You can switch IT provider without disrupting your staff, as long as the handover is planned. The safe order is: make sure your business controls its own admin accounts, domain name and Microsoft 365 account; check your contract’s notice terms; then let the new provider run the handover with the old one, setting up its tools and backups before the old ones come off. Here’s the checklist we work through, including the parts worth doing yourself before you give notice.
1. Read your contract
- Notice period: how much notice you must give, in what form, and whether it can only be given at certain points.
- Renewal date: many contracts renew automatically if notice isn’t given in time.
- Exit terms: any charges for leaving early, and what the provider has agreed to hand over when you go.
- Things billed through them: Microsoft 365 licences, your domain name, website hosting, backup storage or security software. Each needs a plan so nothing lapses.
If the dates are awkward, you don’t have to wait to start planning: a new provider can assess your systems and prepare while your notice runs. Our guide to IT support costs lists the contract terms worth checking before you sign your next one.
2. Make sure you hold the keys
Before you tell anyone you’re leaving, check that your business, not just your provider, can get into the systems that matter:
- Microsoft 365. You should have at least one Global Administrator account belonging to your business, protected by multi-factor authentication. Microsoft says only Global Administrators can view and manage subscriptions bought through a partner, so this matters for your licences too.
- Your domain name. Check it’s registered in your business’s name and that you have the login for the company it’s registered with. Your domain runs your email and website, so it shouldn’t sit in a supplier’s account.
- DNS. Find out where your DNS records are managed. That’s where your email security records live; our guide to SPF, DKIM and DMARC explains why they matter.
- Everything else: your firewall and Wi-Fi, website hosting, backup service, password manager, and the admin accounts for your business software.
Most outgoing providers handle handovers professionally. Checking first simply means a slow or difficult one can’t leave you locked out.
3. Microsoft 365: partner access and licences
Your Microsoft 365 account (the “tenant”) belongs to your business. Your IT provider usually has two separate relationships with it: admin access, granted to them as a Microsoft partner, and often a reseller relationship through which they bill your licences.
- Admin access. In the Microsoft 365 admin centre, Settings > Partner relationships shows which partners have access and what roles they hold, and a Global Administrator can remove a partner’s roles there. Microsoft notes that removing roles doesn’t stop a partner making purchases on your behalf, so ask them to remove that too.
- Licences. Licences bought through a provider can move to a new one part-way through their term. The new provider sends a transfer request, and the old provider approves it and chooses which subscriptions move. User numbers and renewal settings carry over, so nothing changes for your staff. Requests that aren’t acted on expire after 30 days, so it helps if the old provider knows one is coming.
- Timing. Annual licences can only be cancelled for a refund in the first seven days of a term, and that window doesn’t reopen until renewal, so plan any licence changes around your renewal dates.
Remove the old provider’s access once the handover is complete, not before. You may need their help until then.
4. Ask for the documentation
A good handover pack includes:
- a list of every admin account and where its password is stored, ready to be changed after the handover;
- your network layout, internet connection details and firewall settings;
- what’s backed up, where, for how long, and how to restore it;
- licence, warranty and renewal dates;
- contacts for your business software suppliers;
- any open problems or unfinished projects.
If the old provider’s documentation is thin, don’t worry. A new provider should audit your systems anyway rather than rely on someone else’s notes.
5. The handover itself
- Assessment. The new provider audits your systems and agrees a plan and dates with you.
- New tools alongside old. Monitoring, anti-virus and remote support tools go on before the old provider’s come off, so devices are never left unprotected.
- Backups overlap. New backups are set up and a test restore is done before the old ones stop. Agree what happens to your old backup history.
- Licences and access. Licences transfer, admin passwords are changed, and multi-factor authentication on admin accounts is moved to new devices.
- Staff told. Everyone gets the new support number and email address, and knows what, if anything, will change for them.
- Old access closed. The old provider’s partner roles, accounts and remote tools are removed, and someone checks they’ve gone.
Mistakes to avoid
- Giving notice before you’ve checked you can get into your own admin accounts.
- Letting old backups stop before new ones are proven to work.
- Forgetting renewals the old provider paid for, such as your domain name, so your email or website goes down weeks later.
- Leaving the old provider’s accounts and remote access in place after the handover.
What we do: usually one email from you
For businesses moving to us, switching usually takes one email from you. Before that, we assess your systems for free and agree a plan, so you know what’s happening and when. After it, we handle the handover with your current provider, working through everything above while your team carries on working. Our agreement includes a no-obligation review period, so you can see how we work before you commit.
Read how our easy transfer works, see what’s included in our managed IT support and pricing, or book a call to start with a free assessment.
Sources
- Review cloud solution provider (partner) admin privileges, Microsoft Learn.
- Customer-led removal of a granular admin relationship, Microsoft Learn.
- Transfer a customer’s new commerce licence-based subscriptions from one partner to another, Microsoft Learn.
- New Commerce Experience cancellation policy, Microsoft Learn.
- About administrator roles in the Microsoft 365 admin center, Microsoft Learn.