Fear of change is the main reason most businesses put up with poor service and high bills from their IT support company. It seems the old saying “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” could have been written with IT support specifically in mind.
But changing IT support company can actually be straightforward and stress-free. You just need to take a few simple steps that put you in control of your own technology and lay solid groundwork for the move.
Four Steps to Prepare for the Move
- Know your credentials. Ask your current provider for a full list of usernames and admin passwords, and store them securely, ideally in a proper password manager rather than a spreadsheet or notebook. Ask to be notified whenever a change is made, and request a full, up-to-date list at least once a year as a fail-safe.
- Assign an internal contact. Make sure at least one person in your business is responsible for reporting problems and liaising with your IT provider. This is usually the same person who can action urgent changes if your provider is temporarily unavailable.
- List your technology providers. Most businesses rely on several technology suppliers. A full list of who they are, what they do, when contracts renew, and a recent bill from each is worth keeping to hand before you start any conversation with a new provider.
- Know how much support you actually use. Understanding your current support usage is crucial to managing costs going forward. If you don’t have an up-to-date report, ask your current provider for the figures. Knowing exactly what you need means you can negotiate with a new provider from an informed position, rather than guessing.
Why Businesses Choose Techrelate
If you’re ready to move your IT support, here’s what sets Techrelate apart. Attention to detail is what makes the difference, and it’s something we take seriously.
- Site images. When supporting a client remotely, our system lets engineers view images of the client’s office, equipment, and building layout, so support is faster and more effective from the first call.
- Labelled equipment. We attach clear labels to all important equipment, setting out the name, description, and technical details. This empowers your team to carry out simple local checks and reboots, solving minor problems quickly and cheaply.
- Network diagrams. We produce a comprehensive graphical layout of your technology, which speeds up troubleshooting and helps your team understand how everything connects.
- Disaster recovery checklists. If your business ever faces a total system failure, having a clear checklist with support contact details to hand can dramatically improve your chances of a fast recovery.
- Proactive monitoring. The sooner we know about a problem, the sooner your business is back up to speed. Our monitoring systems talk to every network-connected device, so we’re often aware of an issue, and fixing it, before you notice anything’s wrong.
- Self-help guides. Some tasks only come up occasionally, and it’s easy to forget the steps in between. We produce clear, quick-reference guides so your team can handle the basics without waiting on a call.
- Staff training. We’re happy to train your staff to handle day-to-day support of their own systems, and we welcome anyone with a genuine interest in how it all works.
- Change management. We can put a clear strategy in place to map out the process of changing your technology systems, helping your business grow or restructure without disrupting day-to-day work.
Switching IT support company doesn’t need to be the leap it feels like. With the groundwork above in place, most businesses find the move is far more straightforward than they expected, and it’s often the first real step towards IT that actually supports how the business works, rather than getting in its way.
Ready to make the switch, or just want a second opinion first?
Techrelate supports growing businesses across London and the UK, and we’re happy to talk through what a move would look like for you, no pressure, no obligation.
Click here to get in touch for a free, no-obligation conversation
