Our Microsoft Enterprise support contract is about to be renewed, but last year they hiked up our license prices for Windows and Office products. This means our support costs are skyrocketing too—about $4000 per incident—which feels excessive. Plus, it seems the quality of their support has been slipping, with longer response times and more misrouted calls. We're thinking about exploring third-party support options since they can save us about half the cost of Microsoft's rate. However, we're concerned about the risks of not having Microsoft engineers for our support needs, especially for older products. I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who has switched from Microsoft support to a third-party provider. What were your experiences like? Are there specific things we should include in a contract, or are there potential pitfalls we might not have considered? Any other advice for managing support costs would be great too!
4 Answers
Switching to third-party support can feel risky, but honestly, MS support hasn't been all that great either. Sometimes, it seems like they're just passing the buck rather than actually helping. That said, ask around about experiences before making a leap—some of us have paid a hefty annual fee for support and still faced issues.
It really depends on what you're working with. If your setup is just Windows desktop and Office 365, their unified support plans could be a waste of money. But if you have something more complex like on-prem servers, there might be more value there, especially with dedicated support hours. Just keep in mind that they may try to transition you to a CSP, which could add extra support costs.
I've had great experiences with US Cloud. Their response times are fantastic, plus they are able to assist with larger, complex projects too. Definitely recommend checking them out!
I totally agree with CloudSkydiver77. We've been using US Cloud for a while and they've really impressed us.
I'm curious about what issues you’re even contacting MS support for. Most Windows and Office problems are pretty basic to troubleshoot nowadays—sometimes just reinstalling can solve it. Are you dealing with any specific on-prem systems like SharePoint that are causing issues?
We mainly hit issues with 3rd-party applications clashing with our OS or Office setups. We know we’ll need to reach out for support at times, so we’re just exploring if we can tackle it in a more budget-friendly way.
Yeah, I get that. We pay a lot for MS support as well, but the usefulness can be pretty hit or miss.