As a school we wonder what support we are entitled to from Microsoft ?

[Markurageek]

We recently had to reach out to Microsoft support for a 365 issue and found the support we got to be amazing and super quick! I'm now wondering if we are entitled to any type of support from Microsoft for other software for example Windows 10 or server 2019 but cant find anyway to contact them easily! Does anyone know what support levels are available and any costs? We do have a volume license agreement.

[psydii]

£220+VAT gets you similar levels of support as to a 365 incident. Used it for help with restoring AD, Exchange and investigating SQL server timeouts, and currently thinking of raising one about a wmiprvse CPU utilisation we are seeing across the estate.

 

https://support.serviceshub.microsoft.com/supportforbusiness/

Edited February 1, 2021 by psydii

[Markurageek]

OK was hoping they had some sort of free support the same as they do for our 365 included with our volume license agreement. Actually I don't mind paying if I could get some sort of assurance they are there when we need them but they don't make it easy do they. Just googled Microsoft paid for support most hits appear to be 365 related and the one which was relevant has a broken link! Can anyone recommend a good support partner which covers Essex?

[psydii]

I Just edited my post with the link. You will need to sign in with a Microsoft Account not an AzureAD account.

[Markurageek]

Really appreciate that psydii thank you.

[MS2011]

£220+VAT gets you similar levels of support as to a 365 incident. Used it for help with restoring AD, Exchange and investigating SQL server timeouts, and currently thinking of raising one about a wmiprvse CPU utilisation we are seeing across the estate.

 

https://support.serviceshub.microsoft.com/supportforbusiness/

 

£220 per incident ?

[FN-GM]

£220 per incident ?

 

Correct. It’s a flat fee so if it takes 10 minutes or 10 hours you don’t pay any difference.

 

 

At one time you used to get a couple of free tickets are year with MS licensing. I used one once. Not sure if it’s still a thing.

[Markurageek]

I agree £220.00 bit steep when you consider how much we pay Microsoft each year for licensing and we simply want to keep there product working! however £220.00 for maybe one incident a year is far better than paying a support partner £5k a year to be there which is what our school used to do on their support contract with a third party. You would think Microsoft would have a Education support number wouldn't you?

[psydii]

To get 3rd party engineer to site (say from XMA / RM / EuroEle etc) with the skills represented by that £220 would be north of £600 per day.

 

For that £220 I have had multi-day engagements with escalations to the development team... and when I had one ticket that was a 10 minute fix I then got several hours of what was in effect 1:1 training from the engineer who owned the ticket plus "hey, look any issues at all with that service, just drop us a call in the next week and we'll fix that too"

 

I look at the tier 1 supplier (HP/Dell) support contracts (aka warranty+software) + the ad-hoc engagements as significantly cheaper that the most junior of technicians, but delivering the skills of multiple 60K+ product experts.

 

The software and services we have access to as part of our education licences costs a friend of mine's company over £300,000 per year (similar staff headcount). They then pay additional for contracted support, which costs more than our entire software budget on its own.

Edited February 2, 2021 by psydii

[paulkerton]

I agree £220.00 bit steep when you consider how much we pay Microsoft each year for licensing

 

Compared to how much a private organisation of a similar size would pay, you're paying a lot, lot less for licensing relatively.

[FN-GM]

Compared to how much a private organisation of a similar size would pay, you're paying a lot, lot less for licensing relatively.

 

I can confirm that!