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Do you really need to switch providers?
Companies switch providers when the service disappoints or the price no longer adds up. Two questions tell you: the quality of the service you get, and the price you pay for it.
Quality of service first. Measure the time between an employee reporting a problem and someone taking it on. Processes are sometimes clunky: you have to call, then chase for a request to move forward. Also check whether your provider warns you before something fails, or whether the same problems keep coming back. Finally, check what the plan covers: does it include what you need, or only part of it? In the price lists we collected, backups, security, and employee onboarding and offboarding are often outside the plan.
Then there's the price. Managed service providers (MSPs) rarely publish their rates, and the entry-level plan, often around €30 per user, covers only part of what you need: the rest is billed separately (details in our article on pricing). To know what you're really paying, bring everything back to an annual cost per user, extra billing included.
| Criterion | Warning signs | What you can demand |
|---|---|---|
| Service: responsiveness and proactivity | Requests you have to chase, failures that recur with no warning beforehand | A response time written into the contract, and a regular report on the state of your devices |
| Service: plan coverage | Everyday needs your provider doesn't handle | A written list of what's included |
| Price: transparency | A rate you can't find in writing anywhere | A price per user, per month, add-ons included |
| Price: plan and extra billing | Extra invoices almost every month | A written list of what's not included |
What should you check in your contract before leaving?
Most MSPs know it: what keeps their prospects from switching is fear of the transition, because the old provider holds the email and the files.
| Clause | What you're looking for | What a court has said |
|---|---|---|
| Commitment term | The end date, and whether it's spread across several contracts | A client committed for 36 months, who thought they had canceled everything by email, loses their claim for a €26,002 refund (TAE Paris, 2026) |
| Notice period and renewal | The notice period and the deadline to cancel | The most common commitment term is 12 months, renewed automatically: miss the date and you're in for another full year |
| Data return | The timeframe and format in which everything is returned to you | Without a clause, data must be returned immediately; an accounting firm had to go to the court of appeal to get it back (CA Paris, 2025) |
| Exit fees and reversibility | What is billed when you leave, and at what price | A judge allowed a provider to keep data and credentials until €2,790 in migration fees was paid (TAE Paris, 2025) |
Who holds your access?
List your access, and check whose name each one is registered under: sometimes the provider created the accounts and registered the domain name in its own name. If that's hard to do yourself, ask your current provider for the list, or have someone else draw it up: at Vauban, it's part of the free audit.
- the admin account for Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace;
- the domain name, which carries your email addresses;
- the firewall, the Wi-Fi and remote access;
- servers, licenses and their keys;
- backups, and where they are stored.
This access must belong to you, and your contract must say so. Otherwise, a judge can refuse to order the provider to hand it over. It happened in 2025: a client went to court for the passwords to their firewall and their licenses, and lost, because nothing in their contract assigned these to them (TAE Nanterre, 2025).
How does the switchover work?
A well-run switchover starts with the new provider auditing your setup. Well-equipped new providers, like Vauban, do it quickly and completely: a 20-minute call, then a written assessment of all your devices, and a quote within 24 hours. Then the cancellation goes out in due form, and your IT setup is transferred while the old provider is still under contract: service continues.
Enter your situation to get your dates, what you still owe your current provider and the list of what needs to be recovered.
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Full takeover by the new IT provider
End of your current contract, at the earliest
Still owed to your current IT provider
Your roadmap
Each step in detail, date by date
What to get back, tool by tool
| Step | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Reread the contract | Before anything else | Commitment term, notice period, data return, exit fees |
| Audit | Within the week | A 30-minute call, then a written assessment of your setup |
| Quote | Within 24 hours | The price and the scope, user by user |
| Cancellation | According to the notice period | Sent in the form each contract concerned requires |
| Transfer | One month before the contract ends | Hardware, access, servers, software, email and files |
| Full takeover | 2 weeks later | The new provider manages everything, the old one hands back what's left |
How much does switching cost?
You pay the notice period either way: you pay your current provider until the end of the contract, whether you leave or not. The cost specific to switching is the overlap, those few weeks when both providers are working at the same time. At Vauban, it costs you nothing: we charge neither for the trial period nor for the transfer. That leaves exit fees, if your current contract includes them.
| For a current plan at €30 per user | 50 users | 100 users | 150 users |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 months' notice, owed in any case | €4,500 | €9,000 | €13,500 |
For leaving in the middle of a 36-month commitment term, the math is in our article on pricing.
The most expensive case remains the long commitment term, especially when it's tied to equipment leasing. In 2025, a client owed the leasing company €13,455 in compensation after canceling their printing, managed IT services and phone contracts (TAE Paris, 2025). Depending on when the commitment term ends, waiting a few months can cost less than leaving right away.
Costly mistakes
Canceling before copying your backups. Some contracts provide for their deletion on the very day you leave. In 2026, the Paris Court of Appeal enforced a clause announcing a "permanent, irrevocable and immediate deletion," with 28 days of retention: the client recovered nothing in time (CA Paris, 2026).
Forgetting that one contract can hide several. A notary's office that had canceled its internet line remained bound by its managed IT services and antivirus contracts, which were separate (TJ Paris, 2024). Each contract had to be canceled on its own, in the form it required.
Relying on a vague reversibility clause. It only protects you if it says what is handed over, within what timeframe and at what price. In 2026, a court pointed out that its purpose is to organize a transition limited in time, and the client who refused to pay for it was ordered to pay more than €160,000 (TAE Nanterre, 2026).
Switching providers with Vauban
At Vauban, the transition is part of the service. After a 30-minute call, we carry out a free audit: your devices and their inventory, then your IT management processes and the configuration of your tools, such as Google Workspace. You receive a written assessment. The quote follows within 24 hours. We then recover the access, email and files from your old provider ourselves, and take over full management of your IT setup within 2 weeks. Your team keeps working in the meantime, and once the switchover is done, every request is picked up within 2 minutes, 24 hours a day.
Our outsourced IT support can be canceled with 3 months' notice, and the transfer is free of charge. If you ever leave, we don't hold anything back: we hand over the access and the documentation for everything we've done, and we transfer it all to the provider of your choice.
To see where you stand, start with the free audit: request it here.
