Hiring an MSP to look after your IT infrastructure provides numerous benefits to your company. But it is also a fact that every MSP differs in the level of quality of its service. So there can be times when you end up partnering with an MSP only to find that it is not living up to your expectations or your business is still left lacking in certain aspects that you hoped would be fixed when you employ the services of an MSP. In situations like these when things do not work out the way you would have wanted with your existing MSP, it is best for your company to move on to a new Managed Services Provider that would provide you with the optimum quality of IT Support and Managed IT Solutions.
Anyhow, once you have finally decided that you are going to switch to a new service provider, there is a proper process you would need to follow for transitioning smoothly from your existing MSP to the next one. Here we are going to discuss some important steps in this process:
Review Your Contract with the MSP
Before you sign a contract with a different Managed Services Provider, you must get done with offboarding your existing MSP, for which you will have to inform them first and foremost that you do not intend to continue your partnership with them, because it will require some cooperation from your old MSP to complete this procedure. But before we get to that, you’ll have to have a look at your current contract’s terms & conditions to see what are the required formalities to terminate or cancel the contract with your existing MSP mid-way, instead of waiting to complete the full term of the contract. So accordingly, settle any pending payments with your existing provider and complete the paperwork to end the contract.
Offboarding the Old Provider and Onboarding the New MSP
This requires co-op for a while between your current MSP and the new soon-to-be MSP, because there is a lot of work involved in your old Managed IT Servicer Provider uninstalling and removing its Hardware equipment and Software solutions, remote passwords, etc., so that your IT infrastructure can be handed over hassle-free to your new vendor. The next potential vendor will audit or inspect your IT environment before setting up their new framework in your environment and applying their own solutions.
The Audit Procedure
The prospective Managed IT Services Provider will send a team to your site to evaluate your IT environment in order to assess your current infrastructure closely and to understand your needs and goals. After a thorough audit of your infrastructure, they will talk to you about their offerings and what solutions they plan to implement to help you achieve your business objectives.
Contract Singing and Onboarding New MSP
When you are satisfied with the offerings of the prospective MSP, you will sign a contract with them. So straight off the new MSP will start updating everything on your infrastructure with their fresh tools & practices. You might have to call your old MSP at this particular time to provide you with one of their experts who has worked with you earlier, to facilitate the onboarding process of your new MSP vendor in case they need any help with ensuring no old software, or data information on the network and operating systems are left behind, and all access is given to the new vendor so it can apply its new solutions without any issues. This co-management may be required briefly just to make sure everything is transformed in a smooth manner, and problems like access denial, security issues, or anything of that sort -although rare in possibility- would not occur, later on, just to be safe.
You Are All Set With Your New MSP
After performing a backup of your system your new provider is ready to take control of your IT environment. The MSP will then provide the services tailored to your requirements and compatible with your IT environment, synchronize your enterprise’s operations with their suggested cloud platform, and assign you a single point of contact for you to inquire about any of your concerns regarding the implementation of their processes or for any other queries. They would also closely assess your cybersecurity and apply any necessary measures needed to tighten the security to the maximum.
Now the above steps would ensure you have a seamless transition from your old MSP to the new vendor. Before the whole process though, when you are choosing your new provider this time around you must be careful not to make the same mistake again, and hence you should make sure that you avail of the services of this MSP only after very thoroughly examining the MSP. Particularly checking some of their references, if possible, especially from those former clients of the MSP who operate a business as large in scope and operations as yours and learn how the MSP performed for that business to have a fair idea of what to expect, along with ensuring if they have the latest technology to handle your tasks and make your work easier & more productive, among other things like considering their costs, security arrangements, etc.
Concluding Thoughts
Your communication with your vendor is critical to building trust and keeping a close eye on their solutions so you can determine if their services are really satisfactory enough to fulfill your needs or whether you need to switch to a different service provider. Never should you take such a crucial decision in a hurry since building a good working relationship with your partner company demands a lot of investment in terms of trust, and teamwork.
We at Synergy IT Solutions believe in treating our clients like family and have built a reputation over the years earning the goodwill of our partners. We boast of certified and professional IT experts, as well as three decades of experience in the IT & Software industry. Most of our clients have never had any complaints with us due to our expertise and proactive approach to dealing with their requirements. You can give us a call now or anytime to check out our Managed Services Portfolio, and a free consultation for evaluation of your IT requirements. We will do our best to make your MSP journey a success story as we have for our many clients in the past.
