The New Microsoft Unified Enterprise Support Dilemma.

Download The New Unified Enterprise Dilemma Report

Enterprises are finding fewer choices and more cost with the new Unified Enterprise Support service and pricing.

Audience: CIO and IT Executives | Sourcing, Procurement and Vendor Management

Instant Download: The New Microsoft Unified Enterprise Support Dilemma (PDF)

The old Microsoft Unified Support model offered enterprises 3 choices – Core, Advanced, and Performance.

 The move from Microsoft Premier to Unified Support has been fraught with unpredictable pricing increases and variable support options, none of which have performed as well as the old model. Tack on the loss of Software Assurance Benefit credits in February of ’23, skyrocketing time-to-resolution from an “unlimited” model, and increased compliance risk from off-shoring, and it’s no wonder that customer satisfaction has reached an all-time low. 

Swallowing that bitter pill was bad enough, now comes a NEW model; Unified Enterprise. As with the prior plans offered by Unified (Core/Advanced/Performance), the pricing for Unified Enterprise is not based on the level of software support you NEED, but rather, on your total spend with Microsoft. Now, we have been told that enterprises can still REQUEST one of the older Unified Support plans, but whether or not you actually receive it? Well, that comes down to the discretion of your individual sales representative. (Hope you sent a birthday card this year!) 

MS Unified Enterprise is a graduated pricing model similar to a progressive tax and results in more cost.

The biggest shortcoming of the new Unified Enterprise model is the elimination of your ability to select the level of support that is right for you and your company. Instead of choosing between Core, Advanced, and Performance, now you have a single tier with “Expected” response times, which will result in higher spend on support for most enterprises, but with a faster target response time for Azure. 

Additionally, the pricing calculation, or “P” in the new Unified Enterprise model, is a factor of your Azure, server, and user spends, from the last 12 months (not 5 years). And, not surprisingly, most of our new customers saw quotes with a much higher YOY spend based off that new calculation. (Which is why they are now US Cloud customers.) 

Enterprises should forecast their MS Unified Enterprise Support spend against their 5 year Microsoft technology roadmap.

• Minimum spend is $50,000 (Don’t be small!) 
• And remember, PRS for SA is dead. 
• Spend is dependent on underlying price of other Microsoft services. So if they raise those prices… 
• Rates start at 7.5% of spend…if you spend more than $120M in Azure and On-Prem support. 
• Support is still based on a CSAM model, not the tried-and-true TAM model. 

Compare Unified Enterprise’s loss of choice and increased support cost to US Cloud. We offer 30-50% better pricing, 15-minute response time SLA and 2x faster resolution. PLUS, we’ll offer you pricing based on the level of support you actually need like Premier used to do, rather than some pre-determined algorithm that only serves to line Microsoft’s pockets. 

Check back next year for the NEW Microsoft Enterprise Plus-Plus Model!

(Are you really “expecting” a 1-hour response time on Sev As?)