Many Microsoft technology-based organizations are not aware of a Microsoft Professional Support alternative at US Cloud. The Problem: Small and midsized businesses – which make up more than 90% of all businesses worldwide – are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to Microsoft support. Many organizations are ditching the delay and frustration associated with Microsoft Professional Support and choosing US Cloud. But let’s explore the issue further first.
When you decide to use Microsoft software and services for your business, you expect to receive the highest quality support possible. Oftentimes, when companies sign enterprise agreements with Microsoft, it comes with enterprise support. Before July 2018, this was called Premier Support, but recently the company transitioned to Unified Support. We’ve written at length about what this means for your business, but there’s an interesting use case we’ve come across with our small and midsize clients that you need to know about: Microsoft Professional Support, also known as Pay Per Incident (PPI).
If you use Microsoft software and services but don’t spend enough money to qualify for an enterprise agreement, chances are you’ve been pointed to PPI by Microsoft. Available as a single PPI or a 5-pack of incidents, this level of support focuses on troubleshooting a specific problem, error message, or functionality that is not working as intended for Microsoft products. In these cases, Microsoft defines an incident as a single support issue and the reasonable effort to resolve it. You can only submit PPI requests online, and you can expect to have an initial response anywhere between two and eight hours after you contact Microsoft. When Microsoft does finally get back to you, a support professional assigned to your case will define what it believes to be the problem and won’t start working on resolve it until you agree to their definition.
The fact that it is a slow response time is one thing, but the bigger issue comes in that PPI incidents don’t have to be resolved to be considered closed. Microsoft doesn’t guarantee it will solve your issue. Even if the support professional assigned to your case can’t fix your problem, you could still be charged by Microsoft.
The other problem with PPI is that Microsoft will not guarantee that a US citizen – much less an actual Microsoft employee – will be assigned to troubleshoot your support ticket. This becomes a huge issue for public sector agencies who cannot allow anyone outside of the United States to perform software support services, due to NIST Special Publication 800-171 Protecting Covered Defense Information in Nonfederal Systems and Organizations (DFARS) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
Essentially, DFARS and ITAR mandate that data and information accumulated by many public sector agencies cannot go outside the United States, with very few exceptions. When it comes to support of enterprise systems, ensuring that support is based in the USA and not overseas is paramount. These public sector agencies cannot risk otherwise.
The good news is you can ditch the delays and frustration by using US Cloud Pro Support as your alternative to Microsoft PPI:
Ready for a better support experience without a 30% Microsoft Tax? Contact us today for a free trial and ensure your Microsoft investment is in good hands with US Cloud.