Observations: Microsoft Premier Support¹ is a 24-year-old service model that is fragmented across services for remediation, implementation, risk assessment and training. Premier Support is also limited to specific teams within the client organisation and measured and billed by time, or by specific engagements.

Microsoft has begun moving customers off Premier Support in favour of Unified Support. Two years ago, Unified Support was rolled out in North America to a limited number of target customers, such as larger enterprises that already have extensive spend on support services. Based on the initial success of the program, Microsoft has begun to expanded the program to Australia.

What is Unified Support?

Unified Support differs substantially from Premier Support, by bundling a large number of different support services across all Microsoft products and for all of a client’s staff. It is unmetered, meaning organisations can draw upon services without concern for the frequency or time taken for resolution. Rather than paying for support services individually, Unified Support is charged in advance as a percentage of an organisation’s total budgeted annual spend with Microsoft.

An analogy: if Premier Support is a la carte, Unified Support is a buffet.

Unified Support is available as three offerings: Core, Advanced and Performance. See table 1 below for details.

Table 1: Unified Support vs Premier Support

	Premier Support	Core Unified Support	Advanced Unified Support	Performance Unified Support
Account Management	Online portal	Online portal accessible by teams up to 20 staff	Service delivery manager and online portal for teams up to 30 staff	Service delivery manager, portal and dedicated Technical Advocate for teams (size of team is negotiable)
Proactive Support: Automated and online programs	Support assistance hours	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Proactive Support: Engineer-led risk assessments, whiteboard sessions, planning, implementation & supportability engagements	Can be obtained using Support Assistance hours	Optional, extra charge	Specific number of titles included, then extra charge	Specific number of titles included, then extra charge
Problem Resolution Support: Reactive support	PRS hours	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Problem Resolution Support: Online services	Included without using hours	Included	Included	Included
Assessment tools	Extra charge, or via Software Assurance benefits	Included	Included	Include
Online training programs	Extra charge, or via Software Assurance benefits	Included	Included	Included
Initial Response Time for Resolution Request	1 hour catastrophic or critical; otherwise, 2 hours during business hours	1 hour critical; 8 hours standard	1 hour critical; 4 hours standard	30 minutes critical; 4 hours standard
Pricing	Per-hour pricing based on consumption	6 % of Office 365 and client software annual costs and 8 % of other software and online services annual cost	8 % of Office 365 and client software annual costs and 10 % of other software and online services annual cost	10 % of Office 365 and client software annual costs, and 12 % of other software and online services annual cost

Costs

Microsoft’s pricing for Unified Support is tied to contract value, which means any level or negotiated discounting on software also transfers to the Unified Support costs. Discussions with organizations both in Australia and in the more mature North American market suggest that Microsoft will negotiate on the Unified Support cost percentage points for customers with high-volume or complex accounts by up to 2 %. However, that is the exception and appears to only be limited to Advanced and Performance accounts and for large clients.

For many (not all) organisations, the cost of Unified Support will be significantly higher than that currently experienced under Premier Support agreements. During client interviews conducted as part of this research program, IBRS found organisations reporting increases of more than 40 %, and in one case, as much as 300 %. Other organisations reported that Unified Support would be on par, or even slighter lower cost, than their current support spend with Microsoft and its partners.

The cost should be viewed in context: the bundling of more support services and unlimited reactive support means that an organisation can draw upon significantly more support value. Organisations reporting the largest increases are, unsurprisingly, those that have traditionally utilised many of Microsoft’s services, instead of largely ‘going it alone’ or leveraging the support of Microsoft’s third-party partners.

The problem

The problem is not so much that Unified Support costs more. It is that not every organisation needs, or wants, this form of support service. Some organisations report that they are not (yet) mature enough to consume the full range of services offered by Unified Support, and there is truth to this concern. Getting the full value from Unified Support requires a level of maturity in IT operations and service management. Ironically, Unified Support includes programs that can assist with the IT service maturity.

There is a growing negative perception that Unified Support is being thrust upon Microsoft clients unexpectedly and with short notice. There is also a broad market perception that “organisations they have one year to migrate from Premier Support to Unified Support,” with the underlying notion that there is no choice in the matter. In truth, the transition process varies by account and Microsoft is not enforcing the one-year migration timeframe.

There is choice

Microsoft does have a strong hand for driving organisations to take on Unified Support. The service offers great value to organisations that have broad support needs and the maturity to deliver support services across all levels of the organisation. Microsoft is generally refusing to renew Premier Support to its customers (on a rolling, targeted basis) after the one-year grace period.

Organisations should immediately develop a position on Unified Support, factoring:

• The services the organisation expects will be needed in the next six years (two full licensing cycles), which is highly dependent on, among other things, organisational and ICT strategy, transformation initiatives and digital workforce programs
• The organisation’s IT services maturity, which dictates how well the organisation can consume and make available to staff the wide selection of support services offered by Microsoft.

Exploring these two considerations is outside the scope of this paper. However, see Additional Readings for IBRS papers related to these topics.

Going ahead with Unified Support

Once a position has been made on the suitability of Unified Support for the organisation, the organisation needs to plan its negotiations with Microsoft. Should the organisation decide that Unified Support will be of value, it should work with its licensing partner to define what the costs for the support will be over time. For example, it is possible to use existing investments in Software Support benefits to offset the initial costs of Unified Support. However, as soon as such benefits are transferred to Unified Support, they are no longer accessible to the projects that they may originally have been allocated to, and there is no way to claw such benefits back in future.

In addition, Microsoft will negotiate on the percentage points for large clients, but only if there is contestability (that is, Microsoft account executives believe that your organisation will drop its support services) or the organisation agrees to fast-track its migration to Unified Support.

It is also imperative that organisations adopting Unified Support have a plan, with measurable targets, on how they will utilise and gain value from the bundled services.

Looking for an alternative

The harsh reality is that there is no easy alternative to Unified Support in the Australia and New Zealand market.

In the North American market, support provider US Cloud has developed a thriving business in delivering similar reactive support services offered by Microsoft under Unified Support. US Cloud has just appointed a representative in the Australian market, but will not have a dedicated presence for at least two years.

Organisations looking to continue with support services for Microsoft’s products, but who do not wish to invest in Unified Support, should follow these steps:

1. Gain a detailed understanding of the current level of support services being consumed by their organisation. This requires a review of the usage of existing Premium Support programs, Software Assurance benefits, training programs, onboarding services, implementation support programs and so on. In addition to identifying the services being provided, organisations should capture the costs associated with each, and the value (measureable if possible, perceived if not) provided by each.
2. Develop a future state vision for support services. Review planned ICT programs that include Microsoft technologies, including the deployment 365 services, and identify what support services are likely to be needed. Be sure to consider general staff training, as well as technical team needs.
3. Create a Microsoft support service catalogue. Armed with an understanding of the current and future states of support services, create a catalogue of the support services that the organisation will require over time; for example, what support services will be needed in year 1, years 2–3 and years 4–6. These support services should be mapped to business and technology strategies. For example, if developing a culture of collaboration and digital workforce is an immediate business priority, Office 365 and Teams training programs could be aligned to that priority in year 1. Likewise, organisations can align reactive technical support services to specific ICT projects.
4. Conduct RFIs for the services within the catalogue. For each support service within the catalogue, go to market and seek vendors that can provide the services, or help the organisation build internal capabilities to provide the services. However, understand that no Australian vendor will be able to provide all of the services covered by Unified Support. IBRS has identified the following emerging better practices in dividing up the support service program:
   • Reactive technical support requests: These are often time-critical but can be delivered remotely. While existing Australian Microsoft development partners may be able to answer these questions, none are structured to respond in a high-volume, ‘ticket-based’ manner. For reactive technical support services, Australian organisations may consider looking beyond the Australian market, to North American specialists in reactive support services, such as US Cloud. Such a service are not be a like-for-like match to Microsoft’s reactive services within the Unified Support program, but still may be an option. However, choosing an off-shore reactive support partner carries risks in terms of vendor relationship management. There are also risk compliance issues, as this service model has potentially sensitive information being made available to an offshore vendor.
   • Implementation support programs: Many of Microsoft’s Australian partners are able to provide, and indeed excel with, implementation programs. In many cases, such vendors can also provide onsite technical account managers (TAMs) to support specific programs.
   • Staff training/change management programs: There is a growing market for pre-packaged staff training programs, offered through online training portals. The benefit of these programs is that they come pre-packaged within Cloud-based e-learning solutions and are regularly updated.
   • Technical training: Australia has no shortage of
     Microsoft technical training vendors and some are internationally recognised as leaders. In addition, for some instances – such as Azure training in Canberra – Microsoft has been offsetting the cost of such third-party training for customers.
   • Software Assurance Benefits: Organisations opting not to take on Unified Support retain Software Assurance Benefits and these can be consumed to draw services related to specific projects. However, this is a short-term option: as of February 2021, Microsoft will no longer allow such support services to be applied to specific projects. Instead, customers will receive a credit that can be used for Unified Support.
   • Microsoft is still in the running as a service provider: Although Microsoft is dropping Premier Support, it will still offer support services on a case-by-case basis, and charge accordingly. Therefore, when looking to obtain support services outside of Unified Support, Microsoft should be considered in the vendor mix.
   • Vendor and contract management maturity: Given that obtaining support services for Microsoft outside of Unified Support will likely necessitate a multi-vendor approach, maturity in vendor and contract management becomes important. Organisations needs to consider their maturity in vendor management and upskill where needed. IBRS is skeptical of appointing a vendor as a ‘master contract manager’ for Microsoft support services, as we have not been able to identify successful examples of such an arrangement in the Australian market.
   • Be clear about the expected SLAs and monitor: Related to vendor and contract management, it is vital to set SLAs for each vendor’s services and monitor each.

Next Steps:

• If not already in place, begin evaluating Microsoft’s Unified Support program and determine if and how it will benefit your organisation.
• If it is deemed that Unified Support is not a viable option, create a catalogue of support services needed by your organisation over time.
• Explore alternatives to Unified Support – this will necessitate exploring multiple vendor offerings. Understand that this requires a relatively robust approach to vendor management.

Footnotes:

1. Premier Support Datasheet

Additional Readings

Organisations seeking efficiency improvements may find Microsoft Unified Support relevant to their organisations and that the increased cost can be justified, as detailed in the following papers:

IT-as-a-Service Part 36: The IT efficiency improvement option

IT-as-a-Service Part 32: Process Integration (to improve efficiency)

Organisations seeking to improve their service delivery maturity may consider the following:

Running IT-as-a-Service Part 22: IT-as-a-Service readiness assessment

Benefits management: Keeping it real

IT service design is everyone’s responsibility

Strategic vendor management in government

Mergers & acquisitions require federated service providers governance