The Role of a TAM

A major benefit of Microsoft’s fee-based managed support program aimed at larger organizations, called Premier, is the services of a Technical Account Manager (TAM) assigned to their account. A TAM coordinates support services with the customer or partner and is their advocate within Microsoft. TAMs usually work out of the Microsoft field office closest to their customers, and for some very large accounts may actually work at their customer’s or partner’s premises. (Smaller organizations that purchase the less-expensive Essential support get the services of a Technical Account Specialist, which is basically a nondedicated TAM who handles multiple accounts.)

A TAM must have a comprehensive set of skills. A typical TAM has sufficient technical depth to work with the customer’s IT teams and to provide basic advice related to Microsoft software and broad solutions built on Microsoft platforms. A TAM must also have business sense and people skills in order to understand the business needs of their customer account (or accounts), and to understand customer problems and communicate them effectively to Microsoft. TAMs must straddle the interests of both Microsoft and their accounts, and successful ones become trusted members of their customers’ IT teams-studies have shown that customers with TAMs have significantly higher customer satisfaction rates. Because TAMs must invest a great deal of time and effort in developing a deep understanding of their customers’ environments, Microsoft tries to minimize TAM account turnover; in fact, TAMs commonly spend years assigned to their accounts.