Somewhere between the handshake and the wire transfer, you assumed there would be a folder, a binder, or something, perhaps containing a list of passwords, a network diagram, and a note that said, "here is how the computers work." Instead, you got a firm handshake, a smile, and keys to a building full of computers that nobody has ever written a single word about.
This is more common than you'd think, and it matters more than you might realize right now.
The tour on closing day
You know how this goes. The previous owner walks you around the office, points at the server in the corner, says, "That's the server," and moves on. They wave at the front-desk computer, and mention that the internet "pretty much never goes down," then they hand you a sticky note with one password on it, wish you luck, and leave.
That sticky note is now your IT documentation.
The staff are helpful, and they know which buttons to click to get their jobs done. But ask them who the internet provider is, and you'll get a shrug. Ask them where the files are actually stored, and they'll point at the screen. Ask them what happens if that server in the corner dies tomorrow, and the room goes very quiet.
The questions nobody can answer
Here are the details you almost certainly don't know about the business you just bought:
Who's your internet provider, what does the contract say, and when does it expire? Is there a backup connection if it goes down, or does the whole business stop?
Who holds the passwords to the router, server, email system, and accounting software? Are those passwords stored somewhere safe, or did they walk out the door with the previous owner?
Where are the files actually stored? On that server? In the cloud? On someone's laptop? All three?
Is there a backup, when did it last run, and has anyone ever tested whether it actually works?
And the one that keeps business owners up at night once they think of it: does the previous owner still have remote access to anything, such as their old email account, the accounting system, or the server? Nobody changed those credentials because nobody thought to.
"Don't touch anything" is not a strategy
The previous owner's parting advice was probably something like: "It all just works, don't touch anything." And for a while, it does. Everything hums along, and you relax.
Then something stops working. Maybe the server throws an error. Maybe a staff member gets locked out of a system, and nobody has the password to fix it. Maybe a hard drive starts making a noise you've never heard before. Now you're standing in front of a machine you know nothing about, trying to find someone to call, with customers waiting and the clock running.
That's not a technology problem; that's a business problem. And it was sitting there waiting for you from the moment you signed the papers.
What we do when we come in
We're a managed service provider, which is a fancy way of saying we look after the IT side of businesses so you don't have to. Think of us as your outsourced IT department, without the overhead of hiring one.
This is exactly where we can help. When you bring us in, the first thing we do is conduct an IT audit of your business as it stands. We find out what you actually have, how it's set up, who has access to what, and where the gaps are.
We're not going to tell you to rip everything out and start again. Most businesses we walk into have systems that are working perfectly fine, and we'll tell you that honestly. What we'll also tell you is where something is one bad day away from becoming a serious problem, and what it would take to fix it before that happens.
At the end of that process, you'll know who your providers are, what you're paying for, who has access to your systems, whether your backups are real, and what your options are if something goes wrong. You'll have actual documentation, something more useful than a sticky note.
You bought this business to run it and grow it, not to spend your days worrying about what's hiding in that server room.
Give us a call at 555-5555 and let us take a look. The peace of mind is worth the conversation.
