Outsourcing IT can come with many benefits, but businesses often suffer from lackluster support providers who fail in their basic responsibilities and struggle to help their clients innovate. Substandard IT support can seriously hamper workplace productivity, with recurring outages and poor IT performance often negatively impacting revenue. If you’ve experienced such a provider, you’ve probably been tempted to switch to someone else, but we know this can often feel like an intimidating prospect.
You worry that the handover process will go awry, with a break in support leading to a disruptive outage. You may even feel concerned that your data will be subject to unnecessary risk during the transition or that the termination of your current contract will lead to ill feelings between you and your existing provider.
However, IT companies are well-versed in onboarding new clients, most having completed the process tens or hundreds of times before. Your new provider will likely have a detailed process to make it smoother, but you can do a few things to help the process. Here are 5 easy steps to seamlessly migrate to a new IT support provider.
1. Find a provider who’s right for your business and reach out to them
The process begins with finding a provider who’s right for your business.
You would like a provider with the capacity to serve your business well: If you have 50 desktops needing support, please look for evidence that a provider has served businesses similar in scale to yours in the past.
Then, consider the industries a provider works with. If you operate in a highly regulated field, seek a provider who understands your regulatory pressures and requests examples of clients similar to your business. Client testimonials are also a great way of gauging suitability.
Please be sure to look for a provider who emphasizes proactivity. If you’re likely to need on-site support, it’s best to choose a provider in your region rather than on the other side of the country.
Once you’ve identified a suitable IT partner, reach out to them. Different providers initiate the onboarding process in other ways. It may begin with a simple Zoom call followed by a site visit as part of what you might consider the initial ‘discovery’ phase. To ensure your new provider can guarantee IT support continuity, inform them of your contract renewal date. This will give them a timeframe to work within, allowing any necessary preparations to be made before the handover.
2. Start to prepare for the switch
Before the switch, you can perform a few simple tasks to guarantee a drama-free transition.
You can start by creating a list of all the devices and infrastructure you want to include in your new support plan. This can be a good opportunity to incorporate those home-based devices you were “kinda” using for work purposes into your IT support package. Consider all your team’s office-based and portable devices, even mobile phones and tablets!
Then, assemble a list of the most critical login credentials your new provider may need for system admin purposes. This might include server admin credentials, router and firewall credentials, office-hosted and cloud-hosted software logins, login details for web hosting services, and your website domain registrar. If any of this information is in the possession of your current provider, kindly request it, and remember that they have no legal basis to deny such a request: it’s YOUR network!
Lastly, having a network diagram to help communicate the layout and interdependencies in your infrastructure would be helpful. If you have one, you can make it easily available to your new provider and identify the devices and individuals subject to special permissions and privileges. It can also be helpful to collate software license keys and hardware warranty documents. Although these items may not be required at the outset of the relationship, it’s always good to know where they are and have them to hand if needed.
3. Have your chosen IT provider audit your systems
Many IT providers offer complimentary technical audits as a means by which to demonstrate how they can enhance and add value to the IT networks of prospective clients. Others include it as a component of their onboarding process. Regardless of how it’s offered, your new provider should be able to perform a technical audit of your systems, covering all on-premises and collocated infrastructure and private and public cloud assets. This process could expose vulnerabilities and system defects that your current provider has failed to address and will help your new provider identify network components needing an upgrade.
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4. Begin the offboarding process with your existing IT Service provider
Give notice to your existing provider of your intent to switch, ensuring the period of notice given is in accordance with your contractual obligations. This can sometimes seem like a daunting prospect, but most providers will understand that occasionally losing clients is par for the course in business, and will most likely try to facilitate a smooth transition.
You may need to grant your provider access to your premises should they have to retrieve any hardware that belongs to them, and they should be equally willing to grant you access to relocate any of your hardware that they’ve been hosting in their facilities. As mentioned previously, ensure they transfer those all-important login credentials, as these will be needed by your new provider.
5. Inform your team
Make your team aware of the changes that are underway concerning your IT support provision, including the date from which your new provider will take over. Highlight the new contact number for phone support and familiarize your team with the new support ticketing process. At some point, your new provider may want to introduce themself to your team in person. This can be a great way to foster that trust-based human element that all good business relationships thrive on.
Zia Networks – Your IT Support team for your New Mexico Business
We’re Zia Networks, an IT support company dedicated to helping businesses across Santa Fe, Albuquerque and the wider region grow and succeed with their technology.
Whether you’re concerned about compliance, struggling with tech that’s a poor match for your needs, or worried about the security of your data, we can provide secure, fully-managed services that help you overcome your most persistent IT challenges.
Get in touch today, to find out how IT services from Zia Networks can help move your business forward.
