A guide, not a brochure

How to change IT providers without downtime.

Most firms that want to move don’t, because the move looks worse than the problem. It isn’t, if it is sequenced properly. This is the sequence we commit to, written so you can run it with any provider — including the one you already have.

The checklist in section 2 is the part worth keeping. Print it, or send it to whoever you appoint.

1 — Before you say anything

Read your current agreement first

You are looking for four things. Fifteen minutes with the agreement now prevents the most expensive surprises later.

1.1

Notice period and term

Thirty days is common; ninety is not unheard of. Check whether the term auto-renews and on what date — giving notice a week after a renewal date can cost a year.

1.2

Exit and offboarding fees

Some agreements bill for the handover itself, by the hour. Find the clause before you negotiate, not after the invoice.

1.3

Who owns what

Domain, Microsoft tenancy, licence subscriptions, backup data, phone numbers. If any of these are held in the provider’s own account rather than yours, that is the first thing to fix — whether or not you move.

1.4

Equipment on rental or finance

Bundled hardware often sits on a separate finance term that outlives the service agreement. Establish what you own outright.

You do not need to tell your provider you are looking. Nothing in sections 1 or 2 requires their involvement, and a review of your own environment is an ordinary thing for a principal to commission.

2 — The handover checklist

What to collect before you move

18 items — complete as printed.

Identity and email

Microsoft 365 global administrator accountIn the firm’s name, with its recovery details, not the provider’s.
Tenancy ID and licence inventoryWhat you pay for, per user, and the renewal dates.
Conditional access and MFA policiesExported or screenshotted, including any exclusions.
Mail flow rules and connectorsIncluding anything routing mail via a third party.

Names and numbers

Domain registrar loginThe single most commonly withheld item. Get it early.
DNS zone exportEvery record, including mail authentication.
Website and hosting accessPlus whoever maintains it, by name.
Phone system and numbersAccount holder, porting authority, call flow.

Practice systems and data

Practice management administrator accessLEAP, Smokeball or Actionstep — plus your account manager there.
PEXA, land registry and court portal accountsWho administers them, and who can add or remove users.
Backup platform access and retention settingsWhere the data physically is, how long it is kept, and who can delete it.
Evidence of a successful restoreA log or a report. Ask before you leave, not after.
File server or document store inventoryLocations, sizes, and any mapped drives people rely on.

Devices, network and paperwork

Device list with local admin credentialsEvery machine, including spares and the one at home.
Network equipment and internet accountRouter and firewall logins, service account number, VPN configuration.
Multifunction printer and scan-to-mail settingsThe thing that always breaks on day one of a migration.
Current documentation, whatever existsDiagrams, runbooks, password vault export. Ask for it in writing.
Confirmation of removed accessWritten confirmation that the outgoing provider’s accounts, agents and remote tools are gone.

3 — How a transition runs

Fourteen days, in four stages

This is the order we work in, and it is also simply the right order. Nothing is cut over until the position is documented.

Day 1–3

We document first — nothing changes

We map what you have, in read-only, and hand you the documentation. If you stop here you still own a complete picture of your own environment, which is worth having regardless of who runs it.

Day 4

The notice letter, drafted for you

We write it, you read it, sign it and send it. It gives notice, requests the handover items in section 2 in writing, and sets a date — while keeping the tone cooperative, because you may need their goodwill for a fortnight.

Day 5–12

Handover against the visible checklist

We collect each item and tick it off in a document you can see. Where something is refused or missing, you find out on the day rather than at the end — and there is still time to escalate or rebuild it.

Day 14

We start the day they stop

No gap in cover and no overlap billing — you never pay two providers for the same month. Monitoring, backups and the helpdesk are live before the old agreement ends, and from the first day every request comes back with a time for the next update. Onboarding your staff takes about a week, run to a no-surprises rule: people are told what changes, when, and nothing moves without notice.

4 — What good handover looks like

Five marks of a clean exit

Everything is in your name.

Domain, tenancy, licences and backups sit in accounts the firm controls, with recovery details a principal holds.

The documentation is a document.

Not a conversation, not one engineer’s memory. You should be able to hand it to a third provider tomorrow.

A restore was demonstrated.

Someone proved the backups work by putting something back, and you have the log.

Old access is gone, in writing.

Accounts closed, remote-access agents removed, and confirmation of it on the file.

Nobody had to be a hero.

No weekend, no all-staff outage, no “we’ll sort the printers later.” A calm fortnight is the deliverable.

If your current provider meets all five, they are worth keeping. That is a fair outcome of reading this page.

5 — The traps

Where switches actually go wrong

The held domain

Registered in the provider’s account, sometimes in their name. Until it is transferred, they control your mail. Fix this first — it is also fixable while you are still a happy customer.

Backup custody

Backups held in the provider’s tenancy usually end at the agreement. Ask what happens to historical backups on exit, and get the answer in writing before you give notice.

Offboarding billed by the hour

A handover that is charged for is a handover that expands. Establish a fixed figure, or a scope, before the work starts.

Licences bought through the provider

Subscriptions on their agreement may have to be re-purchased and re-assigned. Check the term dates — occasionally it is cheaper to move the month after a renewal.

Cutting over during a settlement week

Obvious, and still the most common cause of a bad switch. Look at the matter diary before choosing the date, not after.

On switching to us

We draft the notice letter; you send it.
Handover collected against the checklist above.
Onboarding takes about a week, run to a no-surprises rule.
No gap in cover, no overlap billing, no exit fee if you later leave us.
Technicians in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide; remote everywhere else in Australia.