What is the Downtime of Changing IT Providers?

There are many reasons why a business might decide to change IT providers. Maybe your current partner simply doesn’t meet the response times or work quality defined in the Service Level Agreement.

Maybe they aren’t particularly proactive when it comes to protecting your systems, or you’re looking to partner with an IT provider more focused on helping to drive your business forward.

Whatever, the reason for the move, the issue of downtime when changing IT provider is often what makes some organisations hesitate. But what downtime is involved and is there a way to simplify the process?

Downtime when changing IT provider

Although it’s something that many businesses are wary of, there doesn’t necessarily have to be significant downtime when changing IT provider.

A carefully managed switchover will ensure that both systems and people are well prepared and that there are contingencies for any issues that occur.

The task with the most potential to create downtime is transferring knowledge from one provider to another. It will also be necessarily to ensure that the key people in your business have been introduced to the processes of the new partner.

Switching from a competitor

The process of moving from one IT provider to another should be smooth and simple.

However, some firms have a tendency to make it sound like an impossible feat that should only be attempted by the brave or the stupid.

The reality is that this is often simply an attempt to keep customers so, if this is the reaction you get when you give notice to an old IT provider, then you’re most likely doing the right thing in moving on.

A checklist to avoid downtime when changing IT provider

• Audit your current IT – this is a great time to review and reassess where you are.
• Make sure you know what you’re looking for in the new provider in terms of size, flexibility, services and cost.
• Get all the paperwork reviewed and ready well ahead of the move date.
• Ensure that you have data backups in place before the move happens.
• Create a list of all your passwords – change these once the move has taken place.

At Aztech, our managed IT services are designed to help your business reach its goals – and we work hard to ensure our clients don’t experience downtime during a move.

From 24/7 monitoring, to developing a long-term IT strategy for your organisation, our managed IT services are proactive and supportive.