How CDW Technology Support Enables Faster Disruption Resolution for Microsoft

Troubleshooting is a core competency of technology support. How an organization manages situations where technology goes awry can dramatically impact business. For critical IT systems especially, an extended standstill can cause major disruptions and revenue losses.

When business is interrupted, IT departments do not have time to wait for the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to answer the call, triage the incident and assign an appropriately skilled engineer. CDW Technology Support (CTS) provides a responsive, technology-certified and OEM-backed support engineering solution to reduce the business impact of technology hardware and software platform failures.

Many organizations engage CTS specifically to minimize the consequences of IT issues. CDW Technology Support provides faster resolution for customers of select OEMs, including Microsoft. As a service for IT administrators, CTS assists organizations in reducing their technical support capability exposure. It also enables them to deploy valuable IT resources toward strategic activities rather than problem resolution.

Since every organization is unique, CTS Microsoft starts with a Customer Success Manager who understands the customer’s business and oversees the account. The Customer Success Manager provides a consistent point of contact throughout the contract. He or she will periodically meet with the organization’s IT leaders to review the service usage and incident patterns and provide insights about the issues that occurred within the organization’s IT environment.

For Microsoft customers, CDW Technology Support supports 10 applications and platforms:

• Microsoft Server OS 
• Azure
• SQL Server
• Exchange Online
• Office 365
• SharePoint Online
• Microsoft Dynamics
• Microsoft Endpoint Manager/Intune
• SharePoint Server
• Exchange Server

Organizations may initiate a support ticket via ServiceNow, chat, email or phone. The CDW Technology Support Service Desk operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. After the customer receives an initial response, the CDW Technology Support Microsoft team will partner with the customer and determine the severity of the issue in terms of its business impact. This impact drives issue prioritization and resolution. For priority issues, our Microsoft-certified engineers commence working toward resolution immediately, regardless of the day or time. 

In a case where our engineers are unable to resolve an issue, we escalate to Microsoft on the customer’s behalf. In some cases, where high business impact and criticality are a factor, our engineers may elect to involve Microsoft support immediately.

Organizations select the number of engineering hours included in the service per year at a competitively priced fixed cost. This predictability simplifies budget management. Unused hours don’t roll over to the next year. However, organizations do have the option to allocate hours for flexible engineering support. 

What exactly is flexible engineering support? The organization can opt to use hours from the support contract to engage on-demand engineering support for planned IT support activities, such as a platform migration or upgrade. Project-specific work is not included in the flexible hours, and ad hoc hours for proactive services can be included.  

For almost every organization, a speedy response is essential. CTS Microsoft gives customers assurance that they can start the resolution process quickly and in most cases get a faster resolution. The liaison capabilities of the Customer Success Manager, combined with the insights into the customer’s business environment, make the service personal and effective.

When business is interrupted, business leaders do not want excuses; they want to be back online. CTS gives the customer’s IT department a single point of contact to solve issues quickly.

Story by Mike Bogovich, a CDW Research & Development Product Manager focused on Microsoft CTS. Mike developed and launched the CTS (CDW Technology Support) Microsoft reactive support service, providing application and platform support to customers looking for a competitive and personalized alternative to Microsoft Premier/Unified support.