Unified Support Changes Product Support Model

Premier Support, Microsoft’s hourly support offering for enterprise customers, is being phased out and replaced by Unified Support. The new program is based on each customer’s licensing spend and offers customers benefits such as unlimited break-fix support, but the new plans could increase support costs for some organizations.

New Model Offers Improved Benefits

Unified Support offers three levels of paid support for organizations that use Microsoft products. All levels include unlimited problem-resolution services for Microsoft enterprise products and services, delivered as phone-based support, and a resource center called the Services Hub. The levels are differentiated by the available catalog of add-on services, the level of account management a customer can access, and the phone support response time targets.

Core plans give customers unlimited, phone-based support and account management services, full access to the Services Hub, and a pooled (not dedicated) technical account manager (TAM). Case response time targets are one hour for critical cases and four hours for noncritical cases. (Unified Support replaces the old severity A/B/C case model with two case classifications: standard business impact and critical business impact.) Core customers have a limited catalog of add-on services that does not include on-site engagements available to larger plans. Core plans are probably most appropriate for smaller companies that are looking for more comprehensive support than no-contract, pay-per-call support offers.