Does anyone actually understand what Microsoft Unified Support covers and how to evaluate alternatives?

[u/GlizzyGilbert69]

I'll be upfront: I run a small nonprofit and I am very much not a tech person. Our IT guy left earlier this year and since then I've been the one fielding all the Microsoft-related issues for our organization. We use a bunch of Microsoft products, Teams, SharePoint, some Azure stuff I barely understand, and when things break I genuinely don't know where to turn.

Someone on our board mentioned we should look into Microsoft Unified Support as a way to get professional help when things go wrong. I looked at the Microsoft site and honestly it reads like it was written for someone with a computer science degree. I have no idea what a 'severity level' means in practice or whether we even qualify for certain tiers.

What I'm really trying to figure out is: is Microsoft Unified Support the only real option for getting serious help with Microsoft products, or are there alternatives that might make more sense for an organization like ours? I don't have a huge budget and I'm a little worried about locking into something expensive that's designed for Fortune 500 companies.

Any plain-English guidance from people who've actually navigated this would be genuinely helpful.

[u/itishowitisanditbad]

Hi upfront.

You probably need an IT person.

You want an MSP though.

MSP (Managed Service Provider) is basically an IT department as a business to hire. You sign up to use their services for X amount a month doing Y work for Z stuff or whatever you need.

An MSP is very typical for small business that isn't big enough to have their own IT. Its certainly a direction you should look into.

edit: be wary of recommendations you suddenly get DM'd etc. Do research for local companies and look at reviews etc etc.

[u/cbtboss]

Plain english for you folks is that generally speaking microsoft support of any variety is not a sufficient replacement for someone internally or contracted with through an MSP to provide day to day support to your it infra.

Unified Support is intended for partnerships in the enterprise space to build out and scale out ai enabled products within Azure, but not for m365 generally speaking. The pricing also should give you an idea of what you should expect to pay for. . .https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-unified/plan-details#tab-unified-enterprise-pricing-details. This is meant to be Solutions arcitecture assistance, not day to day run of the mill management of your enviornment.

[u/SecureNarwhal]

is hiring an MSP cost prohibitive?

I haven't used Microsoft unified support but it looks more tailored for businesses that want custom solutions built from Microsoft products or supporting business built solutions.

[u/turbokid]

The alternative for the microsoft unified support is to pay for an IT employee to manage your infrastructure. Microsoft will charge you a lot and you will hate it. They outsource 99% of those tickets and your will spend weeks trying to get support.

Don't be cheap. Either hire IT employees, get a local MSP, or continue doing it yourself if you think you can.

[u/certifiedsysadmin]

Microsoft doesn't give any attention to orgs with less than 2500 seats.

Everything smaller than that goes to the Microsoft Partner ecosystem.

You should find an MSP (ideally local) that is a Microsoft Partner and specializes in your stack.

[u/teriaavibes]

Ignore unified support, find a Microsoft Partner who can provide support services and go with them.

[u/Stolle99]

In general, Unified support can be used for a lot of break/fix issues. But, what you need is an IT guy who knows what he is doing or an MSP. Because someone needs to go over security and compliance and other things that you don't know about. You can create new accounts, SharePoint sites and Teams, but configuring and acting on risks like "impossible travel activity" or creating conditional and compliance policies to improve security requires someone who knows what he is doing. M365 (or any other IT system for that matter) requires knowledge and proactivity to ensure things don't go bad after a while.

What Unified support is used for in orgs I manage - to fix issues on Microsoft backend that we as admins simply can't touch, for problems where we know solution or business does not like our answer (because they want something that does not work in the way they think it works), or for some more complex problems that require very deep knowledge of how M365 works that might not be documented properly.

[u/blud_13]

No, Unified is not your only option and its not built for you. Its priced off your total Microsoft spend and assumes you have an IT department to file the tickets, which is the part you don't have.

You already have support included with the subscription. Admin center, Help and support widget bottom right, open a service request and it goes to Microsoft. Its documented here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/get-help-support. One catch, if your licenses were bought through a partner rather than direct from Microsoft that widget wont work and support routes through the partner instead, so check which one you are.

Also, while you're in there, check your nonprofit grant. Microsoft killed the 10 free Business Premium licenses this year. Eligible nonprofits still get up to 300 granted Business Basic seats and up to 75% off Business Premium, so if somebody set you up before that changed your billing may be wrong right now.

What you probably want is somebody who owns the tenant so you're not the person deciding whether Teams being broken is a severity B. We do that for nonprofits, ping me if you want to know what that runs.

[u/PM_Me_UR-FLASHLIGHT]

Find a replacement for your IT person or contact an MSP. There are plenty of people in this sector that are looking for jobs at the moment. It really sounds like you need someone in house, and a couple of outsourced reps are not going to be able to help for all your needs.

[u/Johnsmith13371337]

An MSP would probs be the most cost effective solution.

[u/WayneH_nz]

Hi. I run an MSP in new zealand specializing in non profits. If you want some assistance in evaluating your options with local providers to where you are, you can DM me, then you won't be left holding the bag by yourself.

As I am not in your area, I can provide you with impartial advice, look over any offers you are presented, and help the non-profit. I dont charge non profits for this. This typically takes an hour or two over a month. So no big deal.

There are different types of MSP's. Some will want to take over completely. Doing everything for you. Even as a non-profit, they would still charge you between 4 and 8x minimum wage per user. (This is true pretty much world wide.) If your minimum wage is x15 per hour, then expect to pay x60 to x120 per user per month. Where x is $£€¥₩ whatever.

Some charge less, but do less, some charge MUCH more, but provide services you have never heard of, but suddenly want.

But that would include everything from support to backup to security services, pro-active maintenance etc. The good bit about this is if you do sign up with these, you will have a constant expense for approx three years. As your head count goes up you know that support will cost $xx and a new phone and computer. So you can plan ahead. 

Then there are break fix support. These are typically less mature MSP's who dont always have all the best practices in place. These will only do stuff at the time of issue, with no ability to be proactive to let you know something is going to break.

Then some will do hybrid or co-managed. You will pay a smaller fee per user, all the right tools are in place, but you pay through the nose for support. Typically 10-15x the minimum wage per hour for non contract work. 

 Do send a DM If you want/need to.

Good luck.

7th edit fixing stuff ups...

The one other upside that has not been mentioned so far, is that with an MSP you are not reliant on one person. Like traditional internal IT. If your internal person went on holiday, you would need to interrupt them if something goes wrong.  With an msp, there would normally be enough cover for that. 

The one downside of that is with larger msp's you might get a new person every phone call, so you don't get to build the repore that you would with a smaller company with only a few users.