Cloud Support Options for Microsoft Partners

TimTetrickPhoto

Tim Tetrick

Hello Cloud Partners,

I wanted to take a moment to review the pre and post-sales support options that Microsoft Partners have available to them for use with Microsoft Cloud products.

First, I want to talk about Partner Advisory Hours, which are a fantastic benefit available to Microsoft Partner Network members.  This benefit has been greatly underutilized by the Partner community in the past.  Partner Advisory Hours empower your team with personalized technical assistance from experienced Microsoft partner consultants.

Partner Advisory Hours can be used for a number of pre and post-sales activities such as:

  • Technical Training - learning paths, practice accelerators, chalk talks, or other customized training options
  • Technical Pre-Sales Assistance - proof-of-concept assistance, competitive guidance, business value proposition, technical licensing recommendations, etc.
  • Advisory Services – design and implementation guidance, solution architecture, deployment assistance, code review, etc.

Partner Advisory Hours are included with your Microsoft Action Pack Subscription, and with your Silver or Gold Competencies as summarized in the graphic below. Additional Partner Advisory Hours can also be purchased as needed.

And, as a special benefit to Silver and Gold Competency Partners, you can receive UNLIMITED pre-sales advisory support for any deal worth US$3,000 per year or more!  

To use your hours, go to Partner Advisory Hours or you can engage the team directly at napa@microsoft.com.  If you’re not sure how many Partner Advisory Hours you have available, you can check that online at My support benefits and activities.

Next I would like to talk about break/fix Support for Cloud.  As mentioned above, Partner Advisory Hours can be used for a number of pre and post-sales activities.  However, if you need break/fix support assistance, you will need to engage our Technical Support team.  A great way to do that is via Partner Signature Cloud Support .  Signature Cloud Support provides qualified partners with a elevated level of technical support for Microsoft Cloud products.

Partners with a Silver or Gold Competency in Cloud Performance or Small and Midmarket Cloud receive unlimited Signature Cloud Support for Office 365. Partners with a Silver or Gold Competency in Cloud Platform receive unlimited Signature Cloud Support for Azure. Those partners with Hybrid Competencies, or with an Action Pack Subscription get a limited number of Product Support incidents that can be used with Office 365 or Azure as summarized in the graphic below.

For more details on Signature Cloud Support, see the Signature Cloud Support Benefit Overview

image

Partner Advisory Hours and Signature Cloud Support benefits are additional examples of the great value that Action Pack and Competencies bring to partners.  These benefits, along with IUR (Internal Use Rights), which provides partners with free licenses of Microsoft products and services, easily pays for the price of these programs several times over.