Trois-Rivières, serving all of Quebec 450 231-3836 info@oktosolutions.ca
FR

Practical guide

Switching IT providers without breaking your operations

What holds most small businesses back is not the cost of changing, it is the day nothing works because the old provider left before the new one was ready. That fear is well founded, and it has an answer: an order of operations. Here is what belongs to you and must be handed back, the plan for the first 90 days, what to reread in your current contract, and the five mistakes that make a transition go wrong.

Tell us about your setup Compare providers

Switching IT providers takes 90 days, in this order: sign with the new provider, recover the documentation and administrator accounts, install monitoring, verify the backups with a real test restore, then and only then move the help desk and close the old accesses. Nothing is cut off before its replacement is proven.

The signs

Six signals that justify looking elsewhere

One bad month does not justify a change. A pattern that keeps returning does. Each signal below states the symptom, then what it actually reveals.

01

You do not know what you are paying for

The invoice moves every month and nobody can explain the gap, or the plan covers things you stopped using long ago.

What it reveals. This is not a price problem, it is a transparency problem. A provider who cannot break down its own invoice probably cannot break down your fleet either.

02

Nobody calls you when things are fine

You only hear from them when you open a ticket, and never for a meeting about the year ahead.

What it reveals. You are paying for repairs, not for management. That is the difference between a repair shop and a partner, and you pay it on the day of a major outage.

03

Your backups have never been restored

You are told the backups run, but nobody has ever performed a test restore in front of you.

What it reveals. A backup that has never been restored is not a backup, it is an assumption. This is the most serious signal on this list.

04

The same problems keep coming back

The same workstation crashes every month, the same printer drops off, the same employee calls about the same thing.

What it reveals. Symptoms are being treated without looking for the cause. A provider who truly monitors sees the pattern before you do.

05

You do not know where your data lives

Nobody can tell you which country hosts your data and your backups, or who holds the administrator accounts.

What it reveals. In front of the Commission d'acces a l'information, the responsibility stays yours. See our Law 25 obligations explained.

06

The documentation does not exist

When you ask for your network diagram or your licence list, you are told it is all in someone's head.

What it reveals. You are locked in without having chosen it. The documentation of your environment belongs to you, and its absence is on its own a reason to leave.

What belongs to you

Six things your current provider must hand back

These are not favours to negotiate on the way out, they are your property. A serious contract says so plainly in its end-of-term clauses. Ask for them while the relationship is still fine, not after the notice.

  1. The documentation of your environment. Network diagram, fleet inventory, licence list, procedures. It is your property, not the provider's.
  2. The administrator accounts. Microsoft 365, firewall, servers, antivirus, backup. You must own them, with at least one break-glass account that only you control.
  3. Your domain name and DNS. The domain must be registered in your name, not the provider's. It is the most expensive mistake to fix after the fact.
  4. Your software licences. Bought for you, they stay yours. Check which partner subscription they hang from and how they transfer.
  5. Your backups and their history. Not only the latest copy: the depth of history you have been paying for over the years, and a way to retrieve it.
  6. Hardware contracts and warranties. Serial numbers, warranty end dates, support contracts for network equipment.
The one-question test. Ask your provider today for your network diagram and the list of your administrator accounts. How long the answer takes already tells you where you stand.

The plan

The first 90 days, in the order that avoids damage

This order is not arbitrary. Every phase exists so that nothing is ever cut off before its replacement has been proven to work.

01

Days 1 to 30: look before touching

Full inventory of the fleet, recovery of the existing documentation, taking control of the administrator accounts. No configuration change at this stage. The point is to know exactly what you have before touching any of it.

02

Days 31 to 60: install what is missing

Monitoring goes in, backups are verified by a real test restore, overdue patches are caught up. The former provider is still in place: nothing is cut off before its replacement is proven.

03

Days 61 to 90: switch over and close

The help desk moves to the new team, the old accesses are closed one by one and on the record, and the three-year roadmap is handed over.

During those 90 days you pay twice. That is the real cost of switching, and it deserves to be said. The overlap lasts as long as the notice period in your contract. It is the price of a transition without interruption, and it is cheaper than a failed handover.

Your current contract

Four clauses to reread before announcing anything

Read your agreement before the first meeting with another provider. These four points set your timeline and your room to manoeuvre.

  • The notice period. Thirty, sixty or ninety days changes your whole schedule
  • Automatic renewal. One missed date can commit you for another year
  • End-of-term fees. Disengagement, transfer, documentation billed on the way out
  • What gets handed back. The written list of what the provider owes you, and by when
If those clauses do not exist. A contract that is silent about the exit is not reassuring, it is risky. It is also the first thing to check in the next agreement you sign, with us or with anyone else.

The risks

The five mistakes that make a transition go wrong

They show up almost every time, and every one of them is avoidable with a little order.

01

Giving notice too early

Until the new provider has recovered the accesses and the documentation, your leverage is all you have. Sign first, give notice after.

02

Discovering a punitive exit clause

Months of notice, disengagement fees, documentation billed on the way out. Read your contract before announcing anything.

03

Leaving accesses open

One forgotten administrator account at the former provider is an open door. Closing them must be a written list, ticked one by one, with a date.

04

Switching during your busy season

A transition needs availability on your side too. Pick a quiet stretch, not a fiscal year end.

05

Switching without writing down what went wrong

If the expectations are not written before the meetings, the new provider will reproduce the same blind spots as the old one. See the 12 comparison criteria.

Going further. Before choosing, compare providers on the 12 criteria that matter, look at what makes up the price, and see how our managed IT services are structured.

Questions and answers

Frequently asked questions about switching IT providers

How do you switch IT providers without interrupting operations?
By planning the transition before signing, and by cutting nothing until the replacement is proven. The new provider should describe their first 90 days: recovering the documentation and the accesses, installing their monitoring, verifying the backups with a real restore, then moving the help desk. Most bad transitions come from an improvised handover, not from the change itself.
When should I give notice to my current provider?
After signing with the new one, and after checking the notice period written in your contract. Until the documentation and the administrator accounts are recovered, notice given too early puts you in a weak position.
What must the former provider hand over?
The documentation of your environment, the administrator accounts for all your systems, your licences, access to your backups and their history, and your hardware warranty information. All of it belongs to you. A serious contract states this explicitly in its end-of-term clauses.
How long does a transition take?
Ninety days for an ordinary small business, and the first thirty are spent only on understanding what exists. A provider who promises a one-week handover has not planned to verify your backups.
Could I lose data by switching?
Not if the order is respected. Nothing is migrated or cut off before a test restore has proven the backup works. The real risk is not the change, it is staying with a provider whose backups have never been tested.
My domain and licences are in the provider's name. What now?
It is common and it is fixable, but it gets settled before the departure, not after. Transferring a domain name and reattaching licences to your own subscription need the former provider's cooperation. Ask for it while the relationship is still fine.
Do we have to change everything at once?
No. Many businesses start with security and backup, keep the rest for a few months, then move the help desk. It is slower, but it reduces the number of things that can go wrong at the same time.

Let's talk about where you stand

We look at your contract, your fleet and your calendar, and we tell you plainly whether a change is justified. If your current provider is doing a good job, we will say that too.

Request a meeting See what makes up the price