As of October 3rd, 2022, Microsoft introduced Solutions Partner designations and retired legacy competencies and associated badging.  Having previously been a Gold Partner for over 10 years, we are delighted to announce we have successfully received ‘Solutions Partner for Modern Work’ and ‘Solutions Partner – Azure’ designations.  

Utilize has been at the forefront of enabling businesses to reach their full potential with technologies and unique road mapping, and this partnership with Microsoft which has spanned over a decade equips us with a wider landscape of new and innovative products and services.  

To attain these designations, we are required to continually demonstrate specific skill sets and below gives a brief outline of each one and these requirements.  

Solutions Partner – Azure Infrastructure  

As a Solutions Partner for Infrastructure, Utilize has demonstrated our capability to help customers accelerate the migration of key infrastructure workloads to Microsoft Azure.  

Utilize has a proven record of:  

• Designing, implementing, operating, and optimising customers’ infrastructure architecture, cost, and security   

• Migrating and modernising customers’ infrastructure for virtualised workloads (including SAP) and virtual desktop environments  
• Onboarding and management of high-performance computing workloads in Azure 

Solutions Partner for Modern Work  

As a Solutions Partner for Modern Work, Utilize has demonstrated our broad capability to help customers boost their productivity and make the shift to hybrid working by using Microsoft 365.  

Utilize has a proven record of:  

• Deploying, driving adoption of, and managing Microsoft 365 apps and services to help customers work, learn, organise, connect, and create  
• Empowering personal computing with deployment of modern management services for Windows and Windows 365  
• Implementing, driving adoption of, and managing Microsoft Teams to help customers communicate and collaborate with chat, meetings, and calls  

• Delivering services and solutions to digitally enable customers’ frontline workers 
• Delivering employee experience services and solutions for Microsoft Viva to help customers harness knowledge and expertise, amplify culture and communications, accelerate skilling and growth, or balance productivity and wellbeing  
• Building custom apps and solutions on the Microsoft 365 platform to meet the specific needs of customers 

We are proud to have not only met but exceeded the thresholds set by Microsoft across all areas of performance, intermediate and advanced skilling certification as well as customer success. 

As a trusted Microsoft Partner, we look forward to our ongoing partnership and the insights and benefits it brings to our Clients.  

In today’s fast-paced business environment, technology plays a critical role in ensuring business continuity, and any IT downtime can lead to significant losses for organizations. 

It’s important for a business to carefully consider its IT requirements and the potential impact of downtime or delays before entering into a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with their IT provider. 

SLA response times refer to how quickly your IT provider responds to a technical issue raised via phone, email or other methods. Defining acceptable response and resolution times is one of the targets your business should judge the performance of your IT support provider on. 

As pretty much every modern business relies heavily on IT systems and infrastructure to operate, a traditional 4-hour response time SLA may not be sufficient. In this case, any downtime or delay in service restoration can have a significant impact on business operations and revenue. For example, if an e-commerce website experiences downtime of even a few minutes, it could result in lost sales and a negative impact on customer experience and satisfaction. 

Depending on your industry, downtime can also impact your compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, particularly if the downtime affects data privacy or security. 

In addition, if the business operates in a highly competitive industry where customers expect fast and reliable service, a 4-hour SLA is undoubtedly inadequate. A slower response time could lead to customers switching to competitors, who offer better and faster service. 

Increasingly, modern businesses are seeking a more reactive SLA with a shorter response time to ensure that their business can meet operational and customer service needs. 

A one-hour IT service level agreement ensures a quicker response time and resolution of issues. Additionally, a shorter SLA time demonstrates a higher level of commitment to customer service and satisfaction, which can improve the overall reputation of your organization. 

Why not talk to us today about upgrading to a one-hour SLA?