Switching IT Providers in Chicago and the Suburbs, With a Documented Handoff

Signs it is time to switch IT providers

• The same problems come back every month.
• You do not have the admin passwords for your own Microsoft 365, domain or firewall.
• No one can show you a current network diagram, asset list or backup restore test.
• Security (MFA, patching, backups) feels like an add-on rather than part of the service.
• Your business added people, locations or software, and your provider did not keep up.
• You have to chase your provider for answers or for a plan.
• You are moving floors in a Loop high-rise or opening a suburban office, and your provider has no plan for the building's rules.

Switching to co-managed IT first in Chicago

If your company has one IT person or a small team you trust, switching does not have to replace them. With co-managed IT, your IT lead stays in charge and BTI adds the help desk, a 24/7 NOC/SOC and engineers for projects, with a written responsibility matrix. Need a person rather than a service, for a leave or a project? See IT staff augmentation. If your IT person is retiring, co-managed IT keeps their knowledge documented and moves to fully managed IT when they leave.

Use your next project as the switch point

Many businesses switch at a natural moment: an office move or new location, a Microsoft 365 or server migration, a Windows 11 refresh or a firewall that has reached end of life. BTI can run the project and take over support in one plan. See IT Projects: relocation and expansion location IT, Microsoft 365 migration, server and cloud migration, network upgrade.

How a BTI transition works

Handoff checklist: what you need from your current provider

Everything is put in your company's name, so you are never locked out again.

Two ways to work with BTI after the switch

Retiring IT person or a one-person IT department? Co-managed IT keeps them involved while their knowledge is documented, and fully managed IT takes over when they leave.

Switching IT providers in Chicago, the Loop and the suburbs

BTI's Chicagoland team works from Downers Grove and supports offices downtown and across the suburbs. In Loop high-rises, on-site work is planned around the building: freight elevator time, riser and telecom room access, and the building engineer's after-hours rules. Suburban and multi-site businesses get the same help desk number and the same 24/7 NOC/SOC across every location.

The Chicagoland business landscape. Chicagoland is a downtown core and a ring of suburbs that each work differently. Professional services firms fill the towers of the Loop, River North and the West Loop. Manufacturers and distributors cluster in the western and northwestern suburbs, and the area around O'Hare and the interstate corridors carries a large logistics and distribution economy. Healthcare practices, schools, nonprofits and multi-site retailers are spread from the North Shore to the western and south suburbs. A switch plan for a firm on one floor downtown looks nothing like one for a distributor with a warehouse near O'Hare and an office in Oak Brook.

Who BTI supports in Chicagoland. BTI's Chicagoland engineers cover downtown and the North Shore to O'Hare, Schaumburg, Naperville, Oak Brook and the south suburbs. They support CPA and insurance firms, healthcare practices, manufacturers and distributors, schools, nonprofits and multi-site retail and logistics operators.

What makes a Chicago switch different

• Building rules downtown. Loop and River North buildings control who works in them and when. If the switch includes on-site work, such as replacing a firewall, tracing cabling or removing the old provider's equipment, BTI provides the certificate of insurance the building asks for and works within the building's contractor rules, so the work is approved before the day it happens.
• Carriers and risers. Carrier options can differ floor to floor in downtown buildings, and circuits are sometimes ordered in the outgoing provider's name. The switch is a good time to confirm who owns each internet line, where it enters the building and who to call when it goes down.
• Winters. Chicago winters make travel unpredictable, between the city and the suburbs and between your own sites. The switch plan makes sure every location can be supported remotely first: monitoring on every firewall, switch and server, remote support tools on every PC, and Microsoft 365 set up so staff can work from home when the roads are bad. When an engineer does need to be on site, the Downers Grove team plans the trip.
• Downtown plus suburbs. If you have an office in the Loop and sites in the suburbs, each location is built to the same standards, linked with SD-WAN where it fits, and managed from the same tools, with one help desk number for everyone.

Out-of-region disaster recovery. Chicago businesses can also keep an out-of-region disaster recovery site in BTI's Phoenix Iron Mountain facility. BTI's smart hands team handles the on-site work, so your staff never has to travel. Hosting can run any platform, on servers and storage you supply from your own vendors or buy through BTI. See managed data center hosting in Phoenix.

Why the Downers Grove team makes switching easier. BTI's Chicagoland office is in Downers Grove, on the I-88 corridor in the western suburbs, with the Loop and the rest of the suburbs within reach. The engineers who plan your switch are the ones who come on site for discovery, meet your IT person if you have one, and stand behind the help desk handover. If you switch to co-managed IT first, your IT lead gets local engineers to call, backed by 400+ engineers and BTI's 24/7 NOC/SOC. To talk through a switch, call 312-492-2613.

Related Chicago pages: managed IT in Chicagoland, outsourced IT in Chicago, on-site IT support in Chicago, IT infrastructure consulting in Chicago, cybersecurity in Chicago and network installation in Chicago.

Also switching in another metro? See switching IT providers in Los Angeles and switching IT providers in Phoenix.

Pair the switch with a project, and finance it

If the switch comes with a network refresh, new PCs or a move, the project can be financed. BTI can arrange 3.99% vendor financing for 100% of the project, including equipment, labor and consulting, for qualified buyers, subject to credit approval. Many bank loans run 10% or more today and ask for far more collateral. Our vendor financing is secured by the new equipment itself.

Ask About 3.99% Financing

Glossary: the terms in this page, spelled out

MSP (managed service provider)

an outside company that runs some or all of your IT for a monthly fee. Examples: "Our MSP handles the help desk and patching." "We are switching MSPs after the move."

Co-managed IT

a shared model where your internal IT staff keep control and an outside provider adds tools, people or after-hours coverage under a written split of duties. Examples: Your IT manager keeps projects and vendors; BTI takes password resets and overnight alerts. A two-person IT team adds 24/7 monitoring without hiring a night shift.

Global admin (global administrator)

the top-level administrator account in Microsoft 365 that can change every setting. Examples: Two named global admins owned by the business, plus a break-glass account. "Who holds global admin today?"

Registrar (domain registrar)

the company where your domain name (yourcompany.com) is registered and renewed. Examples: The domain is registered at the registrar under the owner's email. A lapsed registrar login is a common surprise during a switch.

DNS (Domain Name System)

the internet's address book that turns names like btigroup.com into server addresses. Examples: "Who controls our DNS, the old IT company or us?" Email and website records live in DNS.

RMM (remote monitoring and management)

software agents an IT provider installs on PCs and servers to monitor, patch and support them remotely. Examples: The old provider's RMM agent is removed after the new one is installed. RMM alerts when a disk is almost full.

Asset list

an inventory of every device, license and service, with owner, location and support dates. Examples: The asset list shows 42 PCs, 3 servers and the firewall. "Is the copier on the asset list?"

Network diagram

a drawing of how internet lines, firewalls, switches, Wi-Fi and servers connect. Examples: The diagram shows the VLANs and the second internet line. A current diagram speeds up every repair.

Ticket history

the record of past support requests and how they were resolved. Examples: Ticket history shows the same printer issue every month. "Can we get an export of our ticket history?"

MFA (multifactor authentication)

signing in with a second proof, such as an app prompt, on top of a password. Examples: MFA blocks most stolen-password sign-ins. Turn on MFA before the migration, not after.

NOC (network operations center)

a team that watches networks, servers and internet circuits around the clock and responds to outages. Examples: The NOC sees a branch internet circuit drop at 2 a.m. and opens a carrier ticket. The NOC flags a failing server drive before it fails.

SOC (security operations center)

a team that watches security alerts around the clock and responds to threats. Examples: The SOC isolates a laptop that opened a malicious attachment. The SOC investigates a sign-in from an unusual country.

Help desk

the first point of contact for user IT problems and requests. Examples: Password resets and printer issues go to the help desk. "Escalate this ticket from the help desk to an engineer."

RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed)

a chart that says who does, owns, advises on and hears about each task. Examples: The co-managed RACI shows BTI is responsible for patching and your IT lead is accountable. A RACI settles "who does this?" before go-live.

Staff augmentation

adding outside technical people to your team for a set need, under your direction. Examples: An engineer is added for six months to run a migration. Help desk coverage is added while you hire.

DR failover (disaster recovery failover)

switching your critical systems to a second site when the primary site is down, then switching back when it is fixed. Examples: The file server fails over to the Phoenix data center during an outage at the office. A failover test proves the second site works before you need it.