RE: GP Service Plan and Microsoft Dynamics Partners
When you contact a partner, they are going to charge you for the time it took them to answer the question. If it was something basic you will be charged a minimum. Things that they see all the time and can quickly resolve. If there is a question that they have to contact Microsoft Support then they are going to get a support expert on the line and you will be paying the Partner and Microsoft will be billing the partner for the use of a support call while they resolve your issue. So, you need to consider what the partner's rate is. If it was a quick call you are going to get charged 15 minutes. x their hourly rate. if the hourly rate is $150.00 X .25 then you are paying them $37.50. You also have to realize that the Partner buys support from Microsoft, but since they buy them in large blocks of time they have a more discounted rate. And your partner will know you installation as well and can answer a lot of Microsoft's questions that you may not be able to answer.
But if you have a Service Plan with Microsoft and it includes 5 support calls. And you are paying $1000.00 for those 5 service calls, no matter how fast or slow Microsoft just answered your question it just cost you $200.00 per support call. If the call takes 5 hours or 5 days to resolve. And how comfortable are you with following their directions on making changes on your system. Can you do backups on tables, can you follow what they are asking you to do in SQL, etc. without having your partner involved?
So, how do you decide, how well do you know the product. Can you take care of basic support thru the forum and not need the partner and how comfortable are you with that. How well do you know your software install.
I work for a company and did support for Great Plains for ~20 years. We have support thru a partner instead of a Support plan with Microsoft. I can handle the basic support, but if I get stuck I reach out to a partner who at least knows my setup and the modules that I am using, if they can't figure it out, they reach out to Microsoft and we usually all do a screen share and resolve the issues.
Up to you how you want to handle it and what support you need.
Sue
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