Onboarding
30 days to better IT.
Switching providers looks harder than it is, which is why so many businesses stay somewhere they are unhappy. This is exactly how a move to RTGroup runs: a structured thirty days, shaped around your business, with one person responsible from the first day to the last.
The honest bit first
Most businesses do not stay with a provider because they are happy.
They stay because changing looks worse than the problem. Somebody else holds the passwords, nothing is written down, and nobody wants a week of downtime or an awkward conversation with a company they have used for six years.
Every one of those is a solvable problem, and we have solved all of them before. None of them is a reason to spend another two years frustrated.
What actually worries people
The five things nobody asks out loud.
“Do we have to tell our current provider before we talk to you?”
No. Nothing you discuss with us goes anywhere, and a conversation commits you to nothing at all. You tell them when you have decided, on your timing, and we will help you work out when that should be.
“They hold all the admin passwords.”
Common, and recoverable. Most credentials can be recovered through the vendors directly, as the account owner, which is you rather than them. We have done this many times, including when the outgoing provider was slow about it.
“Nothing is documented.”
That is normal, and it is what discovery is for. We document your environment ourselves in the first week. You end up with better documentation than you have ever had, and it belongs to you.
“We will be down for a week.”
You should not be down at all. Our tooling goes on alongside what you have and nothing is switched over until it is ready. Anything with real risk happens outside your working hours.
“Our provider will be difficult about it.”
Sometimes they are. We plan for it rather than hope, and the plan does not depend on their cooperation. We deal with them directly so you are not caught between two companies.
“We are mid-contract.”
Worth checking rather than assuming. Notice periods are often shorter than people think, and planning a move that starts when your term ends is better than arriving at the end with nothing arranged.
The thirty days
A standard plan, then rebuilt around you.
This is the structure every onboarding follows. What goes inside it is shaped entirely by what you have, what you need and when your business can absorb change. Nothing about this is a template we run at you.
Discovery
- Full inventory: devices, accounts, licences, systems, contracts
- How everything currently fits together, written down
- Risks identified and ranked honestly
- You meet your pod, before you need them
Plan and prepare
- A dated written plan you can read and challenge
- Our tooling deployed alongside, changing nothing yet
- Credentials recovered and secured properly
- The obvious quick wins done straight away
Transition
- Systems move across to our management
- Security baseline applied across the business
- Your staff shown exactly how to get help
- Outgoing provider’s access wound down cleanly
Settle and prove it
- A real restore tested and timed, not assumed
- Documentation handed over, and it is yours to keep
- First review, in plain English
- A roadmap and a budget for the next twelve months
Two ways in
Coming from somewhere, or starting from nothing.
Switching providers
You already have IT support
The thirty days above, with the handover managed for you. We deal with the outgoing provider, recover what needs recovering, and work to a date that suits your business rather than theirs.
- We handle the conversation with them
- Credential recovery planned, not hoped for
- Nothing switches until it is ready to switch
- Timed around your notice period, not against it
Starting fresh
You have never had a provider
No handover to manage, which makes it simpler. We build it properly the first time rather than inheriting decisions somebody made years ago for reasons nobody remembers.
- Nothing to unpick, so it moves faster
- Set up the way it should have been from the start
- Your staff trained as it goes in, not afterwards
- Brand new business? Start Right may suit you better
What white glove actually means
Concierge is a word. These are the things it has to mean.
Every provider says white glove. Very few say what they will actually do, which makes it worth being specific.
One named person owns your transition from the first day to the last. Not a queue, not a project code, a person whose job it is that this goes well and who you can phone.
Nothing changes without you knowing in advance. Work is scheduled around your business rather than ours, which for a restaurant means not in service and for a clinic means not during the schedule. Your staff meet the pod before they ever need to call them.
- One named person, start to finish
- A dated plan, shared and open to challenge
- No change without notice
- Scheduled around your hours
- Staff introduced, not just emailed
- Documentation handed over, and it is yours
Your part
What we need from you, honestly.
Not much, but not nothing, and it is better to know now than to be surprised in week two.
- One person on your side who can make decisions
- Roughly two hours in week one for discovery
- Any contracts and invoices you can find, however messy
- An hour to review the plan and push back on it
- Half an hour of your staff’s time to meet the pod
- A decision on when the switch happens
Questions
What people ask before they commit.
Does it really take thirty days?
That is the normal shape for a business of ten to fifty people. Smaller and simpler can be quicker. Larger, or with a complicated handover, can run longer and we will say so at the start rather than discovering it in week three.
What does the onboarding cost?
Often nothing. Onboarding is frequently waived on longer term agreements. Whether it is depends on how complex your organisation is and what state we find the existing setup in, both of which we will know by the end of discovery.
You will have the figure, or the confirmation that there is not one, before you commit to anything.
What if we are mid-contract with someone else?
We plan around it. Discovery and preparation can happen while your current agreement runs, so the switch lands the day your notice period ends rather than months afterwards. That is usually the better way to do it anyway.
Will our staff have to learn new systems?
Rarely, and not in the first thirty days. Onboarding is about taking over what you have and making it reliable. Changing tools is a separate decision, made later, with reasons attached.
Who owns the documentation afterwards?
You do. It is handed over in week four and it stays yours regardless of what happens to our relationship. A provider who keeps the documentation is holding you hostage with paperwork, and we are not interested in that kind of retention.
What if it does not go smoothly?
Some of it will not. Something will surface in discovery that nobody knew about, because that is what discovery is for. What you can expect is that we tell you the same day rather than at the review, and that the plan gets updated in front of you.
The first thirty days start with half an hour.
No charge, no salesperson, and nothing you say gets back to anybody.
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