Customer Success Story: KeyBank

How would you describe your overall experience working with US Cloud so far?

Overall, it’s going well. Like any relationship, we’ve had some hiccups. To be fair, these delays aren’t on US Cloud; they’re on Microsoft. We’ve even spoken directly to Microsoft asking if US Cloud is a lesser partner, and they’ve assured us you’re one of their premier partners. But when things stall, it makes us question what value direct Microsoft support actually adds.

That makes sense. I appreciate your honesty. It sounds like you’ve still had some wins with your TAM?

Absolutely. Mike has always been accommodating and quick to respond to any concerns. That responsiveness is appreciated.

Do you feel like the service you’re getting now is an improvement on Microsoft Unified Support? Or is it more of the same?

With Microsoft, for the cost, it didn’t make sense. They recently came back with a “great deal,” but it was still unrealistic. We find a lot of value with US Cloud.

Additionally, from a cultural standpoint, I like US Cloud. I’ve built a good rapport with our TAM, and I trust your team is pushing as much as they can.

Got it. That aligns with what we’ve seen in the ticket history as well. Thanks for being transparent about where we’ve hit challenges. Are those SEV A cases still a concern?

Thankfully, we don’t run into many SEV A or SEV 1 cases. We still deal with delays from Microsoft, but those severe escalations are rare. I did have a note from a previous conversation with Matt Harris and Scott Sinak—they were hearing that Microsoft was trying to improve support staffing and lean more on partner networks. I haven’t seen a huge shift, but I’m hopeful.

Let’s shift gears slightly—how confident are you that US Cloud is meeting your security and compliance needs, especially as a financial institution?

I think US Cloud has done a good job. We rely on multiple groups, including Microsoft and other partners, since this is a regulated space. It’s a “trust but verify” situation.

When we raise an issue, an appropriate response is typically taken to rectify that issue on US Cloud’s end. That is always appreciated.

Overall, any time we’ve had an issue, I’ve raised it with our TAM, and it’s been addressed. Every company has a mix of talent; some folks are stronger than others, and we’ve been able to adapt.

That’s great to hear. Has your team’s workload with us increased?

Yes, we added additional hours recently because we’ve been leaning on you more. Sometimes we get frustrated when hours burn down and we’re not seeing progress.

Our TAM’s been great about flagging situations where we might be wasting hours, and we’ve had some success correcting course. On the whole, it works. We’re getting the answers we need—even if they’re not always the ones we expected—and people are responding. When we do need expert-to-expert help, we’ve been able to escalate accordingly.

Thanks, Jeff. Any final thoughts?

No major concerns. We’ve had a good experience overall. We’re planning to renew and happy with where things are today. If we have issues, we bring them up, and they get addressed.

We’re happy to work with you too. Thanks for your time!