Most businesses put up with an IT provider they're unhappy with for a lot longer than they should. It's rarely the price of the new provider that holds them back. It's the move itself. Who has the passwords? Will the email stop working? Will the phones go down on a Monday morning?
The short answer: a well run switch is mostly invisible to the people in the office. The date is usually set by your notice period, the hands-on work takes days rather than weeks, and the one thing that can really slow it down is the old provider. Here's how it actually goes, and what to have in your hands before you start.
The handover we learned the most from
A dental practice came to us after their IT person, a one-man operator, simply stopped responding. No reply to emails, no reply to calls, no handover. We didn't get a single password.
That meant working everything out from scratch. Who held the Microsoft 365 admin account. Where the domain was registered and who could log in to it. What the router password was. Whether the backups were even running, and where they went.
All of that can be recovered, but every piece takes time, and some of it needs the business to prove it owns what it owns. It's slow, and it's avoidable.
Most providers aren't like that. Larger IT companies usually hand over cleanly because they do it all the time. But you can't control how your current provider behaves on the way out. What you can control is what you hold yourself.
What to get before you give notice
Ask for these in writing. If you think you already have them, check that they actually work.
- Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace admin login. A global admin account in the business's name, not tied to the IT provider's own email address or mobile.
- Your domain name. Who the registrar is and the login. The domain should be registered to your business and ABN, not to the IT company.
- DNS hosting. Where your DNS is managed. It isn't always the same place the domain is registered, and it controls where your email and website point.
- Internet services. The account holder, account number and service details for each site.
- Phone services. The provider, account number and a list of every number you own, including fax and 13 or 1300 numbers. You need these to port.
- Firewall, router and Wi-Fi. Admin logins for the network gear and the current Wi-Fi passwords.
- Server and PCs. Local admin passwords and any server or domain admin accounts.
- Backups. Where they go, what's included, how long they're kept, and any encryption password. A backup you can't decrypt isn't a backup.
- Software vendors. Support contacts and licence details for your practice or line of business software.
- Anything that renews. Antivirus, Microsoft licences, the domain, any phone system licence. Renewal dates and who's currently paying for each.
Then read your agreement. Check the notice period and whether there's a fee for handover time. Charging for handover work is fair enough, as long as you know about it upfront.
What the first week looks like
On a planned switch, the order matters more than the speed.
- Access first. The new provider gets admin access to Microsoft 365, the domain, the firewall and the server. Nothing is switched off yet.
- Backups on day one. Before anything is changed, take a full copy of the server and key data. If something goes wrong during the move, you can go back.
- Software installed on every machine. We do this on site, PC by PC, so staff know who we are and we can see the setup with our own eyes. One thing to plan ahead: some security software has a tamper password that only the old provider can remove. Sort that out before the site visit, not on the day.
- A proper audit. Every PC, server, printer, licence and account written down. This becomes your asset register, which most small businesses don't have.
- Old access removed. Only after the cutover date, once everything is confirmed working.
If you've got regional sites, plan those visits early. Bunbury is a day trip from Perth. Kalgoorlie is a very long one.
Removing the old provider properly
This is the step that gets missed most often. Once the old contract ends:
- Remove their partner access in Microsoft 365. It's in the admin centre under Settings, Partner relationships.
- Delete any admin accounts they created and change any shared passwords.
- Uninstall their remote access tools from every PC and server. A remote tool nobody is watching is an open door.
- Check that multi-factor authentication on admin accounts isn't linked to the old technician's phone.
- Change the Wi-Fi and firewall passwords if they knew them.
None of this is about trust. Every business should be able to say exactly who can get into its systems, and after a handover that list should be short.
What if the old provider won't respond?
It's frustrating, but it's fixable.
- Domain name. Start here, because almost everything else depends on it. Contact the registrar directly with your ABN and business details. For a .com.au, the licence belongs to your business, not your IT company.
- Microsoft 365. Microsoft can return admin access to the business if you can prove you own the domain, usually by adding a record to your DNS. Allow a few days.
- Internet and phones. These accounts are in your name with the provider, so you can deal with them directly. Porting your numbers needs your account number and the account holder's authority, not the old IT company.
- Server and PCs. Local passwords can be reset with someone physically at the machine. Slower, not impossible.
- Backups. If you can't get into the old backups, start new ones on day one and don't decommission anything until you've confirmed nothing is missing.
Questions worth asking a new IT provider
- Who is my main contact, and are they in Perth?
- Is there an onboarding fee?
- What's your notice period, and will you hand over properly if we ever leave?
- Where are our backups stored? Ideally in Australia, and close to home.
- Do you come on site, and what does a visit cost?
For what it's worth, our agreements are month to month. We'd rather keep clients because the work is good than because a contract says they have to stay.
FAQ
How long does it take to switch IT providers? The hands-on work usually takes days, not weeks. The overall timing is mostly set by the notice period with your current provider.
Will our email stop working during the switch? No. Your email stays where it is. What changes is who holds the admin access.
Will we lose our phone numbers if we change providers? No. Numbers can be ported to a new provider. Just don't cancel the old phone service before the port is finished, or the numbers can be lost.
Can we switch if our current provider won't cooperate? Yes. It takes longer, because access has to be recovered rather than handed over, but your domain, Microsoft 365, internet and phone accounts all belong to your business.