Changing your IT provider can be quite a daunting decision to make. Especially if you, like most business owners and managers, just want IT to work, and don’t want to get involved in all the technical stuff.
To ease your uncertainty around moving IT service providers we’ve created our Hassle Free IT Takeover process. In a nutshell, this means you leave all the hard work to us whilst we get you moved over.
We Play Nice With Others
One of the reasons our process is such a success is that we always play nice with other providers. This might be your incumbent IT Service Provider or any other provider you use. We understand that it’s not nice for anyone to lose a customer. So, we work hard to make sure the transition is as hassle-free for them as it is for you.
How does the takeover work?
Step 1: Administrative Tasks
After a welcome email and package in the post, we’ll send you an ‘intake survey’. This is used to grab all of the important details we need (contact info, user accounts, security issues – that kind of thing) and takes a maximum of 10 minutes to complete.
We’ll also explain how often we bill you, how to find your invoice history and the payment terms, just to get that boring stuff out of the way.
Behind the scenes, we then create your own space on our support ticketing system that includes all the necessary details about your business for our team to reference when needed.
A series of emails will be sent to you in the days that follow which reveal how to contact us and work with our team, but we’ll also add you to our newsletters which offer awesome advice for making the most of the IT systems you have.
Lastly, if any third-party billing needs to be transferred to us (for instance, Office 365), we’ll do that during this stage, too. We’ll also make note of any vendors we may need to contact and setup all of the security details about users, access authority, and how to deal with sensitive requests.
Step 2: Account Manager Tasks
This is when we schedule a meeting with you to kick off the relationship. These typically last around 60 minutes and give you the chance to ask us any questions you might have. We’ll reveal how our support service works and introduce you to the team members you’ll work with.
This meeting will cover everything you need to know, and while there’s a structure to it, we’re happy for it to go in any direction that best suits you. So, if you want to focus on security – that’s cool. Equally, if you’re more interested in the initial technology roadmap, we can focus intently on that.
During this step, we’ll also talk about what happens next. For instance:
- When is the cutover/go-live date?
- When will a Compex engineer be on site?
- What technical changes can be expected?
- What’s expected from the outgoing IT company?
During this time, we’ll give every member of your team a ‘New Client Manual’ which is a physical 10-page manual, it includes the best ways to get support from us, how fast we respond, the escalation procedure etc.
Lastly, we’ll send out three important pieces of documentation (nothing too boring, we promise) to ensure everything goes as smoothly as it should:
- Client vendor management letter: for management of your business apps, telecoms, print company, ISP, etc.
- IT takeover pack: this is sent to your outgoing provider to ensure we gather the right information for a seamless transition (passwords, device info – that kind of thing).
- Client sample policies: these include policies for password management, email, internet usage, remote working and more.
We’ll also schedule 30-, 60-, and 90-day onboarding reviews to ensure everything is transitioning as smoothly as it should.
Step 3: Technical Tasks and Password Changes
Step 3 is split into two phases – technical tasks, and password changes.
The technical tasks are undertaken by us and include:
- installation or removal of agents on all computers and servers;
- removal of any previous IT company software;
- photos of your environment for faster troubleshooting in future;
- gathering of all software licenses;
- an audit of your backup services;
- review and documenting of the network, including firewall configurations;
- removal of old antivirus software and installation of new antivirus software; and
- implementation of security best practices.
The latter is particularly important and will include the setup of 2-factor authentication where available, and advanced email protection for Office 365. We’ll also setup automated backups for you and ensure you’re using the best web protection software.
The second phase of step three relates to password and credential changes.
Our team will:
- document all password changes and save them securely on our system (you’ll have your own record of this, too);
- set up new client admin account for our services; and
- disable or delete anything that might pose a security risk.
- The latter task might include removing unnecessary administration accounts, resetting “at-risk” user passwords, and resetting or removing any access that could enable the previous support company to gain access.
Is switching IT providers easy?
Yes – providing you switch to us. We know better than anyone that other providers take far too long and spend most of the process criticising the outgoing company.
We don’t do that, because life is too short, and we know you simply want to switch providers; you don’t need any chest-beating from us (we’ll demonstrate what we’re worth in the service we provide).
Let’s dispel a few common myths about switching IT providers:
- “It’s too expensive” – actually, you’ll probably save money in the long run
- “The new company won’t understand how we use our systems” – they will if they ask the right questions
- “Everything will stop working – we can’t afford any downtime” – there’s no reason for anything to stop working for any considerable period of time during the transition – if at all
- “It’ll take ages” – it won’t; this stuff is easy when you know what you’re doing
Most important, if you switch to Compex for your IT support, we’ll work closely with your existing provider to ensure everything is handed over with minimal input on your behalf and with next to no downtime.
Worry no more about switching IT providers. As you can see from our three-step approach, it should be effortless on your part and result in a far more secure IT platform which is fully supported by our brilliant, responsive team.