Microsoft said Tuesday that it will expand its enterprise support services for its software for the second time in six months, while downplaying concern about competition the move may create with its partners.
The new Premier Mission Critical Support option, available for customers subscribing to Microsoft’s Premier Ultimate or Premier Plus support services, provides customers with financial credits if they do not receive a response from Microsoft within 30 minutes, 24 hours a day, said Bryan Belmont, general manager for Microsoft Services.
The exact amount of credit granted will depend on a number of factors, Belmont said.
The add-on service will initially be available to customers running Microsoft’s SQL Server 2005 or 2008 database on top of either Windows Server 2003 or 2008.
Microsoft began offering Premier Ultimate Support last August.
Microsoft also offers Premier Plus, Premier Standard and Premier Foundation services for large corporations, along with Essential Support for midsize businesses.
Microsoft has “many thousands of customers on Premier Support today,” Belmont said.
Microsoft has long had alliances with vendors such as Hewlett-Packard Co. to resell and support its software.
Even archrival IBM is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Support services, through its Global Services division.
Belmont said Microsoft’s increased interest in directly offering support services was prompted by customer requests, not by a desire to compete with its partners.
“Our customers certainly do engage with IBM and HP . But they have also told us they would specifically like to engage with us,” Belmont said. “We’ve been very clear with our partners that we need that direct relationship with customers. There’s no new direct conflict.”
Belmont said customers will receive access to Microsoft’s “most senior support engineers,” all of whom will be full-time employees located around the world.
The service starts at about $200,000 and is priced per server CPU, he said.
Asked if Microsoft might offer the mission-critical option for other software, Belmont said that “BizTalk and SharePoint come to mind.”
