Outsourcing IT support and solutions can be intimidating for any organisation, with the vested time and money as well as the handing over of sensitive data. And it can just be a daunting process. In this jet-age, when the IT industry is growing like never before, it is a must to pick the best fit IT support provider for any businesses requirements. So they don’t find themselves Switching IT Support Providers further down the line.
As businesses in Belfast and Northern Ireland grow and develop, it is not uncommon for current IT service providers to fail with requirements in terms of deadlines, service quality, solutions/ideas, or maybe they are just overcharging due to the somewhat captive situation of past support.
But it is also commonly assumed that switching IT support providers is riddled with hassles, and while it may be more complicated than hoped, we are here to break free the shackles of misinterpretation. And here we share the steps involved in switching your IT support providers in Belfast and Northern Ireland. A simple process. At least when managed well.
Know your Reasons to Switch
Once you have finally zeroed in on the decision to switch IT support providers, it is then crucial to be aware of what you are planning to switch to. So this will mean knowing the issues currently faced by your organisation, and what you will be needing from your next support provider. But switching to new IT Support without knowing all necessary requirements will not only further delay the transfer process, but it may also cost a fortune to recover from.
Abridged version: the next service provider should possess the technical expertise to cater to the needs your prior service provider failed to meet. Services here.
Ensure Possession of Data and Information
Prior to the switching process, and even before informing the current service provider about it, it is absolutely essential to ensure that all the data of your IT assets, functional accounts, passwords, usernames, account information and credentials are saved and present with you. And just the base plan or blueprint of how your organisation works should be available with you.
Read the Previous Agreement!
After discovering a need to switch to a new IT support provider, it is important to know the terms and conditions of the current service provider. So this means checking current contracts, and whether or not there is a notice period or a duration of time before switching IT support providers is possible. It also means notifying the organisation of your decision early on to further decrease the hassles in planning the process.
Compare and Decide
Once the list of prerequisites is checked off, it is time to evaluate your options and go for the best pick. One may compare:
- Amount of service hours
- Terms and conditions of payment
- Strength of the organisation
- A background check
- Current clients
- Most importantly, whether they are equipped with the technical expertise needed by your organisation.
The Handover Document
When the new IT Support service provider is chosen, you must make them aware of your IT assets, previous service logs, the technicalities of your current operations and your requisitions. This is so they can be well-informed on how to move forward with the transfer and these details should all be provided in a handover document.
Get a Point of Contact
There will need to be constant liaising with the current service provider as well as cooperation with your new service provider. Which may create a lot of hassles and ambiguity if not managed properly, and there may be troubling consequences in the case of any miscommunication. It is therefore crucial to assign a single point of contact, either a person or a department, to manage cooperation between the two.
Designate a Managing Team
Since it is an organisational level task, with a lot of give-and-take of data, information, documents, passwords, account information, and past transactions changing hands, it is not always a one-manned task. Hence, a designated team of managers may need to take charge of the different processes such as legal, operational and financial processes.
Keep your Contingency Plan Handy
Major incidents of data loss have been recorded time and again due to not paying heed to the data protection process. In such cases, retrieving potentially enormous amounts of data will become impossible, and this leads not only to major losses in data but time, energy and money.
Therefore backing up as well as a recovery plan for your business data is a mandatory step to ensure data is protected from accidental errors and disastrous glitches. In the process of switching your IT support provider, there will always be a certain amount of data exchanged, hence, being prepared for the worst-case scenario is always the best practice for data protection.
Agility is Key!
Moving on to a new IT support provider may come with a lot of technical and technological changes, which often includes infrastructural changes and payment structure changes. So it is not unknown for an entirely new IT infrastructure needing to be built from scratch in larger organisations. However, it is important to be agile and open to suggestions at this point in time, and to vest trust in the support offered by experts, to make a smoother transition.
Switching IT Support Providers in Belfast
Switching from your current IT support provider is a major step that can be smoothened by simply following the steps above. Then the key to hassle-free switching lies in managing the entire process in sub-steps and ticking off one step at a time. And this would be our expertise having offered similar IT Support in Belfast and Northern Ireland for over 10 years.
