Slow response
You never know whether something will be picked up in ten minutes or next week.
Changing provider
Your IT provider shouldn’t be another IT problem.
Most businesses stay with a provider they have outgrown because moving sounds painful. It does not have to be. We run the transition, deal with the outgoing supplier, and take the work off your desk.
- We handle the handover
- Everything documented
- Discreet and confidential
- A conversation firstNo obligation, nothing said to anyone
- We find out what existsOften more than anyone realised
- We manage the handoverIncluding the awkward parts
- Then we stabiliseBefore we start improving
Technologies we work with
- Microsoft
- SOPHOS
- Acronis
- HPE
- 3CX
- UBIQUITI
- veeam
Why people move
None of these are unreasonable things to want
Providers rarely become bad. Usually the business grows, the relationship does not, and what was adequate at fifteen people is straining at forty. If several of these look familiar, it is probably not you.
Recurring issues
The same faults return because the cause was never addressed, only the symptom.
No documentation
Nobody can say how anything is configured, which makes every change slow and risky.
No proactive advice
You get what you ask for and never a suggestion about what is coming.
Surprise invoices
A fixed monthly fee that is not fixed, with extras that were never discussed first.
Ageing infrastructure
Equipment and software well past supported life, with no plan to replace it.
Unclear security
You are told it is fine, but nobody has shown you what "fine" means or tested it.
Difficult account management
No regular review, no named contact, and a different engineer every time.
Too small to matter
You are at the bottom of a queue that starts with much larger clients.
You do not hold the keys
Domains, tenants or licences registered to the provider rather than to you.
No visibility
No portal, no reporting, no way to see what you are paying for.
Untested backups
Backups exist on paper, but nobody has ever restored from them.
The honest version
We handle the handover. We will not pretend it is invisible.
Any provider promising a completely seamless transition is guessing. There will be a handful of password resets, a few applications that need reconfiguring, and a week where people ask who to contact. What we can promise is that it is planned, that we do the chasing, and that you know what is happening at every stage.
- We deal with the outgoing provider directly, so you are not caught in the middle
- Nothing is switched off until we have confirmed the replacement works
- Domains, tenants and licences are moved into your own name, permanently
- You get written documentation of your environment — yours to keep, whatever happens next
- Backups are verified with a real restore before we call the transition complete
- If we find something we cannot recover from the old provider, we tell you straight away
Handover board
Example switch-over
HandoverDay 5
With old provider3
Nothing left with the old provider
Being checked2
Nothing waiting
Handed over3
Nothing handed over yet
What happened
- What we collect
- Why it matters
- Who needs to do anything
Day 5
Running a test restore of a mailbox and a shared folder.
Illustration with sample data; days are examples. Click a card for the detail.
The transition
Nine stages, and we run all of them.
For a business of 10 to 100 people this usually takes four to eight weeks from first conversation to a settled service, most of which happens without you needing to do very much.
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Initial conversation
What is going wrong, what you need, and whether we are the right fit. Confidential, and free.
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IT discovery
We document what you actually have: users, devices, licences, systems, suppliers and contracts.
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Supplier handover
We review your notice period and deal with the outgoing provider, so you do not have to manage that conversation.
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Documentation & access
Credentials, domains, tenants and licences transferred into your ownership and recorded properly.
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Security & backup check
We verify what protection genuinely exists, and prove the backups by restoring from them.
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Monitoring deployed
Our monitoring and management tools go on to every device, so we can see problems rather than wait for them.
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User onboarding
Your team is shown how to reach us, how the portal works and what to expect. Ten minutes, not a training course.
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Stabilisation
We clear the backlog of long-standing irritations first. This is usually the point where people notice the difference.
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Ongoing support
Business as usual: monitoring, patching, support, reviews and a plan for what comes next.
Before you commit to anything
Start with a conversation, not a contract.
You do not need to have given notice, made a decision, or told anyone. Plenty of the conversations we have never turn into a move — sometimes the answer is that your current provider is fine and something specific needs fixing. We will tell you that if it is what we find.
What that first conversation covers
- What is actually going wrongSymptoms first. Causes usually follow.
- What your contract saysNotice periods, ownership, what you can take with you.
- What a move would involveRealistic timing and the parts that need care.
- What it would costA clear proposal, with the transition work priced.
Why CaminhoIT
Big enough to cope. Small enough to care.
The two complaints we hear most are opposite ends of the same problem: large providers where you are a ticket number, and one-person outfits where everything stops when they are on holiday. We are built to sit between the two — a proper team with proper systems, where you still know who you are speaking to.
- A named contactand a team behind them
- Documentedand the documents are yours
- A client portaltickets, services, quotes, invoices
- Security includednot an upsell after an incident
- Clear pricingagreed before work starts
- Portugal and the UKin English and Portuguese
Questions
Changing provider: the practical questions
How much disruption should we expect?
Less than most people fear, but not none. Typically there is a short window during which people re-enter passwords, a few applications need reconfiguring on individual machines, and for a week or two staff have to remember a new way to ask for help. Systems stay running throughout — the change is in who manages them. We schedule anything with a real impact outside working hours, and we will not switch anything off before its replacement is proven.
Do we have to tell our current provider before we speak to you?
No. Early conversations are confidential and commit you to nothing. Most people talk to us well before deciding anything, and a fair number decide to stay where they are. We would rather have that conversation honestly than talk you into a move you do not need.
What if our current provider is unhelpful about handing over?
It happens, and we plan for it. Where an outgoing provider is slow or unco-operative we can rebuild most things independently — re-enrol devices, re-establish administrative access to tenants you own, and stand up monitoring and backup from scratch. It takes longer and we will be upfront about that. The complication worth checking early is ownership: if domains or tenants are registered to the provider rather than to you, recovering them is the part that needs the most notice.
We are mid-contract. Is it worth talking now?
Yes. Notice periods of three to six months are common, so the planning ideally starts before the contract ends rather than after. Knowing where you stand contractually is one of the first things we look at, and it often changes the timing more than anything technical does.
How long does the whole thing take?
For 10 to 100 users, typically four to eight weeks from first conversation to a settled service — longer if there are servers, multiple sites or a difficult handover. Discovery is usually one to two weeks, the technical transition a week or two, and the rest is stabilisation: working through the backlog of things that have been irritating people for months.
Will we lose anything in the move?
Not if it is planned. Discovery exists precisely to find the things nobody remembers — an old server under a desk, a licence renewing on someone's personal card, a system only one person uses. We inventory everything before anything changes, and verify it afterwards. The risk in these moves is almost never the mail or the files; it is the small forgotten system, which is why we go looking for them first.
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No notice required
Have the conversation first.
Confidential, no obligation, and no pressure. If your current provider is the right one for you, we will say so.