Technology

What Should I Do if My IT Person Leaves?

With how vital your IT setup is to the operation of your business, you might think that it’s time to panic if your IT person up and leaves the team. Not only do you have a need to fill in the skills gap that they left, but they might leave you without the info that you need to make sure your system is safe and secure before they go. Here are some tips on how to pick up the pieces after they leave you.

Secure Your System

Even if your employee is trustworthy, reliable, and leaving on a positive note, you shouldn’t leave them able to access the system after they have left it. Use what account control powers you have to block their access to your system and files. Think of any access points they can use, including email, cloud servers, third-party software you use, and more. Similarly, check any email or automated communication lists you have to remove their name from the recipients.

Look Over Your IT Documentation

It’s a good idea to do this before your IT person leaves but, if you don’t have that option, you need to take the time to go through all of your IT networks, configurations, and software controls to ensure you have documented the essentials. Keep your administrator logins, your hardware warranties, software licenses, license keys, and other vital details on any encrypted server. 

If your past IT person kept a log of any problems they solved in the past, then make sure you retrieve and store those in a safe place as well. Aside from helping you fill their skills gap, this documentation can help any future IT workers take their place without too much issue.

Know How Your Backups Work

If you don’t know how your data backs up, or where it backs up, it’s vital to get this information from your ex-IT worker. There’s a good chance they have been automated to fit certain protocols but it’s still best to understand them. Furthermore, if the IT worker has laid out or created a contingency plan in the past, then it’s worth taking the time to get this plan off of them before they move out of reach.

Get Help Managing Your IT

An IT person’s departure can bring some trouble and extra work with it, but you can get help managing the load and, even better, take the opportunity to improve and streamline how your handle your business IT. With the help of a managed service provider, you can make it so that a single IT person need not be the gatekeeper of all things IT. 

Aside from helping you manage your essential IT needs for the moment, they can also help you streamline the systems to make them more accessible and easy to work with for future IT workers, too.

In the future, it’s important to make sure you don’t leave too much power, i.e. understanding and control of the entire IT system, in one person’s hands.

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