Switching · What it actually involves
Thinking about switching IT providers?
The thing that keeps most firms with the wrong provider is fear of the transition. Fair enough. So here is exactly what switching involves, with real information in place of the dread.
The reasons we hear most
Firms rarely leave over one bad day.
Waiting a day for a callback started feeling normal. It is not. Firms tell us this one most.
Every fix becomes a project, every project becomes a change order, and nobody can say what next month costs.
A generalist provider can keep Windows alive. When CaseWare or your practice software breaks in March, generalist is not enough.
The firm doubled, the IT stayed the same size, and things that were fine at 8 people creak at 25.
The transition
You stop Friday afternoon. You’re working Monday morning.
This is the same five-step sequence we run for every migration, condensed. The full version, and what each step asks of you, lives on the cloud desktops page. Firms on the workstation model get a lighter version of the same shape.
- 1 We plan it together
Scope, details, and a weekend that suits the firm. For accounting firms, usually before February 15 or after April 30.
- 2 We prepare in the background
You give us administrator access and a list of your people; that is nearly all we need. Your staff keep working and mostly never notice.
- 3 We build and move
Applications installed and licensed, machines set up, your data copied ahead of time.
- 4 The cutover weekend
Friday afternoon your team stops. We take the final copy and switch you over, usually ready by Sunday night.
- 5 Monday morning
Same username, same password, one new icon. Everything exactly where it was on Friday.
We have run dozens of these cutovers in the past year alone. Small things come up: someone is on vacation, a workstation needs replacing. A firm that could not work on Monday? We can’t remember the last one.
Before you decide
Two things we will tell you up front.
From February 15 to April 30 we freeze changes for accounting firms, so we usually move new firms in the off-season, where a cutover can’t collide with a deadline. If you are reading this in March, the usual move is a conversation now and a cutover after April 30. If you can’t wait, after buying a practice for example, we’ll plan a move during the season with you.
The standard we publish for leaving us is the standard we bring to your arrival: it is your data, it moves completely, and it moves on your instruction. A provider change should never feel like a hostage negotiation.
Questions firms ask us
How disruptive is switching, honestly?
One weekend. We prepare everything in the background for a week or two while your staff keep working, then your team stops Friday afternoon and is working again Monday morning. The full five-step sequence is on the cloud desktops page, and the workstation-only version is lighter still.
Will our staff have to learn anything new?
Almost nothing. Same username and password, two-factor authentication, and one new icon on the desktop. Everything else looks the way it did on Friday.
Whose data is it during and after the move?
Yours, at every moment. We hold ourselves to the same standard we publish for our own offboarding: your data leaves with you, completely, on instruction. That applies on the way in and, should you ever want it, on the way out.
What does switching cost?
It is scoped in the proposal conversation, because an 8-person practice and a 60-person firm are different moves. No numbers on the website is deliberate; the free assessment is the no-obligation way to find out where you stand.
Microsoft, Apple, Google, AWS, RingCentral, Cloudflare, Cisco, Ubiquiti, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Adobe, 1Password, Poly, Claude, ChatGPT.
Microsoft Solutions Partner, Infrastructure and Modern Work designations. Every technician Microsoft-certified.
A real report on your real vulnerabilities. Free.
The free security and cloud assessment is a genuine vulnerability scan of your environment. You keep the findings report, whether or not we ever work together.