Put Your Microsoft Enterprise Support Spend on a Diet.

As companies consider the hardware, software, and services they need to power their core business operations, many enterprises have turned to Microsoft to help achieve their goals. Unsurprisingly, companies of all sizes are looking for the IT silver bullet: one technology vendor they can employ across their IT landscape that can help meet their unique requirements, give the simplicity necessary to turn on and off services as needed, and streamline purchasing through a single agreement.

When you enter this enterprise agreement world of Microsoft, what also comes with it is an enterprise support agreement – one of the most commonly purchased ones is Microsoft Premier Support. At the beginning, it seems great: always-on global support staff with unmatched knowledge of Microsoft products. Whether it’s an issue with Azure provisioning or Microsoft Word, help is just a phone call or email away.

However, reality comes quickly as you get deeper into Microsoft enterprise support. If you have multiple IT administrators in different locations responsible for maintaining your technology portfolio, how can you quickly understand how many support hours the team has used? (It’s your responsibility.) What’s the difference between having a live person help you or receive online support? (Depends on the type of hours you purchased from Microsoft when you signed your contract.) Can you roll over hours into the next year? (No.) These are common questions that have come up for the thousands of businesses operating under the Microsoft Premier Support model. Ultimately, you need to have someone full time just in charge of understanding the nuances of support versus actually keeping your systems running optimally.

By the end of Microsoft’s fiscal year 2023 , the global software giant will transfer everyone over to what it calls a Unified Support model. We’ve written at length about what “unlimited” really means, but the switch is just another way that Microsoft locks you into not just its support services, but paying for everything the company has to offer even if you only use a small portion of it.

Think of Unified Support as an all-you-can-eat buffet as opposed to purchasing a block of hours in the current Premier Support model: Even if you’re not using every single service Microsoft offers, you’ll still pay for it in the Unified model.

In conversations we’ve had with our clients and others who have sticker shock at potentially paying up to 60% more for Unified Support, they’re asking themselves a fundamental question: Is it worth paying the extra money for the pleasure of knowing that they could eat whatever they want, even if they know they will only have a couple of dishes and be satisfied?

This question will undoubtedly come up more and more as software and services companies increasingly lead with their cloud options. It’s much easier to tell someone that they can scale up or down their IT services as part of operational expenses, instead of paying more capital expenses to maintain servers and hardware they may not necessarily need. Behind that, however, is the fact that many companies – Microsoft included – will charge you as if you’re using everything even if that’s not the case.

Your enterprise is unique. You have specific needs and services that are different from your competitor. It’s about time you had a support agreement that matched that reality. The good news is that you don’t need to stop using Microsoft technology to have a right-sized performance experience.

With more than two decades of Microsoft experience and its recognition as a Microsoft Certified Partner and Cloud Solution Partner, US Cloud is your Microsoft support alternative, offering:

• 30-60 percent cost savings – Only purchase the support you need and don’t pay extra for support on products you don’t use.
• Hours that never expire – Don’t use all of your support hours in a year? Not a problem – roll over what you don’t use and apply toward next year.
• Billing on your terms – We offer subscription billing and installment options that meet your specific needs.
• 5x faster response – Microsoft Premier Support average response times hover around 30 minutes. US Cloud will respond to your ticket in 6 minutes.
• A white glove customer experience, every time – We won’t make you repeat your issue over and over again when we transfer you to the right experts to solve your issue. Our only goal is your complete satisfaction.

You won’t be the first company to look elsewhere: Check out our customer testimonials from companies that already chose US Cloud as its Microsoft enterprise support alternative. Then, give us a call to learn how you can get a free trial of our support services and begin enjoying a superior experience immediately.