Changing IT supplier without damage
Most organisations stay with a supplier they are unhappy with for a year longer than they intended, because the switch feels risky. It is manageable, but only if the sequence is right and the leverage is used before notice is given.
Secure five things before you give notice: administrator access to your own systems, an export of documentation and ticket history, licence ownership in your own name, a written asset register, and the contractual notice period in writing.
Run the transition in three phases: inventory, shadow period, switch. The shadow period, where both parties are active, is what prevents the gap that makes people regret switching.
A supplier who makes leaving difficult is telling you something about the relationship. Your leverage is highest before you give notice, so ask for the exit documentation while you are still a paying customer.
Five things to secure before you give notice
- Administrator access to your own environments. Your tenant, your firewall, your backup console. Not shared with the supplier, held by you.
- Documentation and ticket history. An export, in a readable format. The history is worth more than people expect, because it holds the recurring problems.
- Licences in your own name. Licences bought through a supplier and registered to them are the single most common thing that turns a transition into a negotiation.
- An asset register that matches reality. Serial numbers, warranty dates, what is leased and what is owned.
- The notice period, in writing. Read the contract before the conversation, not after.
All five are easier to obtain while you are a satisfied-looking customer than after you have given notice. That is not cynical; it is just how leverage works.
The three phases of a transition
| Phase | What happens | Typical length |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory | What is there, what is documented, what is broken and worked around | Two to four weeks |
| Shadow | The new party takes calls alongside the old one, learning the environment live | Two to six weeks |
| Switch | Full handover, old route open for a fortnight as a fallback | One day, then two weeks of aftercare |
The phase people try to skip is the shadow period, usually to save money. It is the phase that decides how the change is remembered, because the user experience of a transition is formed entirely in the first two weeks.
Know what is actually yours
Three categories cause most disputes at the end of a contract. Licences bought through the supplier and registered to their partner account. Hardware that turns out to be leased rather than owned. And monitoring or backup tooling that belongs to the supplier, meaning your historical data leaves with them.
None of that is necessarily unreasonable, and much of it is normal practice. It only becomes a problem when nobody checked which category each item falls into until the notice was given. Ask now, while it is a routine question rather than a negotiating position.
Documentation is the real deliverable
A transition succeeds or fails on how much is written down. Passwords in a managed vault rather than in somebody’s head. A network diagram that matches the building. A list of suppliers with contract dates. Which applications authenticate against what.
If the current supplier cannot produce that, the incoming party has to rebuild it, and that is the cost that makes a transition expensive rather than the switching itself. It is also, incidentally, the strongest argument for keeping documentation as a live deliverable in every contract rather than as an exit obligation.
When switching is the right answer, and when it is not
Switch when the same problems recur without the underlying cause being addressed, when the reporting does not tell you anything you can act on, when you cannot get an honest answer about something that went wrong, or when the supplier has grown past you and you are now their smallest client.
Do not switch because of a single bad incident. Every supplier has a bad month, and the transition cost is real. The question worth asking is whether the response to the incident was honest, because that is a better predictor than the incident itself.
What we do when we take over
We start with the inventory, and we say plainly what we find, including the things the previous party did well. That matters, because an incoming supplier who criticises everything is usually planning to sell a replacement for all of it.
Then a shadow period, then the switch with the old route open for a fortnight. Documentation is a deliverable from the first week rather than a promise, and the asset register is rebuilt as part of the handover rather than trusted.
What we take on is described under managed IT and IT service desk, and the reporting rhythm under service governance.
Questions we get about this
What organisations ask before giving notice.
What should we secure before giving notice to our IT supplier?
Administrator access to your own environments, an export of documentation and ticket history, licences registered in your own name, an accurate asset register, and the notice period in writing. All five are easier to obtain before notice than after.
How long does switching IT supplier take?
Typically two to three months end to end: two to four weeks of inventory, two to six weeks of shadow working, then the switch with a fortnight of aftercare. Skipping the shadow period saves money and reliably costs goodwill.
What if our licences are registered to the current supplier?
It is common and usually resolvable, but it is a negotiation rather than a transfer. Check now, while it is a routine question. Discovering it after notice has been given puts you in the weakest possible position.
Will our users notice the change?
In the first fortnight, yes, and that period forms their opinion. A shadow period where both parties are active, documentation that was verified rather than assumed, and the old route left open for two weeks are what make it invisible after a month.
Where this lands in our work
What a takeover involves.
Want this looked at for your own sites?
Half an hour on a call is usually enough to tell you whether we are the right party for it, and we will say so if we are not.