How to change IT provider without disrupting a trading hotel
What a take-on actually involves, what can go wrong, and what to get in writing first.
Most operators stay with a provider they have outgrown because changing sounds disruptive. In practice the disruption is small and predictable, and almost all of the risk sits in one place: whether you can get hold of your own credentials, licences and documentation.
Before you give notice
- Read your contract for notice period, minimum term and any exit or data retrieval charges.
- Establish what you own. Domain names, Microsoft 365 tenancy, firewall licences, backup accounts and RMM agents should be in your company's name, not your provider's.
- Ask for the documentation: network diagram, asset list, IP addressing, licence keys and admin accounts. What comes back tells you a great deal about the service you have been getting.
- Do not give notice until the incoming provider has completed an audit.
What a take-on involves
- An audit on site: comms rooms, switching, access points, servers, PMS and EPOS, licensing, contracts and backups. Half a day at most properties.
- A written scope and price based on what was found, rather than a standard tier.
- A transition plan with a date, worked around occupancy, events and the night audit.
- Transfer of credentials and administrative control, or a rebuild of anything that cannot be transferred.
- Monitoring and backup agents deployed before the handover date, so nothing is unprotected in the gap.
- A documented estate handed to you at the end, which is yours whoever supports it next.
Where it goes wrong
- Credentials held only by the outgoing provider, and no contractual right to them. This is the single most common problem, and it is solved by asking early rather than at the end.
- Licences bought under the provider's tenancy rather than yours, which have to be repurchased.
- Backups running into a platform you have no account for, so history is lost on the changeover.
- Notice given before the audit, which puts the new provider on a deadline instead of a plan.
What to expect of the first ninety days
- Weeks one to two: monitoring live, documentation started, the obvious faults cleared.
- Weeks three to six: patching and backup brought to standard, permissions tidied, the remaining risks listed with costs.
- Weeks seven to twelve: the first improvement projects, and a roadmap for the year.
Questions we get asked
Does the outgoing provider have to co-operate?
It helps, and it is not required. A take-on can be completed without them, by rebuilding administrative access where it cannot be transferred. It takes longer and costs more, which is why the credentials question is worth settling before notice is given.
How long does a changeover take?
From audit to handover is typically two to four weeks for a single property, and longer for a group where licensing has to be untangled. The disruptive part, moving administrative control, is usually a single evening.
Will the hotel go offline during the transition?
No. Support moves on an agreed date, and infrastructure changes are phased around occupancy. The legacy arrangements stay in place until the new ones are proven.
Start with the Wi-Fi
A guest Wi-Fi audit is the quickest way to see how we work: we survey the property, test what guests actually experience, and report on what needs doing and what it costs. The findings are yours whether or not you go ahead.
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