Tickets stay open for days, the invoice lists items nobody understands, and when you ask for documentation you get a shrug. Many small businesses in Berlin stay with their IT provider anyway, because switching feels riskier than the frustration. Yet a switch is easy to plan if you keep to the right order: access first, then notice, then handover. This checklist shows what to secure beforehand, what to request from your current provider, what useful handover documentation contains and how to judge a new offer. It applies just as much if your team works in English and you want IT support that does too.
Warning signs: when switching makes sense
Every provider has a bad day now and then. It becomes a problem when patterns show up:
- Requests disappear into a ticket queue, and each time someone different answers who doesn't know your systems.
- You don't know which admin passwords exist or who holds them. When you ask, you're told they're stored with the provider.
- Invoices aren't transparent: you see hours, but not what was done in those hours.
- Updates and backups run somehow, but nobody can show you when a restore was last tested.
- Foreseeable topics like the end of support for Windows Server 2016 come up because you raise them, not your provider.
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1. Read the contract before you give notice
Note three things from your contract: the notice period, the minimum term and what it says about ending the agreement. Some contracts explicitly require the provider to help with the handover, others are silent on it. Also check what runs through the provider: rented firewalls, Microsoft 365 licences billed by them, or a domain registered in their name. Each of these needs its own plan in the handover.
If the provider has access to personal data, there is usually a data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR. Under it, once the work ends they must delete or return the data, at your choice, and delete existing copies. In practice it usually makes sense to do both in turn: return first, then delete, and get the deletion confirmed in writing.
2. Secure access while you're still working together
The most important step comes before you give notice, because access is easier to get while the relationship is still running. Check whether someone from your own company has admin access to these systems:
- Microsoft 365: at least one global admin account that belongs to your company, with two-factor sign-in on a company device
- Domain and DNS: who is the registered owner of the domain, and who has the login to the registrar? The owner should be your company.
- Router and firewall: the admin password and, if there is one, the account in the manufacturer's portal
- Servers, NAS and backup software: the admin accounts and the keys used to encrypt the backups
- Business applications: who is listed with the vendor as your company's contact?
3. What to request from your current provider
When you give notice, request the handover in writing and with a deadline. Most providers cooperate when the request is factual and complete. If something is still missing, it can usually be worked out during the inventory, it just takes longer.
Write the request as a list, so nothing stays vague:
- all credentials you don't hold yet, including recovery codes
- the existing documentation in an open format, not just as a view in their ticket system
- a list of the licences and contracts they set up or manage for you, with terms
- backup details: what is backed up, where, for how long, and when a restore was last tested
- a list of the remote access and monitoring tools they installed
- a handover meeting that the new provider can attend
4. What good handover documentation contains
Documentation is good when a stranger could understand your IT from it. That's the standard I hold my own to. If there is no documentation, it gets written during the new provider's inventory. Make sure it ends up with you afterwards, not only with them.
At a minimum it should cover:
- Devices: computers, laptops, printers, servers and network devices with location, user and age
- Accounts and rights: who has which account, who is an admin and which groups can access which data. What this looks like when it's managed centrally is covered in the article on Microsoft Entra ID for small businesses.
- Network: internet connection, router, Wi-Fi, address ranges, VPN access and what is plugged into which switch
- Software and licences: applications, versions, licence keys, terms and vendor contacts
- Backups: what is backed up how often and where, and how a restore works. A good benchmark is the 3-2-1 backup rule.
- Open issues: known problems, systems reaching end of life and planned changes
5. A handover without downtime
A switch without downtime needs a short overlap. The new provider starts while the old one is still reachable, not on the day after the contract ends. During that time the inventory is done and checked against the documentation you received. Email, files and printers simply keep working, because nothing about them changes at first.
Once everything is recorded, you make a clean cut:
- change every admin password the previous provider knew
- remove their accounts, and in Microsoft 365 also any delegated admin rights under partner relationships
- uninstall remote access and monitoring tools that are no longer needed
- check that backups are still running and do a test restore
6. Judging new offers
A low price doesn't help much if every request waits for days. And more important than the billing model is that you understand what you're paying for. If a provider can't explain that in two sentences, that in itself is a warning sign. I work with a fixed price agreed after the first consultation, so you know where you stand beforehand.
Compare offers using questions that affect your day-to-day work:
- Who do you talk to when something doesn't work: a person who knows your systems, or a hotline?
- What response time is in the contract? Honest times beat promises nobody can keep.
- What's included: updates, backup monitoring, user management, on-site visits? And what costs extra?
- Do you get documentation, and is it kept up to date?
- How do you get out again? A fair contract covers the handover at the end as well.
How I take over your IT support
When you switch to me, you talk to the same person from the first meeting on. First we secure access together, then I record devices, software, licences and backups in one on-site visit and compare that with what the previous provider hands over. I coordinate the handover with them directly, so you don't have to mediate between two companies. At the end, you get the documentation, not just me.
From 2019 to 2024 I worked at Siemens AG in Berlin on IT infrastructure, monitoring and automation. In 2026 I passed the final exam as an IT specialist for application development (IHK Berlin). I advise in English, German and Polish, and I answer requests within 24 hours on working days.
Switching IT providers isn't a leap into the unknown if the order is right: check the contract, secure access, request the handover, take over with an overlap. The free IT security check shows in two minutes where your company stands on backups, updates and access rights. If you'd like to talk about a switch, we'll work out what needs doing in your case in a free consultation. What ongoing support covers after that is on the page about IT support for small businesses in Berlin.