Switching provider
Switching your IT support to SetWeb
A switch takes about four weeks and, run in the right order, produces no downtime at all. Your email, files and applications are not moved. What changes is who holds the keys, who is watching, and who answers when you ring. We do the administrative work, including the conversation with your current provider.
- No downtime, by design
- Notice given in week three
- You keep the audit either way
What actually changes, and what does not
Six things move: administrative access to your email tenant, administrative access to servers and network equipment, the monitoring agent on each machine, the endpoint protection, the backup arrangement, and whatever documentation exists.
Everything else stays exactly where it is. Your mailboxes are not migrated. Your files are not moved. Your line-of-business software is not touched, reinstalled or reconfigured. This is a change of supplier rather than a migration, and that single fact is what makes a switch far less dramatic than it feels from the inside.
Two items carry real sequencing risk, because you must never be without either for so much as an afternoon: endpoint protection and backup. Both are handled by running the new alongside the old and removing the old only once the new is verified by use.
The full method, written to be useful whoever you move to, is in our guide to how to switch IT support providers.
How we run a switch
Four weeks, in this order. The order is the part that removes the risk, and notice sits at week three for a reason.
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Step 1
Week 1, we audit and document
We record what you actually have: machines, servers, licences, network kit, accounts, backups and every system with a login. Nothing is changed and nothing is installed. You get a written picture, which for most businesses is the first one they have ever had.
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Step 2
Week 2, we run alongside
New monitoring and endpoint protection go on beside the existing tools, and a new backup runs in parallel with the old one. Nothing is removed. Anything that was going to conflict surfaces here, while your current arrangement is still fully in place.
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Step 3
Week 3, we verify, then you give notice
We restore a real file from the new backup and confirm administrative access by using it rather than by being told it works. Only once both check out does notice go to your current provider, which is why it sits here rather than at the start.
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Step 4
Week 4, we cut over and clean up
Old agents and old protection come off, the previous provider’s access is revoked, and the last handover items are collected. Your team is told the new number once, close to the day, and that is the only part of this they experience.
We do the handover conversation
The part people dread is ringing a provider they have used for six years and telling them it is over. You do not have to run that conversation on your own. Once notice is given, the technical handover is engineer to engineer, and we ask for what we need in writing so nothing depends on somebody’s recollection of a phone call.
Most handovers are professional, because most providers are. Where one is not, an uncooperative incumbent slows a switch down without being able to stop it, and we have done this often enough to know which route to take for each thing being withheld.
The one item worth checking yourself, today, before any of this: whose name your domain is registered in. If it is your provider’s rather than yours, that is the conversation that gets genuinely awkward, and it is far better discovered now than during a notice period.
- Notice is given by you, in writing, once access is verified
- The technical handover runs engineer to engineer from there
- Nothing important is left resting on a phone call nobody minuted
When to give notice, and what the overlap costs
| Your current notice period | When notice goes | How long you pay twice | What the overlap costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | Week 3, after verification | About four weeks | One month of your current fee |
| 60 days | Week 3, after verification | About eight weeks | Two months of your current fee |
| 90 days | Week 3, after verification | About twelve weeks | Three months of your current fee |
| A fixed term still running | At the first point notice is permitted | Whatever the term has left | Nothing extra, if the date is diarised early |
What you have by the end of the first month
These are the deliverables of a switch. If they do not arrive, the switch has not really happened, and that is true of any provider you move to.
- A written asset register: machines, servers, licences, network kit and who has what
- A documented list of every risk the audit turned up, in priority order
- A test restore completed from the new backup, with a date on it
- Administrative access confirmed by use rather than by assurance
- Domain registration and DNS confirmed as being in your company’s name
- The previous provider’s access revoked and recorded as revoked
- One number and one email address for your staff, with a named engineer behind them
- A first-90-days plan for the things the audit found, priced where anything needs pricing
What the move itself costs
The audit is the free review, and it costs nothing whether you go ahead or not. You keep the written findings either way, and a fair number of businesses have used them to get a better deal from their existing provider instead of moving. That is a perfectly good outcome and we would rather you did that than switched for the wrong reason.
The changeover work is ordinary work under your plan from the day it starts, at the published per-user price. Where the audit turns up something that is a project rather than a handover, a server on its last legs, a network that needs re-cabling, an office move folded into the same fortnight, that is quoted separately and before it happens, so nobody is guessing.
There is no joining fee and no minimum term. Plans run on a rolling monthly basis with 30 days’ notice either way, which is deliberate: we would rather keep clients because the service works than because leaving is difficult. Most of the businesses on our plans arrived from a provider who had that the other way round.
The three plans and what separates them are set out under monthly support plans.
Start with the audit, decide afterwards
The free review is the first week of a switch, done before you commit to anything. We look at what you have, what state it is in, and what moving would actually involve for your setup rather than in general.
You keep the findings whatever you decide next, including if what you decide is to stay where you are.
Get in touch
Talk to us about switch to setweb
A few lines is enough. We will tell you straight whether we can help, what it would cost and how quickly we can be there. No hard sell, and no follow-up sequence if you decide against it.
- We reply within one working day
- A straight answer, including when it is no
- Free process review available, before any money changes hands
Would rather just ring? 01623 354250, Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm.
Frequently asked questions
If the answer is not here, ask us. You will get a straight one, from someone who does the work.
Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm
What does it cost to move to SetWeb?
The audit is the free review and costs nothing. The changeover itself is ordinary work under your plan at the published per-user price, with no joining fee. Anything the audit turns up that is a project rather than a handover is quoted separately before it happens.
Do we have to tell our current provider we are looking?
Not until you have decided. The audit, the parallel monitoring and the test restore all happen before notice is given, which is deliberate: it means you are choosing from a position of knowing what you have rather than announcing a decision you have not finished making.
What if our contract still has months left to run?
Start the audit now and diarise the first date notice is permitted. Everything that removes the risk from a switch happens before notice anyway, so beginning early costs nothing and often removes the overlap entirely rather than leaving you paying two providers.
Will our staff notice anything on the day?
They should notice one thing: the support number changes. Mailboxes, files and applications are not moved, so there is nothing for them to log back into and nothing to relearn. We tell them once, close to cutover, rather than a fortnight in advance.
Who talks to our current provider?
You give notice, in writing, once we have verified access. From there the technical handover runs engineer to engineer and we ask for what is needed in writing. You are not left chasing credentials from somebody you have just given notice to.
Can we move only part of our IT to you?
Yes, and it is a common way to start. Taking the helpdesk while an internal person keeps the projects, or taking backups and monitoring while a specialist keeps a line-of-business system, are both arrangements we run today. Co-managed support is more ordinary than people expect.
