How to Switch IT service provider? | IT Support | Technowand

October 15, 2020

Switching an IT service provider in any part of our lives can feel painful. It’s just easier not to move – it can be an easy mindset to find yourself in. And you’re right – this is a big decision. But if it is the right one there are things you can do to make the transition easier.

Let us take you through all the things you need to consider so that the transition can be smooth and you can take your business onto the next stage of its journey. We are an IT Service Provider for all sorts of companies.

Talk To Your New Provider

Talk to your new IT Service Provider – you want to make sure that you can have a good relationship with them. You should talk to them about all the things you don’t like about your current arrangement – this is to ensure that the new provider can actually fix these problems AND so they are aware of them.

You should also talk about the things that you really like about your old provider so that they will continue with the new provider. There is no point in changing providers to get something fixed if you lose the things that you liked. Get both – you deserve it! Make sure you ask them if you will get access to Microsoft Teams – 5 Reasons Why Businesses of All Shapes And Sizes Love Microsoft Teams.

Meet With Your New Provider

Your new IT service provider will want to meet with you – you are going to be partners after all. They will want to find out about you and your business. They should have as many questions for you as you have of them.

They will want to find out about your current setup – what your infrastructure is like. This is so that they can give you a good idea of the costs involved with getting you to where you want to be.

If you are operating on an ad-hoc IT Support Model or even using internal support – have a read of why you should be considering outsourcing this.

Get The Proposal & Think It Over

The new IT service provider will give you a detailed proposal. This will include all of the costs involved and what you can expect from them. It should go into a lot of detail.

You should have a good idea about how everything will operate with them moving forward. If anything is unclear ask them. Think it over. This shouldn’t be hard. If it is you probably don’t want to change. The new IT service provider should sweep you off your feet.

Want a website that delivers customers to your door?

Break Up With Your Old Provider

This shouldn’t be awkward. But you will need some things from them before you say goodbye. You will need a description of the updates completed for the last quarter – or at least the last 90 days. Any IT service provider worth their salt should be able to give you this sort of documentation.

You will need to do an inventory of assets with them. This is so you can ensure you have a good understanding of what you own and what they do.

Find out where your data is stored and who has access to it. This might be something that you haven’t considered before. Sometimes it can be really easy to transition this stuff from one IT service provider to another. Other times it can be very complicated with data fragmented across different storage locations.

Let us look after your website as you transition.

Keep Communication Clear

Throughout this entire process, you need to keep communication clear to everyone at your company. And I mean everyone – not just management. While you might bring management into the conversation earlier you need to have everyone on board.

The main reason for this is IT is vital for everyone’s job. Everyone needs to know who to talk to during the transition especially if things go wrong. Key dates of the changeover and how helpdesk contact will work are vital for a smooth transition.

Using positive communication about the new things you will be gaining from the new provider can be really helpful especially if you are getting your hand on some great products like Microsoft Teams.

Overlap Contracts

This might sound like the biggest waste of money ever – but stay with me. You are paying your old provider to do a job for you. Just because they have been your provider for ten years doesn’t mean that they will be helpful after their contract ends.

Your new IT service provider should have a clear list of what they need from the old IT service provider and when they will need it. With these dates in mind, you should be able to overlap the end of the old contract with the start of the new one so that everyone is on board and more importantly – on the payroll – to deliver the outcomes that you need to get out of the transition.

We would love to talk to you about any IT problems we can solve for you.

Examples of our latest work:

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