Microsoft Unified Support overseas foreign engineer compliance risk

Microsoft Unified Support’s Use of Overseas Foreign Engineers Is a Compliance Risk.

MS Unified Outsourcing Creates Compliance Risk for Enterprises

Microsoft Unified Support is Microsoft’s premium support option for enterprises around the world, but your support hours are precious. You need resolutions promptly when issues arise, but Microsoft doesn’t have enough nationally sourced engineers to handle the load, so they employ the help of overseas technicians from countries like India.

This isn’t inherently bad as, theoretically, it opens up the talent pool and enables 24/7 response times for tickets. If a late-night ticket comes in, someone in India can handle it since it’s normal work hours for them. However, there are some dangers associated with the use of “foreign nationals” that should give Unified Enterprise Support customers pause when considering if they should stick with Microsoft or go third-party.

Microsoft Unified Support overseas foreign engineer compliance risk

Microsoft Unified Enterprise Support Risk Management

The first issue is that most of the support personnel that will be handling your tickets aren’t from the Microsoft in Redmond, Washington or anywhere in the US for that matter. No, most of these people come from companies like Tata, Wipro, and Mindtree who are global outsourcing companies and long-time Premier/Unified partners with Microsoft.

The influx of Unified Enterprise Support tickets coming from the US is so high that Microsoft has outsourced most of its Premier and Unified support overseas to cut costs. What does this mean for you and your enterprise compliance team? Someone outside of US laws and regulations is handling your enterprise data.

Normally there would be safeguards in place to keep all actions during ticket within compliance parameters, but with outsourced IT operations from overseas entities, there is inherently less oversight. While the odds of your Premier/Unified support data being leaked are low, they are no longer being handled with the strictest compliance in mind.

Many enterprises aren’t even aware that they are breaking compliance by using Microsoft Premier/Unified Support when there are fully compliant third-party alternatives out there, ready for use.

Microsoft Enterprise Support Assistance Hours

You get billed for a certain pool of Microsoft Enterprise Support hours per year. You would expect that these hours are handled by certified, compliant support staff that have years of experience and a deep understanding of Microsoft’s Unified Support structure. The reality is that you will probably be supported by a foreign engineer that is either out of the loop or doesn’t have the same expertise as other engineers.

Microsoft is pulling from a massive pool of foreign engineers, a resource that saves them time and money. While the pool is wide, the average skillset is shallow. Highly experienced individuals are on important tickets and rarely available, meaning that you will be given the run around for days or weeks before you get to someone who can resolve your Unified ticket, or worse, your ticket will be marked as fixed but remains unresolved, causing your enterprise IT team to start the process over or abandon escalation.

Those enterprise IT hours are flushed down the drain, along with all the money spent trying to find solutions to your Microsoft software problems. It’s getting more expensive every year to pay for Microsoft Premier/Unified, and now you’re paying for services that are subpar, with foreign engineers that either don’t fully understand your language or don’t understand the problem at hand due to lack of experience. That doesn’t bode well for Unified Support ticket completion time or giving you the bang for your buck you deserve.

Secure Your IT Supply Chain with Domestic US Support

Consistent quality support comes from domestic US support. While it would be great if you consistently got domestic engineers for all your Microsoft Unified Enterprise Support tickets, the reality is that you probably won’t. If you work with a third-party provider like US Cloud, you will always work with a highly experienced, domestic US technician for all of your tickets.

Our engineers have an average of 16+ years of Microsoft Enterprise Support experience and tickets are handled within 15 minutes of submission. No round robin email chains between different support departments, no waiting weeks for a half-hearted resolution to your issue, no radio silence at critical times. We treat your ticket with the degree of priority it deserves.

If you’re worried about global coverage, that’s no problem either. While we don’t employ the use of overseas technicians, our domestic engineers are available 24x7x365 with certifications in the latest Microsoft technologies. Microsoft Premier/Unified Support may claim to be essential to your success, but the truth is that you could find support services through third parties that save you time and money without the risk of introducing foreign nationals into your enterprise’s IT support supply chain.

With US Cloud you not only stay compliant, but you have access to some of the industry’s finest engineers at anytime, anywhere. Stick with a company like US Cloud for Microsoft Enterprise Support Services that are fully compliant with all applicable laws and regulations while saving you between 30-50% on your annual Microsoft Unified Support costs.

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