Do you think it’s time to move on from your business IT support company to a new provider, but worry that the move will create more work than you have time to deal with?

If the wrong technology is holding back your business growth or you’re using a lot of time and resources resolving IT issues or feeling frustrated by lack of service from existing suppliers, moving to a new IT support supplier sooner rather than later will benefit your business, and the good news is, it doesn’t have to be hard work.

How easy is it to move to a new IT support company?

Once you have chosen the right new IT support provider, they will work with you and your outgoing supplier, and by following our plan below you’ll be well prepared with the information you need and processes you may wish to put in place to ensure a smooth transition.

Where are you, and where do you want to be?

There’s no point having a map if you don’t know where your starting point or destination are.

You can expect your incoming IT support company to conduct an audit of the hardware, software and processes you’re using but if you’re in possession of any documentation that might help them with this, then pass it along.

Just as important as your starting point is where you want to end up.

Discuss your goals with your new supplier and you can work together to get a clear understanding of how your business could work in the future. They’ll be able to identify issues that may have stopped you from getting to that point sooner and can suggest ways to use IT to improve communication, efficiency and productivity. . Your new provider should  help you optimise existing systems and implement new technology to get you where you’d like to be.

Will you need additional training?

It’s also a really good idea to give the new IT support company some information about the digital skill levels of your staff. Are they likely to need a lot of training and support on a new system or will they be off and running from day one?

Be prepared with passwords

You can expect your new supplier to liaise with your outgoing IT support to gather all the information they need, but it is possible they’ll need to ask you for passwords for some systems to get things set up. Hopefully you’re using a password manager so this will be easy, but ask your incoming provider what they may need so you can be prepared.

On this note, make sure your new supplier changes any passwords they’ve been given to make sure that no one from the previous IT company still has unnecessary access. If they have security in mind – which they should – they’ll do this as standard but it’s worth checking.

List your related suppliers

List the names and contact details of any of your IT related suppliers – your internet service provider, telephones, photocopier maintenance, ePOS systems, etc. Your IT support service is likely to work closely with at least some of these. Of course, this is a much easier job when you choose a managed service provider like Beaming that has its own voice and data network, alongside offering IT support.

Plan when the changeover will take place

Your IT support company should be flexible around your needs when it comes to choosing the right time to switch over. You’ll need to decide when this is but we’d recommend that it’s planned for to take place at a time that’s usually quieter for your business, but when employees will be around to get used to the new systems and report any teething problems ie not just before everyone goes home for the Christmas break.

Designate a main point of contact

With even the smoothest transfer of service, there will be some staff who need a little more support than others and some systems that require more attention. Designate one member of staff to act as liaison between your teams and the IT company, at least for the first few weeks.

This means that any major, recurring issues can be flagged and can help the new provider to prioritise their support.

Make sure staff know how and when to contact your new IT support provider

Following on from the above, your team need to know when and how to contact IT support, especially if the procedure has changed from your previous supplier. Can individual team members call up for IT support as and when they need it? Or do they need to go through another member of staff at the office? Should they phone or send an email? What are the contact details? Clarify all of this early on to avoid crossed wires in future.