It’s a tough decision. The chances are, you’ve invested time and money into setting up the partnership with your existing MSP. But you know when things aren’t right – and after years in the business – we know how a client partnership should work.

Here are some of the signs that switching IT support might not be a bad idea. We’ll also share some of the ways we make the transition as easy as possible for the Brighton businesses we work with.

Already know you’re ready to make the change? Contact us and we’ll work together to come up with a package that suits your business.

If we had to pick our biggest alarm bell, this would be it. A big sign that your basic IT support needs aren’t being met by your current provider is recurring technical issues and slow response times. Persistent downtime will be disrupting your business operations and damaging productivity.

At AJT Managed IT Services, we pride ourselves on the no-nonsense customer support we provide our clients remotely and onsite. Across the business, the team has more than 60 years’ experience, so we know how important quick responses are to businesses. That’s why we aim to respond to any queries within 15 minutes. If one of our support team can’t solve the issue raised, there are third-line support engineers on-hand to solve the trickiest of tech problems.

We also find that a common contributor to prolonged downtime is an IT support provider relying on reactivity rather than proactivity. Are issues only being dealt with when you raise them? Do you feel like there’s more your current provider could be doing to nip problems in the bud?

If the answer is ‘yes’ to either of these questions, we think your business deserves more from its IT support. Based in Brighton ourselves, we work with businesses in the city and surrounding Sussex area. This means we can visit you in-person when we’re needed, and we also include regular onsite visits as part of our IT support contracts.

These visits enable us to get to know your team and your business much better. And the result of that is we can more accurately spot potential issues before they arise. Not only that, but we always aim to provide a fix that is right the first time. If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly.

As your business needs change, it makes sense that your IT setup will also need to change. This could be more software licences, changed network configuration or moving your infrastructure to the cloud, to name a few. Over time, an increase in costs is to be expected but that doesn’t mean you should accept cost changes from your IT provider without understanding why.

When we take on a new client, we carry out audits to understand existing setups. We sometimes find that businesses are paying more than they need to for multiple licences that overlap in functionality. This – plus the fact that we pass savings from permitted margins for Microsoft 365 licences onto our clients – often means we can save our customers significant amounts of money.

This is probably up there with lots of downtime in terms of red flags, as data and security breaches can be devastating for small businesses. If you’re not confident that your IT partner is up-to-date with all the latest security measures and regulations, it could be time to consider switching.

Thanks to our partnership with Bitdefender, we offer a range of cyber security packages – from basic but powerful Antivirus Endpoint Protection to 24/7 security monitoring – and can advise which option is best for your business. We also offer employee cyber security training to help protect your business against one of the most common causes of data breaches: human error.

As a growing local business ourselves, we know how ambitious the plans for your business might be. If you’re about to move to a bigger office, grow your remote team or scale up your operations in any way, you need to know that your IT support can handle it.

Our approach to IT support has proactive partnership at its heart. We love being part of the plan to help our clients grow. We’ve never lost a customer to a competitor and have some great examples of how we’ve helped businesses realise their growth plans. Take a look at our computer networking services page. On it, you’ll find a video that tells you about our partnership with Motorway, a Brighton-based business that grew to make over £1.5bn sales in 2022.

Even if you’ve decided that the time is right to switch your IT support provider, we get that it can still be daunting. Here’s a breakdown of our switching and onboarding process to help put your mind at ease.

1. Packages tailored to your needs

We’ll conduct a thorough audit of your current setup – including any existing vendor agreements – so we get a clear picture of how best we can help you.

2. Expertise you can trust

In our proposal, we’ll include clear explanations of why we’re making the recommendations we are. If anything’s unclear, we’ll happily talk you through it and answer any questions in no-nonsense terms.

3. Cost-effective solutions

We’ll also include any potential cost savings in our proposal, again making it clear where they’ve come from, so you can make informed decisions.

4. Seamless transition process with clear communication

If you decide to go ahead and partner with us, we’ll communicate with your incumbent supplier and provide support throughout the transition so it goes smoothly. As part of onboarding, we’ll also provide welcome documentation for you to share with your employees, so everyone knows how best to get the IT help they need.

5. Ongoing regular maintenance visits

The personal touch doesn’t end at onboarding. If you’re local to Brighton or Sussex, we’ll carry out regular onsite visits, helping us spot potential issues as quickly as possible.

And that’s all there is to it! Simple, effective and proactive IT support.