Microsoft Premier Support is being retired on 6/30/18, due to be replaced by Microsoft Unified Support. According to our Microsoft sources, each current Premier Support customer will be able to renew for an additional year if they elect not to switch to Unified Support. But after that renewal, Unified Support will be the only Microsoft Support offering for Enterprises.
The details surrounding the new Unified Support are not fully available publicly at this time. If you are interested in the specifics, we encourage you to reach out to your Microsoft representatives. What we do know is that the hours based support model of Premier is being replaced with 3 different levels of support with unlimited hours.
According to Gartner, the cost of Unified Support compared to Premier Support is estimated as:
- Organizations paying about 7% of annual SA cost for Premier Support will see a 25% to 30% cost increase for Unified Support; those paying more than 10% of annual SA for Premier Support will see a decrease
- The 6% to 12% Microsoft is charging for support, combined with 25% to 29% SA maintenance, brings Microsoft well above the 18% to 25% industry average for maintenance and support
In response to a growing need from the industry, Kraft Kennedy has developed our own mature client support offering for Microsoft technologies, tailored to meet the support needs of our clients. If you are interested in discussing how we can help you with your support needs, please contact us info@kraftkennedy.com.