| Angela,
There may be several answers to your query - pick the one that best
fits your budget (and ability to get the system to work for you) ;
1) We have a Alliance Manager and a Redmond based office for
Engineering-Engineering contact. I would expect that the MCS
deals that engage us to support MS products could be constructed
in a fashion to make use of formal Engineering-Engineering
escalation support. Drive this through your MCS management (as I
am doing through mine). This route will take time...
2) Some countries (e.g. Terr. A) have special BackOffice integration
teams in place. While not Engineering, (I think they are NSIS), the
folks are extremely hot and often are co-located in Microsoft
premises. Check if there is such a thing in place in SPT.
3) The MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) comes in various "sizes"
of subscription. The top of the range (Universal) gives you the
right to a number of priority calls direct to MS tech support
and engineering. This service currently costs $2500 per annum
but includes all Office, BackOffice and Development software.
(approx. 150 CD-ROMs) plus all of the MSDN tech support library.
I have put this particular option in place for my engineering
teams.
4) MS have a special "priority" channel used for recognised subject
matter experts (as qualified through MCSE or MCSD accreditation).
I can't remember the exact term - something like Microsoft Valued
Professional (MVP) - you see this little badge of honour against
the names of some folks answering questions in the MS support
newsgroups. These MVP's have a hot line into MS Engineering.
Of course, to obtain this accreditation costs quite a deal of
time and money - Digital Services (MCS included) has world-wide
programs in place to support increased employee accreditation.
You'd need to check with your CSC management whether you have the
budget in SPT.
/Chris/
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