Switching IT provider: what actually happens (and what to check first)
Most small businesses stay with an IT provider they’ve stopped rating for one reason: the switch sounds worse than the problem. Somebody will have to gather passwords, there’ll be a day with no email, the new lot will find things the old lot did badly and somebody will have to pay to put them right.
Almost none of that is true, and the bits that are true are the new provider’s job, not yours. Here’s what a switch actually involves, in the order it happens, and the four things worth checking before you decide.
Already know you want out? Find your current agreement’s end date first, then ring 0151 452 3060. Fifteen minutes with me and you’ll know whether the timing works and what it would cost.
Why people actually leave
I’ve read a lot of reviews of IT companies round here, the good and the bad, and the reasons people give for leaving are remarkably consistent. It’s almost never a security incident. It’s these:
- “There’s a ticket system so you can’t speak to a human.”
- “They promise to ring you back and never do.”
- “It’s like there’s a wall around the business and you can’t get in to get the help you need.”
- The invoice grew. A managed line for a router. A minimum that didn’t fit. A renewal nobody was told about.
If any of those is you, you’re not being unreasonable. You’re describing a provider that has stopped doing the one thing the monthly fee is for.
Check four things before you do anything
1. When does your current agreement end? Find the paperwork or ask them in writing. Many small-business IT contracts are twelve months with automatic renewal, and the notice window can be as short as thirty days before the anniversary. Miss it and you’ve bought another year. This date decides everything else, so get it first.
2. Who owns your accounts? Your domain name, your Microsoft 365 tenant, your licences, your backup subscription. They should be registered to your business, with you as the owner and the provider as an administrator. If any of them is in the provider’s name, sort that out while you’re still a paying customer, when they’ve every incentive to be helpful. It’s the single most common thing that turns a clean switch into a messy one.
3. Where are the passwords? Not your staff’s passwords, the admin ones: the Microsoft 365 global admin, the router, the server if there is one, the backup console. You’re entitled to them. Ask for them in writing before you give notice.
4. What’s actually running? Ask for a list of the software they’ve installed on your machines to manage them. Antimalware, monitoring, remote access, backup agents. You don’t need to understand it. The new provider does, because it has to come off before theirs goes on.
What the week looks like
Once the date’s agreed, this is the order, and it’s the same order whoever you move to if they’re doing it properly.
The seven days, as we do it
Day one. A fifteen-minute call. Headcount, what you run on, the thing that’s annoying you right now. You get the number on the call.
Days two to three. We take admin access to Microsoft 365 and the machines. Our tools go on. The old provider’s come off. Your staff notice nothing, because nothing they use changes.
Days three to five. Backups start running, and we restore a file from them to prove they work. Antimalware and updates are scheduled. The annoying thing from day one gets fixed.
Day seven. A two-minute call to say it’s done. Secured in 7 Days, or that month is on us.
Notice what isn’t in that list. There’s no downtime day. Nobody in your office prepares anything. Your email doesn’t move, because it’s already in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft 365 isn’t going anywhere. Your files don’t move either. What changes is who’s watching them and who answers when something goes wrong.
The two things that do take longer
A server. If you’ve a server in the office, the first week is about making sure it’s backed up and understood, not about changing it. Whether it stays, gets replaced or gets retired is a separate conversation, with a separate price, once we’ve seen what it actually does. A lot of them are doing a job Microsoft 365 already does.
An old provider who drags their feet. It happens. Admin access “needs a ticket”, the domain “is in a queue”. This is exactly why you asked for ownership and passwords while you were still their customer. If you didn’t, it’s still solvable, it just takes a few more polite emails, and we’ll write them.
What it costs to move
With us, nothing beyond the monthly figure. There’s no onboarding fee, because setting you up is the job. £55 a person a month, every machine that person uses, and if you’ve a server, Azure or network kit that genuinely needs looking after, that’s priced per box and you’d see the whole number before agreeing.
The cost worth worrying about is the one you’re already paying: the hours spent on hold, the fix that took a week, the invoice line nobody can explain. That’s the number to compare against.
If your current provider is fine, stay
Genuinely. If they pick up when you ring and the invoice hasn’t crept, you have something a lot of businesses don’t, and the disruption of a switch isn’t worth it for a slightly lower number. This piece is for the people who’ve been putting up with the wall for a year because the alternative sounded worse. It isn’t.
