Switching IT providers without the downtime: a checklist

Changing IT provider shouldn’t mean a week of things breaking. Most problems come from the same few gaps: nobody has the admin passwords, a renewal lapses in the middle of the move, or the old provider still has access afterwards. Work through this list and the switch is usually invisible to your staff.

Before you give notice

• Read your current agreement: notice period, end date and any hand-over terms.
• List who has admin access to everything, and make sure at least one admin account belongs to your business, not the provider.
• Find out where your domain name is registered and who controls that login.
• Find out who hosts your DNS, website and email.
• List every Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace licence and who you buy them through.
• List other subscriptions and renewals: backup, antivirus, firewall licences, phone system and domains.
• Note your line-of-business software (accounting, practice or job management) and who supports it.
• Check what backups exist, where they are kept, and when a restore was last tested.

Collect from your current provider

• Admin access, or new admin accounts created for you: Microsoft 365, domain registrar, DNS, website hosting, firewall and router, Wi-Fi, backup systems and phone system.
• Network details: internet account details, static IP addresses, remote access settings and firewall rules.
• A list of the devices they manage, and which monitoring and security software is installed on them.
• Notes on anything unusual: scheduled tasks, scripts, shared drives, printers and integrations.
• Licence ownership: whether licences are in your name or theirs, and how they move without a gap.

The order to switch things over

1. Secure the admin accounts first: new passwords and multi-factor sign-in on the business-owned admin accounts.
2. Move licence billing (Microsoft 365 and others) so there is no gap in service.
3. Install the new provider’s monitoring and security on each device, then remove the old software.
4. Move backups, and test a restore before the old backup is switched off.
5. Move domains and DNS last, once everything else is stable, and do it outside business hours.

Afterwards

• Remove the old provider’s access: admin accounts, partner and delegated admin access in Microsoft 365, remote access tools and VPN accounts.
• Check that every renewal date is recorded with your new provider.
• Confirm backups are running and that a restore works.
• Tell staff how to get help now: the phone number, the email address and how to raise a ticket.

We run this whole process for new clients. Book a free health check and we’ll tell you exactly what we would need from your current provider.