Switching IT Providers: A Checklist for BC Dental Offices

Switching IT providers is mostly a handover job. Before a dental office gives notice, it needs admin access to every account it owns, a list of what's plugged into each station, and a backup it has actually restored from. With those in hand, the switch can happen after hours without moving a single appointment.

Most practices start looking for a new IT provider, or MSP, when the bill goes up or support gets slow. Both are fair reasons. The trouble usually starts during the switch. An X-ray sensor stops working after a Windows update, or the domain turns out to be registered in the old provider's name. And nobody has ever tried restoring the backup.

What should a dental office do before giving notice?

Do these before you tell your current provider you're leaving. They're easier while the relationship is still friendly.

1. Read your contract. Find the notice period, any termination fees, and who owns leased equipment like the firewall or server. Some agreements also bundle software licences that need to move.
2. Make sure the practice owns its accounts. That means the domain name, the Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace admin account, the practice software licence and the backup service. If your provider registered the domain in its own name, get it transferred to the practice first.
3. Ask for documentation in writing: a device list, admin credentials, the firewall and Wi-Fi setup, licence keys, and where the backups live. Put the request in the same email as your notice, so there's a record.

If a provider drags its feet on handing over admin access, that tells you something.

What's plugged into each station?

Dental offices have more hardware riding on a switch than most small offices. Every operatory and the imaging setup depend on drivers that have to keep working afterwards.

For each station, write down:

• PC or Mac, and which version of Windows or macOS it runs
• the practice software, and whether it's the cloud or desktop version (Cleardent's cloud version, for example, keeps charts off local machines, which makes the switch simpler)
• imaging hardware, such as intraoral sensors and cameras or a pano, ceph or CBCT unit, plus the software that runs it (Carestream, for example)
• anything else plugged in, like printers, card terminals and scanners

Imaging is the part that breaks. Sensors and cameras need drivers that work with the operating system, and older sensors don't always support Windows 11. Check every device before anything gets upgraded or replaced.

There's one situation we still don't have a clean answer for. Some older sensors only work on Windows 10, which no longer gets security updates unless you pay Microsoft for extended support. You can replace a sensor that still takes good images, or keep one machine on Windows 10 just for imaging, cut off from the rest of the network. Neither is great. Ask the sensor's maker whether a Windows 11 driver is coming before you decide either way.

Macs need their own question. We recently spoke with a practice whose previous provider only ever monitored the PCs, because its tools couldn't connect to the Macs. Ask how a new provider supports Macs remotely, and get them to show you.

How do you switch IT providers without downtime?

Do it in this order:

1. Keep the old provider in place until the new one has access to everything and has checked your backups.
2. Test a restore. A report saying the backup ran doesn't prove you can get your files back, so restore a few files, or a whole machine, before cutover day.
3. Do the switch in the evening or on a day you're closed.
4. Once the new provider is in, remove the old one's access. Uninstall their monitoring and remote access tools, disable their admin accounts, and change any shared passwords. Access that nobody removes is a real security hole.
5. The morning after, take a test image at every operatory.

When we set up a new orthodontic clinic in Vancouver, all six workstations, the X-ray integration and the phones were working on opening day.

What should you ask a new IT provider?

A provider who knows dental offices will have quick answers to these:

1. Have you supported our practice software and imaging before?
2. How do you support Macs remotely?
3. What's included in the monthly price, and what gets billed on top?
4. How long is the contract, and what's the notice period? (Ours is month-to-month, for what it's worth.)
5. How is most support done, and how fast can someone be on site?
6. What will you report to us each month?
7. How do you protect patient information under BC's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA)?

For what PIPA expects of a practice, the OIPC's resources for private organizations are a good place to start.

What should the first 30 days look like?

By the end of the first month, you should have:

• written documentation of your devices, accounts and network, kept where the practice can reach it
• a backup that's actually been restored from
• multi-factor sign-in on email and remote access, protection software on every machine, and updates on a schedule (your security baseline)
• a plain-language report on what was found and fixed

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to switch IT providers?

For a small dental office, the handover itself is usually a few days of preparation and one evening of cutover. The notice period in your current contract is often the longest part, so start there.

Will we lose data or appointments?

Not if the backups are tested before the switch and the work happens after hours. Offices on cloud practice software have less to move, because charts and schedules don't live on local machines.

Do we have to tell our current provider?

Yes. Give notice the way your contract requires, and ask for credentials and documentation in the same message, in writing.

Can one provider support both PCs and Macs?

Yes, if their remote tools support macOS. Ask to see it working on one of your Macs before you sign.

Is it worth switching just because the price went up?

Look at what's included before you compare monthly numbers. A higher fee that covers security and after-hours work can cost less than a low fee plus hourly billing for everything else.