Changes to Microsoft SA Benefits

New for 2020 - Microsoft to reduce Software Assurance Benefits

Changes to Microsoft's SA Benefits have been announced  effective 1st February 2020 which will see the end of some of the most useful aspects of the program, in summary:

• all cloud services will be retired from Deployment Planning Services in favor of FastTrack deployments;
• removing Azure training from eligibility and training days will no longer be used to convert to Planning Services days; and
• ​beginning in February 2021, support eligibility criteria and replacement of incident-based support with as-needed support and credit toward Unified Support.

Deployment Planning Services

FastTrack is now Microsoft's primary implementation support offering applicable to Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365 engagements. All on-premises Deployment Planning Services offerings and the respective engagements will be available until January 2022 and you can continue to redeem your deployment planning days through the current process from qualified partners or Microsoft Consulting Services to help you plan your deployment—whether on-premises or in hybrid environments. ​

Training Vouchers

Training vouchers can still be used until January 2022 with the exception of Azure training, which will be removed from the Software Assurance course catalog in February 2020. The Training Vouchers benefit will be fully retired on January 1, 2022. 

The right to access training vouchers expires with your Software Assurance coverage. If you create a training voucher before the expiration of your Software Assurance coverage, the voucher remains valid for 180 days after the date it was created.

Software Assurance E-Learning was replaced with Microsoft Learn  on November 1st 2018, which offers a free-of-charge way to learn about Microsoft products and services. Instructor-led training is available, and Microsoft are introducing role-based courses and advanced workload courseware, along with new certifications. ​

24x7 Problem Resolution Support

Customers will no longer earn a limited number of support incidents based on spend, agreement type, and product(s) but instead will get as-needed support with a Software Assurance spend of $250,000 or more annually. ​

Starting in February 2021, customers that spend more than US$250,000 per year on Software Assurance will get as-needed basic phone support for Severity A and online support during business hours for Severity B and C with a 24-hour response time. Customers will also have the option to upgrade to Microsoft Unified Support.  

Customers that spend less than US$250,000 per year on Software Assurance with no enterprise support agreement (Premier/Unified) will be directed to a partner for support or purchase Professional Support incidents from Microsoft.

So time to review all of your enrollments and make sure you convert all of your SA Benefits to get full value out of your investment in these programs. As a refresher, take a look through the list below.