It’s a question that comes up frequently enough to warrant a deep dive. What sets US Cloud apart from Microsoft Unified Support? Is it name alone, just a few service offerings, or the whole package? The short answer: the whole package. The long answer: you’ll have to keep reading to find out.
Microsoft Unified Support is part of Microsoft Enterprise Services. It provides clients with access to a global network of specialists with deep knowledge of Microsoft products. Unified Support can assess the current state of your IT, define a desired state, and help you attain it through specialized support.
This support encompasses all Microsoft products current and future, with a price that is adjusted based on your previous 12 months of cloud service purchases, Azure consumption, license-only purchases, and license + software assurance purchases.
Microsoft Unified Support is also the replacement for Premier, which is no longer offered as of July 1, 2024. You get in-depth support that covers everything Premier supported with a proactive catalog and always-on support.
You’ll get assistance for your tickets at any time of the day, on demand. Global support for a global audience. What more could you want?
US Cloud Support is a third-party Unified support solution that provides comprehensive support for all Microsoft technologies. Unlike traditional support models, we offer a flexible “bucket of hours” approach, allowing you to allocate support resources where you need them most.
Our innovative support model helps businesses save 30-50% on their annual support costs. By eliminating unused support services and providing rapid issue resolution, we maximize the value of your support investment.
At US Cloud Support, we combine the best aspects of Premier and Unified support to deliver an exceptional customer experience. Our team of highly skilled experts is dedicated to providing proactive support and resolving issues quickly and efficiently.
There are multiple aspects of Unified Support and US Cloud that are similar on paper but vastly different in practice. Some of the more prominent examples include:
The cost of Unified Support is steadily rising and prone to international shifts depending on economic changes in the US. International clients are subject to potential price adjustments three times per year that could result in you paying more for the same services.
The overall price of Unified rises, on average, about 20% per year. By the time you are renewing your contract three years down the road, you’ll be paying upwards of 60% more than you were before, and that’s a generous estimate.
In comparison, US Cloud reduces your support spend by 30-50% in the first year alone when compared to Unified. A combination of our proactive catalogue, 24/7 support, rapid response and resolution times, and bucket of support hours leads to greater savings on your end.
Microsoft Unified Support doesn’t have SLAs, which means they aren’t contractually obligated to respond to your tickets in a set timeframe. They state that they will get to your ticket within 1-4 hours of submission, but if that extends to 8 or 12 hours, you don’t get compensation for the time lost.
Unfortunately, this is something that happens far more frequently than most clients would like. To offset these long wait times, Microsoft employs overseas engineers from third-party services like Mindtree and Wipro to handle the influx of tickets, but that is just a stopgap.
US Cloud has financially backed SLAs that guarantee your ticket will get a response within 15-minutes of submission, no matter the severity. Time is often of the essence when it comes to support tickets, so we place every ticket on the highest priority. As for resolution times, on average, we complete tickets twice as fast as Microsoft.
We make sure to work closely with your team as well so they stay up to date on the latest changes or can get pulled in to help prevent future issues.
As previously mentioned, Microsoft has such a large influx of tickets that they’re using overseas technicians to reduce the load on in-house engineers. Lower priority tickets are sent to these overseas technicians so the in-house engineers can focus on higher-priority tickets.
This leads to compliance issues, language barriers, and excessive wait times. Your direct contact at Microsoft is also no longer a TAM, which typically has around 10 years of industry experience, but a CSAM, which has around 2-3. TAMs are now a support option found higher up the ladder, with CSAMs simply handling account information and preliminary support functions.
US Cloud provides you with the support you deserve. Our engineers are all US domestic with 14+ years of experience. There’s no worry of compliance or security issues, as our team ensures your IT environment is untouched without express permission.
Our SLAs also guarantee 15-minute response times to all tickets, so you aren’t left hanging after a problem arises. You’ll be in contact with CSAMs, TAMs, and DSEs depending on the issue at hand because we know not all problems are created equal.
Sometimes they need a light touch, others a heavy hand. We walk you through the intended solutions step by step to mitigate future issues and to make sure you understand the process we are going through.
US Cloud offers support around the clock, around the world. Besides the points listed above, we also offer:
Faster Microsoft support for less starts with US Cloud.