could be seeking out support solutions from a dedicated third-party option like US Cloud.

Microsoft doesn’t have the stranglehold on support like you think. US Cloud focuses on value and quality. We provide faster Microsoft Support than Microsoft (by a nearly 2:1 margin) at 30-50% of the cost.

US Cloud fully supports all Microsoft technologies ranging from Azure Cloud to Office 365. Our initial response times are 15-minutes across all ticket severities and come with financially backed SLAs. All our engineers are US-based Microsoft product experts with an average of 16 years of experience. You won’t have to worry about compliance concerns or wonder where your ticket stands. Our in-house engineers keep you updated on the state of the ticket throughout the process. Not only do you have a CritSit Manager to help with high-priority issues and escalate as needed, but you also have a Technical Account Manager (TAM) and dedicated account team to ensure all problems are handled promptly.

Since our engineers are US-based, we guarantee your data is under federal government-level security protocols. Your data never leaves the US and is held to the strictest compliance standards.

US Cloud also offers engineer-led services and trainings so you can stay on top of your technology or get acquainted with emerging Microsoft technology like Copilot. We are here to answer complex or simple questions, so you don’t have to worry about playing email tag with your support manager. For faster Microsoft Support for less, US Cloud has you covered.