Why Reactive Support Is No Longer Enough.
Reactive support means fixing problems after they occur – a daily reality in many IT departments. While this may suffice in manageable environments, it reaches its limits when cloud and on-premises systems intertwine and strict security and compliance requirements must be met. The number of dependencies increases – and with it, the risk of errors. A small mistake can block entire process chains. A misconfigured conditional access parameter in Microsoft Entra ID can cause employees to lose access to internal data. An expired certificate on a cloud gateway of a production machine can bring operations to a halt. Both scenarios could have been prevented through proactive checks. That’s the key difference: reactive support fixes the damage, proactive support prevents it.
The Shift in Microsoft Support.
Things become even more difficult when the support provider is far away – both geographically and organizationally. Since Microsoft restructured its Premier and later Unified Support to focus more on large enterprises, many mid-sized companies report rising costs and decreasing accessibility. Support is centralized, escalation paths are long, and contacts are often located outside Europe. At the same time, support requests must include detailed technical analyses – a challenge for already stretched IT departments. Today, opening a ticket requires technical expertise just to initiate communication – and patience while waiting for a response. Many companies feel left alone with the standard solutions offered.
Opportunities and Risks of Standardized Support Models.
Despite this, standardized models like Microsoft’s “Unified Support” offer advantages: they provide structure, consolidate expertise, and cover a broad technology spectrum. Their downside: they are impersonal and follow global processes that rarely align with a company’s individual workflows. In practice, this means support tickets are often processed schematically – regardless of whether it’s a critical production line or an Office add-in. If information is missing or the issue becomes more complex, processing times increase. If a company also needs to meet specific compliance requirements, standardized models quickly reach their limits. What’s needed are contacts who understand the infrastructure, document decisions, and consider local specifics.
