Account planning for managed services customers: profile, lifecycle roadmap and service health
For account managers, customer success managers, virtual CIOs and service delivery leads at a managed service provider (MSP). Prerequisite: 'Account planning for existing customers' (customer goals, stakeholder maps, opportunities and risks). This course applies that to managed services: building an account profile from contract, ticket, subscription and asset data, calculating lifecycle work from vendor end-of-support dates for a technology roadmap, reading account health from service data, framing security recommendations with the NIST CSF 2.0 Small Business Quick-Start Guide, and writing a 12-month plan the customer agrees. 'Service business reviews (QBRs) that customers value' and 'MSP renewal preparation' cover the review meeting and renewal mechanics. Product dates and prices are Microsoft's as published at the time of writing (US dollar prices); always check the current vendor pages, and your company's contracts and pricing apply.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 90 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Build an account profile for a managed services customer from contract, ticket, licence and asset data
- Calculate the timing and cost of lifecycle work from vendor end-of-support dates for a technology roadmap
- Identify account health risks in service data and assign an owner and action to each
- Prioritise security and resilience recommendations using the NIST CSF 2.0 functions, without overselling
- Write a 12-month account plan with customer-agreed priorities, owners, dates and review points
Course outline
- 1.Building an account profile from contract, ticket, licence and asset dataLesson · 18 min
- 2.Calculating the timing and cost of lifecycle work from end-of-support datesLesson · 20 min
- 3.Identifying account health risks in service data and assigning an owner and actionLesson · 18 min
- 4.Prioritising security and resilience recommendations using the NIST CSF 2.0 functionsLesson · 16 min
- 5.Writing a 12-month account plan with customer-agreed priorities, owners and datesLesson · 12 min
- 6.Account planning for managed services customers: profile, lifecycle roadmap and service health: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 13 questions
- 7.Account planning for managed services customers: profile, lifecycle roadmap and service health: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- Microsoft Learn: Fixed Lifecycle Policy
- Microsoft Learn: Lifecycle FAQ - General
- Microsoft Learn: Windows 10 Home and Pro lifecycle
- Microsoft Learn: Windows Server 2016 lifecycle
- Microsoft Learn: Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10
- Microsoft Learn: Microsoft 365 admin center usage reports overview
- Microsoft Learn: Buy or remove licenses for a Microsoft business subscription
- NIST SP 1300, NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0: Small Business Quick-Start Guide (February 2024)
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