Describe support options for Microsoft 365 services-Understand Microsoft 365 pricing and support

All Microsoft 365 subscriptions include access to basic support services, but for some types of subscribers or subscribers with special needs, there are alternative methods for obtaining support, such as the following:

  • FastTrack Microsoft’s FastTrack program uses a specialized team of engineers and selected partners to provide subscribers transitioning to the cloud with assistance in the envisioning, onboarding, and ongoing administration processes. Subscribers participating in this program are provided with a contact for support issues during the FastTrack transition.
  • Volume Licensing Subscribers with an Enterprise Agreement or a Microsoft Products and Services Agreement that includes Software Assurance receive a specified number of support incidents as part of their agreement. The Software Assurance program includes 24×7 telephone support for business-critical issues and business hours or email support for noncritical issues.
  • Cloud Solution Providers For subscribers who obtain Microsoft 365 through a Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), the CSP should be their first point of contact for all service and support issues during the life of the subscription. The reseller agreement between CSPs and Microsoft calls for the CSP to take full responsibility for supporting their customers, although the CSP can still escalate issues to Microsoft when they cannot resolve them independently.
  • Microsoft Professional Support Subscribers with support issues beyond the standard service provided with Microsoft 365 can use Microsoft Professional Support to open support requests on a pay-per-incident basis, as shown in Figure 4-16. Individual incidents are available, as are five packs of incidents.

  

FIGURE 4-16 The Create a New Support Request screen in Microsoft Professional Support

  • Microsoft Unified Support Subscribers can purchase a Microsoft Unified Support plan in addition to their Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Microsoft Unified Support is available at three levels: Core Support, Advanced Support, and Performance Support; each level provides increasing levels of included support hours, incident response times, and access to a technical account manager (TAM), along with increasing prices. Customers also receive access to the Microsoft Services Hub, a support portal that provides forms for submitting support requests, access to ongoing Microsoft support incidents, tools for assessing enterprise workloads, and on-demand education and training materials.
Software assurance

For Enterprise Agreement and, optionally, for Microsoft Products and Services Agreement customers, Software Assurance provides a variety of additional services, including the following, which can benefit Microsoft 365 licensees:

  • Planning Services Provides a number of partner service days, based on the number of users/devices licensed, to deploy Microsoft operating systems, applications, and services.
  • Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) Provides a suite of virtualization, management, and restoration utilities, including Advanced Group Policy Management (AGPM), Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), Microsoft User Experience Virtualization (UE-V), Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM), and Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT).
  • Windows Virtual Desktop Access Rights (VDA) Provides users with the rights needed to access virtualized Windows instances.
  • Windows to Go Use Rights Enables administrators to create and furnish users with USB storage devices containing bootable Windows images that include line-of-business applications and corporate data.
  • Windows Thin PC Enables administrators to repurpose older computers as Windows Virtual Desktop Interface (VDI) terminals.
  • Enterprise Source Licensing Program Provides organizations with at least 10,000 users or devices with access to the Windows source code for their own software development projects.
  • Training Vouchers Provides a number of training days based on the number of users/devices licensed for the technical training of IT professionals and software developers.
  • Step-up License Availability Allows licensees to migrate their licensed software products to a high-level edition.
  • Spread Payments Enables organizations to pay for three-year license agreements in three equal, annual payments.

Note Additional Software Assurance Benefits

There are additional Software Assurance benefits included that are intended for on-premises server software licensees, such as New Version Rights, which provides the latest versions of the licensed software released during the term of the agreement, and Server Disaster Recovery Rights and Fail-Over Rights, which provide licensees the right to maintain passive redundant servers for fault-tolerance purposes.