Change Your IT Provider. Not Your Entire IT Environment.
Unhappy with your IT support, but worried that changing provider will create even more disruption?
For many businesses, it isn’t satisfaction with their existing IT provider that stops them moving. It’s the worry that changing will be complicated, disruptive and mean starting again.
But changing IT provider doesn’t automatically mean changing the technology your business already knows and relies on.
A note about this case study: Westbrook & Co. and the scenario below are fictional. They have been created to illustrate the type of challenges businesses can face when considering changing IT provider.
Meet Westbrook & Co.
Westbrook & Co. is a fictional 55-person professional services business.
Like many businesses, Microsoft 365 sits at the heart of its working day. Its team relies on:
- Outlook and Exchange Online for email
- Microsoft Teams for communication
- SharePoint and OneDrive for documents
- Microsoft 365 accounts and licences
- Microsoft security and identity services
But the technology itself wasn’t the reason Westbrook & Co. wanted to change.
The problem wasn’t Microsoft 365. The problem was the service surrounding it.
Tickets regularly needed chasing. Small problems were becoming frustrating distractions. Advice often felt reactive rather than proactive, and the management team had started questioning whether the business was getting enough value from its IT provider.
Yet one question kept stopping them from making a change:
“If we change IT company, are we going to have to move everything?”
The reassuring answer was: not necessarily.
Changing IT provider doesn’t automatically mean changing your Microsoft 365 environment.
The objective doesn’t have to be to rip everything out and start again.
It can simply be about carefully changing the team responsible for looking after it.
Changing IT Provider: A Six-Step Journey
For Westbrook & Co., changing provider wasn’t treated as one enormous switch.
Instead, the journey could be broken into six clear stages:
- Discover – Start with a conversation
- Review – Understand the existing IT environment
- Plan – Plan the handover
- Onboard – Bring the new IT partner in
- Handover – Transfer responsibility carefully
- Improve – Don’t simply inherit, improve
Step 1: Discover
Start with a conversation
Before talking about replacing technology, Bespoke IT Solutions would start by understanding the business and what isn’t working.
What’s causing frustration?
Where is IT getting in the way?
What would better IT support actually look like?
This gives both sides the opportunity to understand the challenges and establish whether Bespoke IT Solutions is the right fit before progressing any further.
Thinking the same thing? Start with a conversation, not a migration.
Step 2: Review
Understand what you already have
Next comes understanding the technology the business already has.
That could include reviewing areas such as:
- Microsoft 365
- Exchange Online
- Microsoft Teams
- SharePoint
- OneDrive
- Entra ID
- Microsoft licences
- Administrator access
- Security configuration
- Multi-factor authentication
- Devices and endpoints
- Existing backups
- Third-party services
The objective isn’t change for change’s sake.
It’s about understanding what should stay, what could be improved and where risks or gaps may need attention.
Step 3: Plan
Plan the handover
This is where one of Westbrook & Co.’s biggest fears started to disappear.
Their Microsoft environment didn’t suddenly have to vanish because they were changing IT company.
Instead, the transition could focus on establishing appropriate access, clarifying responsibilities and carefully planning how management of the IT environment moves from one provider to another.
Think handover, not rip-and-replace.
The conversation changes from:
“How are we going to rebuild everything?”
to:
“How do we carefully hand responsibility from one provider to another?”
Step 4: Onboard
Bring the new IT partner in
Appropriate Microsoft administrative relationships and customer approvals can form part of the onboarding process.
But Microsoft 365 is only part of the picture.
A well-planned transition should also consider the wider technology surrounding it.
- Who manages the broadband?
- Who looks after the backups?
- Which security products are being used?
- Are there Azure services?
- Are there important third-party applications?
- What devices does the business own?
- What information and documentation does the existing provider hold?
Microsoft 365 might sit at the heart of the business, but it’s only one part of the overall IT relationship.
A good transition looks at the complete picture.
Step 5: Handover
Manage the old access carefully
Once the new arrangements have been established and verified, the outgoing provider’s access can be addressed as part of the offboarding process.
The principle is straightforward:
- Establish the new arrangements
- Hand over responsibilities
- Address the old access appropriately
Not:
“Switch everything off and hope for the best.”
That’s the difference between simply changing supplier and managing a transition.
Step 6: Improve
Don’t just inherit. Improve.
Changing MSP also creates an opportunity to ask a much more useful question:
“Is our IT environment actually set up the way our business needs it to be?”
Westbrook & Co. didn’t want a new IT provider simply to inherit the same problems.
An onboarding review could therefore consider areas including:
- Cyber security
- Microsoft licensing
- User administration
- Documentation
- Backups
- Business continuity
- Devices
- Future technology requirements
Any improvements could then be prioritised according to risk, business benefit and budget, rather than trying to replace everything at once.
What Changed for Westbrook & Co.?
The biggest benefit wasn’t a shiny new piece of technology.
It was confidence.
The fictional business could continue using the familiar Microsoft environment its team already knew, while putting a clearer IT support relationship around it.
1. Familiar Technology
The team could continue working with the Microsoft tools they already used every day.
2. Clearer Support
Employees could have a clearer relationship with their IT support provider and know where to go when something wasn’t working.
3. Greater Visibility
Management could gain a clearer understanding of the IT environment and where attention might be needed.
4. A More Proactive IT Conversation
Technology conversations could start moving away from simply putting out fires and towards what the business wanted to achieve next.
The Biggest Lesson?
Changing IT provider doesn’t necessarily mean changing your IT.
Sometimes, it’s about changing who looks after it.
Are You Staying Because You’re Happy, or Because You’re Worried About Moving?
If you’re receiving poor IT support, constantly chasing tickets or simply don’t feel like you’re getting enough from your current provider, fear of changing shouldn’t be the reason you stay.
Your business may already have a Microsoft environment that your people know and use every day.
Changing MSP doesn’t automatically mean throwing that away.
At Bespoke IT Solutions, the aim is to understand your current environment, plan the transition and make changing IT provider feel controlled, straightforward and reassuring.
Thinking About Changing IT Provider?
No pressure. No assumption that everything needs replacing.
Just a straightforward conversation about where you are now, what’s frustrating you and what better IT support could look like.
Talk to Bespoke IT Solutions about changing IT provider.
