Switching IT Providers Without Slowing Down

The Challenge

When Your Team Becomes the IT Department

Technology is part of nearly everything this Nebraska healthcare organization does.

Caregivers rely on it in the field. Healthcare professionals use it to document care. Office employees depend on it for communication, billing and everyday operations.

As the organization grew, so did its reliance on technology. But its approach to IT had not grown with it.

Before ECS, the organization primarily relied on one person for IT support. When that person was available, employees could get help. When they were not?

Employees might send an email and hope it was seen or call and wait for a response. When help was not available, they often tried to solve technology problems themselves.

Printers. Monitors. Computers. Permissions.

Employees found themselves searching Google for answers to problems that had nothing to do with their actual jobs.

And there were bigger concerns. The organization had experienced suspicious emails and messages impersonating members of leadership, including fraudulent requests involving payroll information and gift cards.

The organization needed more than someone to call when a computer broke. It needed an IT partner capable of supporting a growing healthcare organization.

The Transition

But What Happens When You Switch?

Knowing your current IT situation is not working is one thing. Changing it is another.

Switching IT providers can raise plenty of questions:

• Will employees lose access?
• Will systems go down?
• Will people know where to go for help?
• Will the transition interfere with everyday operations?

For an organization whose technology helps support care delivered in people's homes, disruption was not something the team could afford.

But from an employee's perspective, the actual transition to ECS was remarkably uneventful.

There was an adjustment to learning a new support process, but once employees understood how to reach ECS, getting help became straightforward.

Urgent issue? Call. Something less urgent? Email the ECS Service Desk and a ticket is created.

And if someone is not sure who they need, the ECS team helps get the issue to the right person.

From One IT Person to an IT Team

The difference became especially clear after the transition.

Employees were no longer dependent on whether one particular person happened to be available. They had access to a team.

“Same day you're getting help.”

Many problems can be addressed remotely without employees waiting for someone to come to the office.

And if the first ECS person they reach is not the right person for the issue, they are not sent away to figure it out themselves. The team helps connect them with someone who can help.

That may sound simple. But for employees who had become accustomed to troubleshooting their own technology, it changed the experience of getting IT support.

They could get back to doing their actual jobs.

More Than a Help Desk

Responsive support was only part of the change.

ECS also began identifying technology issues the organization was not necessarily asking about yet: aging technology, opportunities to modernize systems, ways to improve security, and areas where existing processes and technology could work better as the organization continued to grow.

The conversation shifted from:

What's broken today?

To:

Where is the organization going next, and is its technology ready to go with it?

That proactive guidance was something the employee noticed. ECS was not just responding to support requests. The team was bringing ideas forward and helping the organization think more strategically about technology.

An IT Partner That Feels Like Part of the Team

Over time, the relationship became another noticeable difference.

Employees began recognizing the ECS team members supporting them. ECS regularly worked alongside their staff. And when someone from ECS was onsite, employees felt comfortable asking for help with other technology frustrations they had encountered.

“It's not just transactional; like it's the relationship building.”

Asked whether ECS feels like an outside vendor or an extension of the organization, the answer was clear.

“I feel like it's more of an extension of our organization.”

The reason was not complicated: accessibility, willingness to help, familiar people, and a team that understood enough about the organization to help it make better decisions as it grew.

The Recommendation

What Would You Tell Someone Nervous About Switching?

For another organization considering a new IT provider, perhaps the most valuable part of this story is not the technology at all. It is what did not happen.

There was not a major interruption to the workday. Employees were not left without support. The transition did not become the disruptive project they might have feared.

When asked what she would tell employees at another organization that was nervous about changing IT providers, the employee said:

And if the ECS team does not immediately know the answer?

“They will do the research to find the answer and to be able to help.”

Your IT Provider Should Make Work Easier

Changing IT providers can feel like a major undertaking. Staying with IT that no longer supports your organization can be a bigger one.

ECS has a proven process for helping organizations transition their technology, support and strategy without losing sight of the people who need that technology to work every day.

Because your employees should not have to become the IT department.

They should be able to Spend Time on What Matters.