The contract with the current provider ends on March 31. The new one is supposed to start on April 1. On March 28 someone asks who has the admin password for the firewall, and it turns out only one technician at the outgoing provider knows it, and he's already been moved to another client. Email works and people keep working, but for two weeks nobody can touch the network.
The hard part of switching IT services companies in Chile is rarely the technology. It's that much of what anyone knows about your operation lives in the heads (and the accounts) of the provider that's leaving. A good IT services transition means getting that knowledge out in the open before the cutover date, with a period where both providers work side by side and a contract that says what the outgoing one has to hand over.
If you're still deciding who to hire, we covered selection criteria in how to choose an IT services company in Chile. This article picks up after that: you've decided to change IT providers and you want operations to barely notice.
Before you give notice, reread what you signed
Start by reading the current contract carefully. Look for four things:
- The notice period for termination, and whether it renews automatically.
- What it says about handing over documentation, configurations and access at the end.
- Whether there are exit fees or "transition assistance" charges.
- Who owns the tools: the help desk software, monitoring, remote access and backups.
That last one catches people off guard. If your ticket history sits on the provider's platform under their license, it leaves with them, along with years of incident records. Ask for an export in a format you can open (CSV or Excel) as part of the exit.
Read the contract with data protection in mind too. Chile's Law 21,719 takes effect on December 1, 2026, and its article 15 bis says that once the service is complete, the data processor must delete the personal data it holds or return it to the controller, as appropriate. In practice, that means asking in writing what gets returned, what gets deleted, and for proof that it was done, including backups and copies on their technicians' laptops.
The inventory the new provider needs
An incoming provider that starts without an inventory spends its first weeks discovering your infrastructure one incident at a time. To avoid that, build (or require the outgoing provider to deliver) a minimum list:
| What to inventory | Minimum detail | Who usually has it |
|---|---|---|
| Users and licenses | Active accounts, assigned licenses, orphaned accounts | Microsoft 365 admin |
| Devices | Laptops, PCs, servers, operating system, location | Outgoing provider |
| Network | Firewall, switches, Wi-Fi, VPN, public IPs, link contracts | Outgoing provider or ISP |
| Applications | ERP, in-house systems, integrations, who supports each one | Internal IT or business areas |
| Backups | What's backed up, where, retention, last tested restore | Outgoing provider |
| Third parties | ISP, telephony, software vendors, contacts and contracts | Administration |
| Recurring issues | Most frequent tickets in the last six months | Outgoing help desk |
It doesn't need to be perfect. A reasonably complete spreadsheet is worth more than a nice diagram nobody updates.
Access and credentials: where transitions break down
Admin accounts, network device passwords and vendor console logins often end up under the names of people at the outgoing provider. The goal is for your company to own all of it again before they leave.
An order that works:
- List every system with administrative access and who holds it today.
- Create or recover admin accounts in your company's name, not in the name of someone at the provider.
- In Microsoft 365, Microsoft recommends two or more emergency access accounts that are cloud-only, use the onmicrosoft.com domain and don't depend on federation. If you don't have them, now is a good time to create them and keep the credentials under your control.
- Check the Partner relationships page in the Microsoft 365 admin center. It shows which partners hold delegated admin roles, and you can remove those roles when it's time. One catch: according to Microsoft, removing the roles doesn't end the commercial relationship (for example, if that partner also resells your licenses). That's a separate conversation.
- Change the passwords on network devices, service accounts and consoles on the day of the cutover itself.
Step 5 is trickier than it looks. Change the passwords too early and the outgoing provider can't support you during the overlap. Change them too late and someone outside your company keeps access to your systems with no contract in place.
The overlap period
Asking the new provider to start the same day the old one ends is how you get the scenario at the top of this article. A healthier approach is a period where both work at once, with clear responsibilities:
- Weeks 1 and 2: the outgoing provider keeps running things. The incoming one watches, reviews the inventory, receives documentation and asks questions.
- Weeks 3 and 4: the incoming provider starts handling tickets, with the outgoing one as backup. Documentation gaps get fixed as they show up.
- Cutover day: the incoming provider takes over fully, credentials are changed and the outgoing provider's access is removed.
How long this takes depends on the size of the operation. For a small business on Microsoft 365 with a few servers, four weeks is usually enough. If there's an ERP, integrations or custom systems, give those more time. The overlap isn't free, since you're paying two providers for a few weeks, so put it in the budget from day one. We talk about this and other costs that don't show up on page one in IT outsourcing costs in Chile: how to compare quotes.
Exit clauses for your next contract
This transition will show you what the last contract was missing. Use that and write into the new one whatever would have saved you trouble:
- An obligation to keep the inventory and documentation up to date, and open to your review at any time.
- All admin accounts in your company's name.
- An exit assistance period with duration and cost agreed in advance.
- Export of tickets, configurations and documentation in open formats.
- Return or deletion of personal data at the end, with written proof, as Law 21,719 requires.
- If the service is delivered by staff under a subcontracting arrangement, request labor compliance certificates every month. Chile's Labor Directorate explains that your liability goes from subsidiary to joint if you don't exercise those information and withholding rights.
For response times and penalties, see what to demand in a managed IT services SLA.
Common risks and how to get ahead of them
These are the stumbles we see most often:
- Microsoft licenses bought through the provider as a partner don't move on their own when you change service providers. Find out who's listed as your reseller before you give notice.
- Your domain and DNS are sometimes registered to the provider. Check who owns the domain and who manages DNS, and if it's the provider, ask for that transfer first.
- Backups nobody has tested. Ask for a test restore during the overlap, while the outgoing provider can still explain how it works.
- The things nobody wrote down: the script that runs every night, the firewall rule opened for a client who no longer exists. Ask directly which automated tasks are running.
- Users who keep emailing the old provider for weeks. Announce the new support channel ahead of time and redirect the old mailbox.
Frequently asked questions
How long should the overlap between IT providers last?
For a small business on Microsoft 365 with little infrastructure, about four weeks is usually enough. With an ERP, integrations or in-house systems, extend the overlap for those pieces.
What happens to my Microsoft licenses if I change service providers?
It depends on who sells them to you. Removing a partner's admin roles doesn't end the reseller relationship. If you also want to change resellers, that's handled separately.
Does the outgoing provider have to delete my data?
From December 1, 2026, Law 21,719 states that once the service ends, the processor must delete or return the personal data as appropriate. Ask for written confirmation.
Plan the switch with whoever takes over
At Disrupsoft we do IT outsourcing with a Microsoft focus: staff augmentation by the hour or month, squads with a PM, developers and QA, and managed services with a service catalog, response and resolution SLAs, and 9x5 or 24x7 coverage. Every engagement starts with discovery and onboarding, which is exactly where the inventory gets built and the handover gets organized. If you're about to change providers, take a look at the plans on Disrupsoft IT Outsourcing and tell us when your current contract ends.
