Yesterday, Microsoft announced its new Microsoft Services Premier Ultimate support service. The new service is linked with the Microsoft Services Premiere Support line of services and is an enterprise-class support system.

Microsoft says the Premier Ultimate bundle is aimed at enterprise customers willing to “dig deep to pursue a proactive support strategy concentrated on attaining and maintaining IT health”.

Elaina Stergiades, a senior research analyst at IDC, said: “IDC recommends that vendors provide preventive and proactive support services to help customers minimize downtime and to ensure consistent availability of their business-critical processes.

“Microsoft is doing just that with Premier Ultimate, highlighting the industry shift toward deeper, more collaborative support relationships with customers,” she added.

The new service level combines unlimited problem resolution support along with other features, including; proactive health assessments, account management, and full-time on-site support.

Companies can pick and mix their services to develop an IT package that best suits their needs. The level of customisation in the three-year contracts means that pricing is not fixed, but instead varies dependant on the services chosen.

“Premier Ultimate is yet another step in the evolution of software support services. As IT departments focus on the availability of technology supporting their business processes, software support becomes less about fixing what is broken and more about preventing problems from occurring in the first place,” Stergiades said.

Microsoft Premier Support includes a specific focus on preventative tools that can help business avoid situations that result in software defect issues and downtime, stergiades explained.

In addition to this, she added, the unlimited hours of problem resolution support is new ground for Microsoft, and shows the company is willing to take some risk as part of this offering.

While the new offering from Microsoft could upset some of the company’s channel partners, their response largely depends on how the software maker handles the Ultimate premier Services launch.

“Any time a change is made to services offerings, vendors run the risk of angering their channel partners. However, we believe that the execution of the roll-out will largely determine how partners are affected by this offering. In addition, Microsoft has historically handled these situations with minimal problems and disruptions,” she noted.