4 Pitfalls to Avoid When Switching Your IT Managed Service Provider (MSP)
Choosing the right vendors for your business is an important decision that should not be taken lightly. A lot of work goes into researching and weighing available options. Once you find a good match and it’s time to make the switch, there is even more work to shift over to the new vendor. In the end, you hope that the vendor relationships you make are fruitful and long-lasting.
When it comes to changing your Managed Service Provider (MSP), switching vendors can be a particularly daunting task. With all that hinges on our IT systems, there is a lot to consider, plan, and manage throughout the transition. Before you take the leap, it is important to understand a few key pitfalls that you should avoid to reduce the chance of a painful and incomplete transition.
Pitfall #1: Not Understanding the Scope of Your Needs
When you start considering a new MSP, your first instinct is do a web search for providers in your area or industry. While you should certainly do your research, there is something you should focus on before shopping in the marketplace.
Spend Time Exploring, Understanding, and Articulating Your Company’s Specific Needs
Start by creating a document where you track everything you and your team know about your infrastructure and use of technology. Some needs are simple, like computer workstations, line-of-business and productivity software, and peripherals such as printers and scanners. Other needs are complex, like redundant Internet for high availability, segmented networks, and regulatory compliance. Any needs—big or small, simple or complex—should be contained in this document.
Involve Key Department Leads
It is recommended to meet internally with key stakeholders, like department heads, to collect a well-rounded sense of what every part of your team needs. You may hear a lot of the same topics across your conversations. You may also find small nuances that are important and may have tripped you up later if you hadn’t discovered them first.
Determine What Kind of MSP Support Your Business Requires
Additionally, these conversations should be about more than just what your company needs in terms of technology. You also need to decide what your team needs in terms of support. Does your business require immediate attention to any issue, or are you satisfied with a response the following business day? How does your team need to engage a Managed Service Provider for support? Do you need to ensure that you can call, email, text, chat, or all of the above? All of these considerations will allow you to compare your options and quickly qualify providers who meet your needs.
I will add that, there are several Managed Service Providers who specialize in serving a particular industry or industries. These providers can use their industry-specific skills and knowledge to add extra value to your relationship above and beyond providing and supporting technology.
By the time you search the marketplace, you should have a crystal-clear understanding of your company’s technology and support needs. Otherwise, you may end up wasting a lot of time in vague discussions with providers who are a poor fit.
Once you are equipped with a full understanding of your needs, you are ready to go searching for providers. This is where you will face your next potential pitfall.
Pitfall #2: Not Properly Weighing Cost and Value of an MSP
One of the first and objectively most important factors to consider when comparing Managed Service Providers is how much money you will spend. You should understand all costs of the engagement. This includes monthly support costs, license costs, and any cost associated with onboarding or future projects. With each provider you are considering, explore at least the near-term future of your technology to help reveal any costs you may incur along the way so there are no surprises.
However, understanding the full cost of the contract is only half the battle. You need to weigh the value from each of the different providers you are considering. Remember that document you created of your business’s needs? This is where your due diligence in building that can pay off.
Getting the Best Bang for Your Buck
Generally, a provider who commits to responding the next business day will be less expensive than a provider who promises same-business-day response. But if quick response is vital to your business, the less expensive option may not be suitable.
Consider the kinds of technology each provider proposes in your solution. Maybe one provider’s technology stack is pricier than another’s—but are there features that justify the cost? For instance, a provider may be more expensive because they recommend higher specs in workstations. The extra cost may be worth the added performance, especially if the provider is experienced enough to predict when your needs warrant a higher tier of technology.
It is not always best to just buy the cheapest option. It is important to understand how much value you are buying. Let’s look at a handy tool that illustrates a simple methodology of weighing the value of different providers side-by-side.
Managed Service Provider Comparison Tool
With this approach, you start by defining the criteria you are using to weigh your options, and assign each an importance of 1-10, 1 being unimportant and 10 being vital. Then, you can list the providers and take note of how they stack up in each area. Then, you can consider the value and weight of each area and calculate an overall factor you can use to express one provider’s value over another.
| Provider Name | Cost (1-10) | Response Time (1-10) | Industry Knowledge (1-10) | Friendliness (1-10) | TOTAL | Provider A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provider B | |||||
| Provider C |
Once you have strongly considered all the factors and you know which Managed Service Provider you are leaning towards, it is time to approach the next pitfall, which happens for the onboarding experience.
Pitfall #3: Underestimating the Managed Service Provider's Onboarding Experience
Part of your evaluation of potential MSPs should include understanding their onboarding processes. When moving from one MSP to another, a lot of works happens. Even when done efficiently, onboarding can be a lengthy process. It isn’t uncommon for a full onboarding to take 90 days or more. A quality onboarding process should be organized in a way that prioritizes more important and critical tasks first and leaves less important tasks to be done later.
The Most Important Thing Is to Ask Plenty of Questions
Develop a complete understanding of a potential MSP’s onboarding process so you know what to expect. Who is the person(s) you will be primarily coordinating with? Will you change hands at any point in the process? What timelines can you expect? What milestones will you experience along the way, and how will it affect the way you are supported? Will your team need to be involved, and if so, how exactly?
Clarifying all of this up front reduces the risk of surprises coming up later and helps everyone stay on the same page throughout the transition.
Once you think you have landed on a Managed Service Provider—they have your confidence and you are ready to make a decision—it can be exciting and tempting to jump right in with both feet. If you do this before you have taken the time to understand the onboarding process, there may well be missed expectations later.
Once the onboarding is considered, it is time to look out for the last pitfall, and the one that my experience has shown can be the most dangerous: not transferring knowledge.
Pitfall #4: Starting Your New MSP’s Knowledge from Scratch
Managing an organization’s IT is a lot like owning a house. When you first move in, you learn quickly by making a lot of mistakes, like taking your mower on a part of the yard that is too steep, or tripping a breaker by putting too much load on it. Experience is the best teacher. After owning the house for five years, you become an expert at its nuances.
Your current provider, especially if they have been managing your systems for a long time, might be able to fix your IT issues in their sleep. Any new Managed Service Provider, no matter how skilled, will lack your original provider’s experience working with your business. The better their knowledge transfer to the new provider, the smoother your experience will be. It isn’t always this easy, but the best way to pull off a smooth transition to a new provider is with the full cooperation of the outgoing provider.
How to Facilitate a Smooth Transfer of Information
The best way to start this transfer of information is to send any technical documentation you have to the new provider. Your existing provider may assist in getting this documentation, as they have most likely documented it for their own use in supporting you.
Questionnaires are common in gathering information at the onset of a new relationship. If you need to fill out a questionnaire, see if you can have your outgoing provider help with or fully handle the questionnaire. Even if you need to pay extra for this service, it will pay off handsomely in equipping the new provider with what they need to serve you best.
However, if cooperation with the outgoing provider is not an option, you will need to do the best with what you have to get the new provider the information they need. Make sure you assign the right people on your team to provide information. Work closely with the new provider to make sure that they are getting what they need. Additionally, set your timeline expectations properly. If the new provider has a lot they need to figure out on their own, this could translate to more time required and more bumps in the road.
The Bottom Line
Switching to a new MSP is a big deal. The process of making the switch takes a lot of time and involves a lot of different people—both on your end and on the ends of the outgoing and new providers. It is certainly a challenge, but avoiding the pitfalls described here is entirely possible.
The common thread here is that you should afford yourself and your team ample time to make the best decision possible. Making a hasty decision and moving at full speed at any stage can backfire. This will lead to unexpected delays and time spent cleaning up messes and filling in incomplete information.
If you’re shopping around for a new Managed Service Provider, check out Kite Technology’s comprehensive IT offerings and Managed IT Services! Our talented team of technicians, system engineers, Client Experience Managers, and other supporting staff leverage advanced IT tools and processes to deliver maximum performance for your business.
Daniel Gilbert
Chief Operating Officer
Kite Technology Group
