The first week with a new managed IT provider has a reputation for being disruptive. Someone arrives with a laptop bag, asks a lot of questions and starts looking at the network closet. That picture is worth correcting, because a good first week should feel organized and fairly quiet. I have walked into enough new client offices to know what an owner or office manager should expect, and what they can do to make the visit go faster.
Before I Arrive: What to Have Ready
Most first visits lose time to missing information rather than technical work. Before I come in, I ask for a short list: the people who approve purchases, the name on the internet account, the vendor that manages the phones, the software logins the business already uses, and a rough list of employees with their roles. Nobody needs to build a spreadsheet. A few emails with names and phone numbers are enough.
It also helps to tell staff ahead of time that someone will be on site, and why. A visitor who wanders past the front desk without an introduction makes people nervous. A short note from the owner that says this person is here to learn how the office runs its systems, and will introduce themselves, heads off most of the confusion.
Day One: Walk the Space and Meet the People
The first hour is mostly listening. I walk the office with the owner or office manager and ask how work actually moves through the day. Which printer does the front desk use? Where do the phones sit? Which systems does everyone open first thing in the morning? Those answers matter more than any scan, because they show where a slow login or a missing printer causes the most trouble.
I also meet staff one at a time, briefly. Each person hears who to contact for a problem, how to reach support when the office is busy, and what kind of work I will be doing on their machine. Many people need only a few minutes, but they remember that someone took the time to explain it.
Day Two: Inventory Without Disrupting the Work
The inventory is the part that sounds technical, and I try to keep it out of people’s way. I record each computer, server, router, firewall, printer, phone and shared device, along with its age, operating system and warranty status. Wherever possible I do this through remote checks, so people can keep working. Anything that needs a restart gets scheduled after hours.
The inventory often turns up things the owner did not know about. An old server in a closet that still runs one monthly report. A printer broadcasting its own Wi-Fi network that nobody set up. A laptop that has not taken an update in a year. None of these is a crisis on its own. Each one gets written down with a plan attached, not discovered later as a surprise.
Days Three to Five: Accounts, Updates and Backups
By midweek I review accounts. I look for former employees who still have active logins, shared passwords sitting in a document, and administrator rights handed to people who do not need them. I check whether multi-factor authentication is turned on for email and cloud storage. I also confirm that backups are running and that someone has actually tested a restore. A backup that has never been restored is an assumption, not a plan.
Updates come next. Operating systems, browsers and line-of-business software get reviewed, and critical patches are scheduled into a maintenance window the office agrees to in advance. I would much rather ask when a reboot is acceptable than restart a machine in the middle of a customer call.
What You Should Hear From Me Before the Week Ends
By the end of the week, the owner should have a short written summary: what I found, what I changed, what I still recommend and what each recommendation involves. That last part matters. Small fixes can usually be handled right away. Bigger items, such as replacing a failing server, should be presented separately so the owner can decide with the full picture. Nobody should learn about a larger expense from an invoice.
The summary also includes a plain list of who to call and how. If a printer jams, the internet drops or an employee cannot log in, staff should know the path before the first problem happens. A good first week ends with the office feeling better informed, not more dependent on one person.
If you are comparing providers, the managed IT services page outlines what DirecTech includes. Ask any provider, including me, to describe their first week in writing. The answer will tell you a great deal about how the rest of the relationship will go.
Danielle Lemons is Vice President of Operations at DirecTech Connect, where she oversees phone, IT and support operations for small and mid-sized businesses. You can also find her work at daniellelemons.com.
