What Does It Take to Get Started?

• 60day onboarding plan
• 150+checklist tasks, nothing missed
• 30day overlap with your current provider (recommended)
• $0onboarding fee

A painless transition — by design

Most businesses stay with an IT provider they’ve outgrown because switching sounds risky. We built our onboarding to remove that risk. It follows a detailed, proven checklist of more than 150 tasks across administration, client management, infrastructure and cybersecurity, so nothing is missed — and you never have to manage the details yourself.

• Observe before we change. We learn how your business actually works before we touch anything.
• Minimal disruption. Changes are kept to a minimum during onboarding and are always discussed with you first.
• Security from day one. Your security posture is protected throughout the handoff — never weakened by it.
• Weekly meetings. You always know what we found, what we recommend and what happens next.
• No onboarding fee. There’s no upfront cost to switch — the full 60-day onboarding is included.
• BC/DR first, on day 0. Onboarding starts with business continuity and disaster recovery — your data is backed up and protected before anything else changes. Then we build a technology roadmap around your goals and budget.

The 60-day onboarding plan

1. Day 0

   BC/DR first & kickoff

   The first thing we do is protect your data. We verify your existing backups, start our own backup and disaster recovery solution, and agree on recovery targets for your key systems — then plan the handoff with you.

   • Verify existing backups and start our backup and disaster recovery solution
   • Recovery targets (RTO and RPO) agreed for your key systems
   • Kickoff meeting and introductions to your CAL IT Group team
   • Contact your current MSP or IT team to coordinate a clean handoff
   • Collect credentials, documentation and vendor contacts
   • Schedule your weekly IT status meeting

2. Days 1–30

   Overlap & observation mode

   We generally prefer a 30-day overlap with your current provider. Our tools are deployed in monitor-only mode while we document everything and learn how you work — changing as little as possible.

   • Deploy monitoring, management and EDR agents in detect-only mode
   • Test restores and finish your written BC/DR plan
   • On-site visit to document your network, racks, devices and locations
   • Document applications, licensing, subscriptions and warranties
   • Security essentials: confirm admin access, MFA and account permissions

3. Days 31–60

   Full support, secure & stabilize

   We take over full support, introduce ourselves to your users and work through the security baseline — carefully, on a schedule you approve.

   • Introductory email to all users and full help desk support
   • Security review meeting with your leadership
   • Endpoint protection moved to full protect mode
   • Vulnerability scans, firewall and identity hardening
   • Security awareness training and phishing simulations launched

4. Day 60 and beyond

   Your long-term plan

   With your data protected since day 0, we build a technology roadmap from what we learned together — and keep your BC/DR plan current and tested.

   • BC/DR plan kept current and tested as your business changes
   • Prioritized recommendations and budget plan
   • Device upgrade and lifecycle plan
   • Standard processes for new users, new PCs and offboarding
   • Ongoing vCIO and vCISO strategy meetings

Weekly meetings, start to finish

Throughout the 60-day onboarding period we meet with you every week. Each meeting covers what we’ve found, what we recommend and what’s next — so recommendations are discussed, prioritized and approved by you before anything changes. By day 60, those conversations have become your long-term technology plan.

What our onboarding covers

Every onboarding follows the same comprehensive checklist, tailored to your environment. Here’s a look at what’s in it.

Switching from another MSP

We handle the conversation with your current provider so you don’t have to. We request credentials and documentation, verify everything we receive, and work in parallel during the overlap. When we take over, prior admin access is revoked, passwords are reset and logins tied to the old provider are replaced — so your environment is fully under your control.

Moving from internal IT

Whether your IT person is moving on or your team needs more support, we capture what they know before it walks out the door. If you’re keeping in-house IT, onboarding becomes a co-managed transition: we work alongside your team and take on the monitoring, security, help desk or projects you want off their plate.

Transparent from the first invoice

Our pricing is published and transparent, and we don’t charge an onboarding fee. Once you’re onboard you pay one flat per-user price — we never bill additional time to support your existing environment, and on-site support is included. Anything new is quoted as a fixed fee before work starts. And with our service desk staffed 5 AM–6 PM Pacific instead of the typical 8 to 5, your team gets 13 hours of live support every weekday from the first day of full support.

A written way out

Our annual agreement doesn’t lock you in. New clients have a 90-day satisfaction exit, and at any point in the term, if we miss our written service promises, you can leave without penalty.

What we need from you

• A primary contact and about an hour a week for our onboarding meeting
• A list of users, locations and key business applications
• Any admin credentials and documentation you already have
• Contact details for your current provider and software vendors

That’s it. Want something to share with your team? Download our service overview (PDF). Not sure where to start? Read our questions to ask an MSP, see our pricing, or schedule a discovery call and we’ll walk you through it.