What Actually Happens When You Switch IT Provider
What Actually Happens When You Switch IT Provider
Plenty of businesses stay with an IT provider they’re not happy with, because the alternative feels risky. The provider holds the passwords, knows how everything is set up, and the prospect of untangling that while still trying to run a business is unappealing enough to keep putting off.
That fear is understandable, and it isn’t entirely unfounded. Switching badly can be disruptive. But it’s a well-worn path, and most of what goes wrong is predictable and avoidable if you know what to check before you start.
Here’s what the process actually involves.
Before Anything Else: Check What You Own
This is the single most important step, and the one most businesses skip. Before you give notice, establish what belongs to you rather than your provider. If something turns out to be theirs, you want to know now rather than mid-transition.
Your domain name
Your domain should be registered to your business, with your business as the registrant, and ideally in an account you control. It’s common for a provider to have registered it for you years ago and held it in their own account since.
That’s usually fine while the relationship is good. It’s a problem if it isn’t.
Your Microsoft 365 tenant
This one catches people out. Microsoft 365 is often sold through a provider under a partner agreement, and there’s a meaningful difference between a tenant that belongs to you with your provider granted admin access, and a tenant sitting inside the provider’s own arrangement.
Both are legitimate ways of doing things. But they behave differently when you leave, and it’s worth knowing which you have before you need to know.
Your licences and subscriptions
Antivirus, backup, and other subscriptions may be under the provider’s agreement rather than yours. In many cases these simply stop when you leave and get replaced by the new provider’s equivalent, which is normal. You just want to be clear which is which, rather than discovering something has lapsed.
Your backups
Where do they live, in whose account, and can you access them independently? Backups sitting exclusively in a provider’s own storage are the thing you least want to lose access to during a transition.
Your documentation
Network diagrams, asset lists, licence keys, configuration details, supplier contacts. Well-run providers maintain this. Not all do. Ask for it as part of the handover.
How to do this without drama: you don’t need to announce you’re leaving to ask these questions. “We’re updating our records, can you confirm what’s registered to us and where things sit?” is an entirely reasonable request at any time, and the answers tell you a great deal about how straightforward a departure would be.
Check Your Contract
Look for the notice period, any minimum term, and whether it auto-renews. Twelve month terms with thirty to ninety days notice are common, and auto-renewal clauses catch people who miss the window by a fortnight and find themselves committed for another year.
Also check whether there are exit fees or charges for handover work. These exist and are not necessarily unreasonable, but you want to know the number before you commit to anything.
The Handover Itself
1. Discovery
A good incoming provider will want to understand your setup before taking anything on. Expect an audit: what hardware you have, what software you run, how your network is configured, where your data sits, who has access to what.
This takes a bit of your time and is worth giving properly. It’s also frequently where problems surface that nobody knew about, an unsupported server, a backup that hasn’t run in months, accounts belonging to former staff.
2. Credentials and access
The outgoing provider hands over administrative access: domain registrar, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, firewall and network equipment, any management systems.
Experiences here vary. Most providers are professional about it, because the industry is small and reputations matter. Some are slower or less helpful than you’d like. The best defence is knowing in advance what you’re entitled to and asking for it in writing.
3. New tooling deployed
The incoming provider will install their own monitoring, security, and backup tools across your devices. This is usually the most visible part for staff, though it’s typically quick and often done remotely.
4. Overlap period
Ideally there’s a period where the new provider is set up and the old one hasn’t fully disengaged, so anything missed can still be resolved. Not always possible depending on your notice period, but worth aiming for.
5. Change all the passwords
Once handover is complete, administrative credentials the old provider held should be changed. Not an accusation of bad faith, simply that access should follow the current relationship.
How Long It Takes
For a straightforward small business, the technical handover is usually a matter of days rather than weeks. Deploying tools and taking over management is not complicated work.
The longer parts are the notice period, which is set by your contract rather than by anyone’s effort, and any remediation the discovery process turns up. If the audit finds an unsupported server or a backup that doesn’t work, fixing that properly takes as long as it takes.
A realistic overall expectation for most small businesses is a few weeks from decision to fully settled, with the majority of that being contractual rather than technical.
What Can Actually Go Wrong
Access that doesn’t get handed over. Usually something minor and forgotten rather than withheld, a supplier portal, a certificate, a licence account. Discovered later, resolved with a phone call, mildly annoying.
Something breaking during cutover. Genuine risk, generally small, and the reason changes are scheduled outside business hours where possible.
Discovery finding real problems. Not really a failure of the switch, more that switching surfaces things that were already true. Better found now than during an incident.
A difficult exit. Uncommon, but it happens. Knowing what you own before you give notice is the main protection.
Questions Worth Asking a Prospective Provider
- What does your onboarding process involve, and how long does it take?
- What will you need from our existing provider?
- What happens if they’re slow to hand things over?
- Will anything be registered in your name rather than ours?
- What’s your notice period, and what happens to our data if we leave?
That last question is a good one. A provider comfortable answering it plainly is telling you something useful.
The Honest Summary
Switching IT provider is more administrative than technical. The genuine risks are contractual and around ownership, not about whether the new provider can configure a laptop.
Establish what you own, check your notice period, expect a proper discovery process, and allow for the possibility that it uncovers a few things. Do that and it’s a manageable piece of work rather than the ordeal people imagine.
Staying with a provider that isn’t working because switching feels difficult tends to cost more, over a long enough period, than the switch itself.
Thinking About a Change?
CCSW supports businesses across Cardiff and South Wales, and we handle transitions from other providers regularly. If you’d like to talk through what moving would involve for your business, with no obligation, get in touch or call 0333 014 4544.
