Microsoft Unified Support is Too Expensive.

Microsoft Unified Support is Too Expensive

Enterprises worldwide agree that Microsoft Unified Support is too expensive. See how IT procurement teams and CIOs are saving 30-50% with US Cloud.

Initiatives: Negotiating Microsoft Contracts | Strategic IT Cost Optimization
Audiences: CIO and IT Executives | Sourcing, Procurement and Vendor Management

Microsoft Unified Support is part of the Microsoft Services organization.

It’s described as “the biggest Microsoft Support transformation in the past twenty years, modernizing our offerings and simplifying support for our customers,” according to a Microsoft job-post listing.

And while the commercial support options have been simplified down to 3 Unified plans (Core, Advanced and Performance), many former Microsoft Premier Support clients find Unified to be “simply too expensive.”

Microsoft Premier Support Ends July 1 2022

Microsoft Unified Support has replaced all current Microsoft commercial support offerings.

Education as well as state, local, and Federal government entities will be able to purchase Premier Support until July 1, 2024.

In 2017 commercial support was a $3.3B line-of-business for Microsoft, with 11,000 enterprise customers. The transition from Premier to Unified has significantly ballooned the revenue number while the small enterprise portion of the customer base has declined slightly resulting in less cost and higher margins for Microsoft.

Why is MS Unified Support so expensive?

Unified Support lets Microsoft charge support costs for its Cloud Services that used to be included in its Premier Support plans at no extra cost.

Unified costs are based on an enterprise’s overall consumption of Microsoft cloud services as estimated in the prior year, even if services were cancelled.

The 6% to 12% Microsoft is charging for support, combined with 25% to 29% SA maintenance, brings Microsoft well above the 18% to 25% industry average for maintenance and support.

“Support pricing is a good deal compared to what our competitors offer,” the Microsoft spokesperson suggested. “For some customers, it might cost more but, most will see little or no increases and they’ll get access to a whole range of great new services that integrate support for cloud and on-premise products.”

— Kurt Mackie, Redmond Channel Partner

Microsoft Unified Support - Pay More, Get Less

Now that your Unified Support fees will be calculated based upon a percentage of your net spend with Microsoft, many organizations are finding the 30-60% year 1 increase intolerable.

It’s akin to being able to order exactly what you needed from a menu before and now only having access to an expensive buffet where you will never eat many of the available items. Oh, and by the way, since many proactive services are now “self-service” you need to buss your own table.

Does this sound familiar? For those of you who have been dealing with Microsoft in the past (or another on-premises provider), this sounds an awful lot like maintenance fees. And the question becomes, is the support or maintenance you’re paying for worth the actual services you are receiving? For many enterprises, the answer is no.

“Unified Support costs are based on SA spending AND spending on online services AND money that would be spent on SA for any product which was purchased over the last 5 years without SA!”

— Michael Silver,
Gartner Report: Microsoft’s Unified Support Eliminates Counting Hours, but Some Organizations Will Now Pay for What Had Been Free

Audit Your Microsoft Unified Support Contract

Before, Premier Support was an added cost to your Microsoft annual fees, where you would pay a fee that was tied to things such as the number of Problem Resolution Support hours, Support Account Management hours, or support for a specific product.

The key here is that your Premier Support agreement would clearly outline the hours, services, and resources that you are entitled to as part of your Microsoft support. Of course, the costs of these services can vary, but at least you are able to drive a fixed level of support for a fixed cost.

Although different enterprises are able to achieve varying levels of transparency into the line item costs themselves, the basis for supporting your Microsoft software portfolio was tied to the actual support hours you needed.

Unified Support renewals create an entirely different level of complexity since they are based on your cloud consumption during the past year, SA credits, on-premise licenses, etc… Per Gartner, Unified Support renewal preparation takes significantly more time to prepare for. You should allow 3 months prior to renewal and Unified should never be part of your Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) where the cost increases are often overlooked.

Microsoft Unified Support Costs Grow 170 Percent

A sleeping giant is stirring that most enterprises are choosing to ignore for the time being. Microsoft Unified Enterprise Support.

Cloud services consumption is the number 1 performance metric at Microsoft. It is also a key variable in your Unified cost metric. As you consume more cloud services from Microsoft, your Unified Support costs increase. With Microsoft’s mantra to increase all enterprise’s cloud consumption year over year, there is an excellent chance your Unified Support costs will also increase year over year.

For some enterprises, IT Procurement leaders are able to absorb the 12-15% increase during the year 1 Unified transition from Premier. They may even look the other way for year 2 and absorb that 10-12% increase. But by year 3, many are faced with an effective 30-45% increase that shows no sign of slowing. Looking for an alternative to Microsoft Unified by year 3 is an enterprise procurement priority since it results in significant immediate and future cost savings.

Although many CIOs have standing orders to innovate, only a lucky few get new budget and staff to deliver and support the innovation.

Those that don’t must balance the challenge of resource allocation with the pressure of adhering to costly vendor support or seemingly risk losing vendor support.

“Paying more for Microsoft support is not innovation. We recommend IT executives prioritize investments that create competitive advantage and drive growth for their enterprises.”

— Robert E. LaMear IV, Founder, US Cloud

Unified Support’s unlimited Microsoft product support initially looks attractive but often results in significant cost increases for enterprises.

Unified Support is forecasted to cost 2-5x more than Premier over the next 5 years and a 7-9 % increase in most Enterprise Agreements (EA) at renewal.

Microsoft Unified Support 5 Year Cost Forecast

Compare your last Premier Support contract to your latest Microsoft Unified Support agreement and make sure you are sitting down.

Microsoft enterprise support is most likely the fastest expanding IT expense line item. Typically, 28% to 46% more than Premier.

Once you have a handle on what Microsoft products and services you need and that drive your Unified Support cost, put them in a spreadsheet and apply anticipated growth across the various products for 5 years.

In addition, forecast SAB credits and SA discounts that will be lost in 2023.

This analysis will allow you to arrive at an effective Unified Support cost forecast for your enterprise.

Typically, 170% to 485% more than Premier over 5 years.

Third-party Microsoft support is a Gartner recognized IT cost saver and particularly compelling when overlaying 5-year Microsoft IT roadmaps and Unified support costs.