By Paul DeGroot [bio]
Posted: May 29, 2006

The following is an illustration accompanying an article published by Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm focused exclusively on Microsoft strategy & technology. More samples of our content, as well as a list of upcoming articles and reports are also available.

Premier support offerings (in gray boxes) are generally aimed at midsize businesses and enterprises, and offer faster response times, account management (which ensures that problems are resolved in a timely fashion and that Microsoft keeps in touch with a company's ongoing support requirements), advanced advisory services, and other benefits. Software Assurance (SA), sold only with software licenses, spans the full range of Microsoft customers and provides some support benefits. Some SA benefits can be converted into Premier benefits for customers that have both SA and Premier. Partner support programs offer many of the same benefits as Premier and can be used by partners to support either their own or customers' systems.

Professional and Personal support are incident-only support offerings that can be purchased in packages of incidents. They provide only break-fix support and do not include account management, proactive services, or information services.