Changing IT provider does not have to be painful. This guide covers contracts, passwords, domains, Microsoft 365 access and documentation, with a practical handover checklist and timeline.
Most businesses put off changing IT provider for far longer than they should. The service may be slow, the communication poor or the bills unpredictable, but the thought of the switch itself feels risky. What if email stops working? What if the old company will not hand over the passwords?
The good news is that a well planned switch is usually uneventful for your staff. The work happens behind the scenes, and most of the risk comes from a handful of predictable issues. This guide walks through them in order, with a checklist you can use whoever you move to.
Before you speak to your existing provider, find your contract and read it carefully. You are looking for:
If anything is unclear, ask a solicitor or your new provider to look at it with you. Knowing your exact leaving date lets you plan the rest of the switch around it.
This is the most important part of any IT handover. Your business should own and control the accounts that everything else depends on. If your current provider set them up in its own name, now is the time to put that right.
Your domain name, such as yourbusiness.co.uk, is what your website and email addresses rely on. Check who the registered owner is and which company it is registered with. You need a login to that registrar account in your business name. DNS, the system that tells the internet where to deliver your email and find your website, may be hosted somewhere else again, so find out where it is managed and make sure you have access to that too.
Microsoft 365 has a top level administrator role called Global Administrator. Your business should hold at least one Global Administrator account that is not tied to your IT provider, protected with strong multi factor authentication. Microsoft also lets IT providers manage your tenant through partner relationships; your new provider will set up its own access, and the old provider's access should be removed once the handover is complete.
Find out who you buy Microsoft 365 licences through. If they are bought through your old provider, the licences may need to be moved to a new reseller or bought directly. This needs care, because letting licences lapse can affect access to email and files. Do the same for your security software, backup service and any line of business applications.
Ask your current provider, politely and in writing, for everything your new provider will need. Most reputable IT companies handle this professionally, and many contracts require it. A typical request covers the following.
Share passwords securely, for example through a password manager, and never in a plain email. Once the switch is complete, every important password should be changed so that only current, authorised people can use them.
Every switch is different, but most follow a similar pattern. The aim is to have the new provider fully onboarded before the old one steps away, so there is never a moment when nobody is responsible.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Before giving notice | Review the contract, choose your new provider and agree a leaving date. Your new provider carries out an initial review of your setup. |
| After giving notice | Request credentials and documentation. Confirm ownership of your domain, Microsoft 365 and licences. |
| Onboarding | The new provider installs its monitoring and security tools, checks backups, documents your systems and sets up its helpdesk for your staff. |
| Cut over | Support requests move to the new provider. Old monitoring tools and remote access software are removed, along with the old provider's admin access. |
| After the switch | Passwords are changed, quick wins are addressed and a fuller review sets out longer term improvements. |
Removing the old provider's tools matters. Leftover remote access software and admin accounts are a security risk, even when nobody intends any harm.
Your staff need to know who to contact from the cut over date, how to log a support request and what, if anything, will change for them. A short email and a note on the office wall are usually enough. Let them know they might see a new icon or a one off prompt as new security tools are installed, so nobody mistakes it for something suspicious.
Cyber Fits helps businesses across Sunderland and the North East move to managed IT support with as little disruption as possible. We manage the handover with your current provider, collect and document what is needed and make sure your business holds the keys to its own systems. A free IT review is a sensible first step, as it shows what you have now and what needs to be collected before you give notice.
It should not. Changing support provider does not usually require moving your email anywhere. As long as your domain, DNS and Microsoft 365 licences are handled carefully, staff should not notice any interruption.
Put the request in writing and refer to your contract. If your business holds its own Microsoft 365 Global Administrator account and domain registrar login, most access can be recovered without the old provider. A new provider can help you work through anything that remains.
The practical handover often takes a few weeks, but the overall timeline is usually set by the notice period in your current contract. Starting the planning before you give notice makes the process much smoother.
Your business should. The domain should be registered in your company name with a login you control, and you should hold at least one Microsoft 365 Global Administrator account that is independent of any IT provider.
Our guides are written by the team who support businesses across the North East every day. If anything here raises a question about your own setup, ask us.
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