Final payroll needs to be processed. Keys might need to be returned. Customers and suppliers may need to be informed. Someone else may need to take over the employee’s responsibilities.

But there’s another important task that shouldn’t be overlooked:

What happens to their IT access?

A departing employee may have access to email, Microsoft 365, OneDrive, SharePoint, business applications, company computers, VPNs and other systems.

Simply changing their email password isn’t necessarily enough.

A proper IT offboarding process helps protect company information while making sure important business data isn’t accidentally lost.

Offboarding should start before the employee leaves

Where possible, IT shouldn’t find out about an employee departure after they’ve already left.

The person responsible for IT should know:

• Who is leaving
• When their access should end
• Whether access needs to be removed immediately
• Who should receive their email
• Who should take ownership of their files
• Which company equipment needs to be returned
• Which business applications they use

The timing matters.

For a normal planned departure, access might remain available until the employee finishes work on their final day.

In other circumstances, access may need to be removed immediately.

That decision belongs with the business — but IT needs clear instructions so it can be implemented correctly.

Disable the account — don’t immediately delete it

One of the most important Microsoft 365 offboarding principles is not to rush into deleting a user’s account.

The account may contain important company information.

That could include email, contacts, calendars and OneDrive files.

Instead, the first priority is generally to prevent the former employee from signing in while preserving the information the business still requires.

Once the data has been reviewed and transferred appropriately, the account and licence can be dealt with according to the organisation’s retention requirements.

Sign the user out of existing sessions

Changing a password is useful, but users may already be signed into Microsoft 365 on multiple devices.

That could include:

• A company computer
• A personal laptop
• A mobile phone
• Outlook
• Microsoft Teams
• OneDrive
• Browser sessions

A proper offboarding process should therefore consider existing sessions and authentication tokens rather than relying only on a password change.

The objective is straightforward:

When access ends, it should actually end.

What happens to the employee’s email?

This needs a business decision.

Some organisations want incoming messages forwarded to another employee.

Others may provide another employee with temporary access to the former user’s mailbox.

In some circumstances, the mailbox may be converted to a shared mailbox so that authorised employees can continue accessing historical email.

There isn’t one correct approach for every organisation.

The important thing is deciding what should happen before deleting the user or removing important information.

Don’t forget OneDrive

Email is usually the first thing businesses think about when somebody leaves.

OneDrive can be just as important.

Employees may have stored business documents in their individual OneDrive account rather than a shared SharePoint location.

Before the account is removed, the organisation should determine whether those files need to be retained or transferred.

This is also a good opportunity to ask whether important company information should have been stored in an individual’s OneDrive in the first place.

Documents that belong to a team or the organisation may be better suited to SharePoint or another shared business location.

Review SharePoint and Teams access

The employee may have had access to multiple SharePoint sites, Teams and shared resources.

Disabling their Microsoft 365 identity can prevent them from signing in, but offboarding is also a useful opportunity to review ownership and permissions.

Was the departing employee the only owner of an important Team?

Were they responsible for a SharePoint site?

Did they manage a shared mailbox?

Did they own Microsoft Forms, workflows or other business resources?

These dependencies are much easier to resolve while the employee’s role and responsibilities are still understood.

Microsoft 365 isn’t the only system

A common mistake is to disable Microsoft 365 and assume the job is finished.

Employees often have access to many other services.

Depending on the business, these could include:

• Accounting software
• CRM systems
• Password managers
• VPN access
• Remote desktop systems
• Business phone systems
• Websites
• Social media accounts
• Domain or DNS platforms
• Cloud applications
• Industry-specific software
• Supplier portals

The organisation should maintain enough documentation to know which systems employees may have access to.

Without that visibility, accounts can remain active long after someone has left.

Shared passwords create problems

Employee departures highlight one of the biggest problems with shared accounts.

Imagine five employees all know the password to the same service.

One employee leaves.

How do you remove only that person’s access?

Usually, you can’t.

The password needs to be changed and redistributed to everyone else.

Wherever practical, employees should therefore have individual user accounts rather than sharing credentials.

Individual identities provide better security, accountability and offboarding.

Administrator access deserves special attention

If the departing employee had administrator privileges, their offboarding requires additional care.

Administrator access might exist in Microsoft 365, business applications, networking equipment, websites, domains or other systems.

These accounts can have extensive control over the organisation’s technology.

Businesses should regularly review who has administrative privileges and remove access when it is no longer required.

This follows the same principle we discussed in our AI security article:

People and applications should only have the access they actually need.

Recover company equipment

IT offboarding isn’t only about accounts.

Company-owned equipment should also be accounted for.

That might include:

• Laptop or desktop computer
• Mobile phone
• Tablet
• Headset
• Security keys
• Chargers and accessories
• Other company equipment

When equipment is returned, it shouldn’t automatically be handed directly to the next employee.

IT should check the device, protect or transfer any required information and prepare it appropriately for reuse.

What if the employee used a personal device?

This can make offboarding more complicated.

An employee may have configured company email, Teams, OneDrive or other applications on a personal phone or computer.

Businesses that allow personal devices should understand how company information is protected and what can be removed when the employment relationship ends.

This is one area where proper device management and Microsoft 365 security policies can provide considerably better control.

Backups still matter

Even with a well-managed offboarding process, mistakes happen.

Important email or files may be deleted before anybody realises they’re needed.

This is another reason businesses should understand their Microsoft 365 backup and retention strategy.

A backup shouldn’t replace proper offboarding.

It provides another recovery option if something goes wrong.

Remove licences when they’re no longer required

Microsoft 365 licences cost money.

Once the user’s information has been preserved appropriately and the account no longer requires licensed services, licences can potentially be removed and reassigned.

However, licence removal shouldn’t be the first step.

Understand what happens to the user’s mailbox, OneDrive and other information before changing licensing.

Saving one month’s licence cost isn’t worth accidentally losing important business data.

Create a repeatable onboarding and offboarding process

Employee departures shouldn’t require everyone to remember what happened last time.

Create a checklist.

The same applies when somebody joins the business.

A good onboarding process makes sure new employees receive the correct computer, Microsoft 365 account, applications and permissions.

A good offboarding process reverses that access when they leave.

This creates consistency and reduces the likelihood that something important will be forgotten.

IT access belongs to the business

Ultimately, business systems and information shouldn’t depend on individual employees.

The organisation should maintain control over its Microsoft 365 environment, domains, applications, passwords and company information.

Employees will inevitably come and go.

A well-managed IT environment should make that a normal administrative process rather than a security emergency.

Employee offboarding with itX365

For our managed IT clients, itX365 can assist with the technical side of employee onboarding and offboarding.

That can include Microsoft 365 accounts, authentication, computers, email, OneDrive, SharePoint, business applications and other managed services.

The business tells us who is joining or leaving, when it should happen and what should happen to their information.

We handle the agreed technical changes.

That creates a repeatable process and helps ensure important access isn’t accidentally left behind.

When did you last check your former employee accounts?

Here’s a useful exercise:

Look at the user accounts in your Microsoft 365 environment.

Does everyone listed still work for the business?

If you’re not sure, it may be worth reviewing your user accounts and access.

Talk to itX365 if you’d like help reviewing Microsoft 365 users, permissions or your employee onboarding and offboarding process.

A computer stops working, somebody calls the IT person, the problem gets fixed and an invoice arrives.

When the business only has one or two computers, that approach can work perfectly well.

But businesses change.

More employees are added. Microsoft 365 becomes central to operations. Files move into OneDrive and SharePoint. Phones become cloud-based. Staff work remotely. Cybersecurity becomes more important.

Eventually, waiting for something to break before involving your IT provider can become expensive and disruptive.

So how do you know when your business has outgrown break-fix IT support?

Here are five signs worth looking for.

1. IT problems are regularly interrupting your employees

Occasional technology problems are unavoidable.

But if employees regularly lose productive time because of computer problems, slow systems, Microsoft 365 issues or network problems, something needs to change.

The real cost of an IT problem isn’t necessarily the technician’s invoice.

Consider ten employees unable to work properly for an hour.

The cost of that lost productivity may be considerably greater than the cost of fixing the technical problem.

Managed IT takes a different approach.

Instead of focusing entirely on resolving problems after they occur, monitoring, maintenance and preventative work can help identify some problems before they become major disruptions.

The objective isn’t to eliminate every IT problem.

It’s to reduce how often technology unnecessarily interrupts the business.

2. Nobody really knows who is responsible for your IT

This happens surprisingly often.

One company provides the internet.

Another looks after the website.

Microsoft provides Microsoft 365.

Someone installed the phone system.

A printer company manages the photocopier.

An employee’s relative set up the Wi-Fi several years ago.

Then something stops working.

Whose problem is it?

The internet provider says the connection is working.

The software vendor says it’s a network problem.

The phone company says it’s an internet problem.

Meanwhile, your employees still can’t work.

One of the benefits of a managed IT relationship is having someone who understands the overall technology environment.

That doesn’t mean your IT provider has to supply every technology service.

It means somebody can take technical ownership and coordinate with the appropriate vendors when necessary.

For a business owner, that can remove a considerable amount of frustration.

3. Your business is becoming increasingly dependent on Microsoft 365 and cloud services

Microsoft 365 isn’t just email anymore.

Businesses increasingly use Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams and other cloud services to store and access important company information.

Accounting systems, CRM platforms and industry-specific applications are also increasingly cloud-based.

That means IT management is no longer simply about maintaining computers.

Someone needs to think about:

• User accounts
• Permissions
• Multi-Factor Authentication
• Device security
• Microsoft 365 configuration
• Backups
• Employee onboarding
• Employee offboarding
• Licensing
• Security policies

These things need ongoing management.

Waiting until something breaks isn’t necessarily the best way to manage them.

4. Cybersecurity is becoming a concern

Many businesses move towards managed IT after realising that cybersecurity requires ongoing attention.

Installing antivirus software several years ago isn’t a cybersecurity strategy.

Modern security can involve multiple layers, including MFA, endpoint protection, email security, managed firewalls, DNS filtering, security updates, backups and monitoring.

The challenge is that somebody needs to make sure those protections are actually working.

Is MFA enabled for everyone?

Are computers receiving security updates?

Is endpoint protection active?

Are backups succeeding?

Is the firewall up to date?

Are old employee accounts being disabled?

Are administrator permissions being controlled?

With traditional break-fix support, these questions can easily remain unanswered because nobody has been asked to look at them.

Managed IT establishes ongoing responsibility for agreed parts of the environment.

5. IT decisions are being made only when something fails

This is perhaps the clearest sign that a business has outgrown reactive IT.

A computer dies, so another computer is purchased.

The server runs out of storage, so more storage is added.

The internet fails repeatedly, so somebody starts looking at another provider.

A security incident occurs, so MFA gets enabled.

Eventually, technology becomes a collection of individual decisions made in response to emergencies.

A better approach is to plan.

Which computers will need replacing over the next 12 months?

Does the business still need its server?

Is the internet connection appropriate for the number of employees?

Should there be a backup connection?

Are Microsoft 365 licences being used effectively?

What would happen if a critical system failed tomorrow?

Planning allows these decisions to become normal business expenses rather than unexpected emergencies.

Break-fix isn’t necessarily bad

There’s nothing inherently wrong with break-fix IT support.

For some businesses, it’s exactly the right model.

A sole trader with one computer and relatively simple technology requirements may not need comprehensive managed IT services.

Even larger businesses may choose to handle some systems internally and use external IT support only when necessary.

The important thing is understanding when the model no longer matches the business.

How much does downtime actually cost?

One useful exercise is to think about what happens when technology isn’t available.

Imagine your internet, server or primary business application is unavailable for half a day.

How many employees would be affected?

Could they continue working?

Could customers still contact you?

Could employees access important documents?

Could you process orders or invoices?

The answers help determine how important proactive IT management is to the organisation.

A five-person professional services business may be more dependent on technology than a 30-person business operating primarily with physical processes.

Business size alone doesn’t determine the requirement.

Technology dependency does.

Managed IT changes the relationship

The biggest difference between break-fix and managed IT isn’t necessarily how support tickets are handled.

It’s the relationship between the business and the IT provider.

With break-fix support, the business generally identifies a problem and asks the provider to fix it.

With managed IT, the provider takes ongoing responsibility for agreed parts of the technology environment.

That can include monitoring, maintenance, cybersecurity, Microsoft 365, backups, internet connectivity and technical support.

The IT provider becomes involved not only when something goes wrong, but also in helping prevent problems and planning what comes next.

Is your business ready for managed IT?

If your business is experiencing several of the signs above, it may be worth reviewing how your technology is currently managed.

You don’t necessarily need more technology.

Often, what businesses need is better management of the technology they already have.

At itX365, we work with small and growing Perth businesses to provide practical managed IT services without unnecessarily complicating their environments.

We look at how the business operates, what technology it depends on and where the important risks are.

From there, we can determine what actually needs to be managed.

Has your business outgrown break-fix IT?

If IT problems are becoming more frequent, cybersecurity is becoming harder to manage or nobody has clear responsibility for your technology environment, it may be time to consider a different approach.

Talk to itX365 about whether managed IT makes sense for your business.

That approach might have worked when technology played a smaller role in day-to-day business. Today, most businesses depend on technology for almost everything they do.

Email, Microsoft 365, cloud applications, internet connectivity, cybersecurity, backups, phones and business data all need to work reliably — and securely.

That’s where managed IT services come in.

What is managed IT?

Managed IT is an ongoing approach to looking after a business’s technology rather than simply waiting for something to break.

A Managed Service Provider (MSP) takes responsibility for monitoring, maintaining and supporting agreed parts of your IT environment.

Instead of only asking:

“How quickly can we fix this?”

managed IT also asks:

“What can we do to prevent this from happening in the first place?”

That difference is important.

Break-fix IT vs managed IT

Traditional break-fix IT is relatively simple. Something goes wrong, you contact an IT technician, they fix it and you pay for the time involved.

There is still a place for this type of support, particularly for very small businesses with simple IT requirements.

The problem is that the provider is usually involved only after something has already gone wrong.

Managed IT changes the relationship.

Your IT provider becomes involved in the ongoing health of your technology environment, including maintenance, monitoring, security and planning.

The objective isn’t to generate more support calls. It’s to reduce the number of problems that become support calls in the first place.

What does a managed IT provider look after?

Every business is different, but managed IT will typically cover several important areas.

Computers and devices

Business computers need ongoing maintenance.

Operating systems and applications require updates, security patches need to be installed, hardware needs to be monitored and problems should ideally be identified before they cause significant downtime.

Remote monitoring and management tools allow an IT provider to monitor supported devices and perform many maintenance tasks without interrupting the user.

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 has become a critical business platform for many organisations.

But buying a Microsoft 365 licence doesn’t automatically mean the environment has been configured appropriately for your business.

A managed IT provider can help administer services such as Exchange Online, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint while also managing users, permissions, licensing and security settings.

When an employee joins or leaves the business, access to company information also needs to be handled correctly.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is no longer something that only large organisations need to worry about.

Small businesses hold valuable information and rely heavily on their systems being available.

Security should therefore involve multiple layers rather than relying on a single antivirus product.

Depending on the business, this can include:

• Multi-factor authentication
• Endpoint security
• Email protection
• Managed firewalls
• DNS and web filtering
• Security updates and patching
• Access controls
• Monitoring and alerting
• Backup and recovery

The appropriate level of protection depends on the business, the information it holds and the risks it faces.

Backups and disaster recovery

Having data in the cloud doesn’t necessarily remove the need for backup.

Businesses should understand what information is being backed up, where the backups are stored, how long information is retained and — importantly — how that information would be recovered when something goes wrong.

This can include Microsoft 365 data, business servers, applications, databases and other important company information.

A backup that has never been tested shouldn’t simply be assumed to work when it’s needed.

Internet and connectivity

Internet connectivity has become critical infrastructure for many businesses.

If your phones, email, Microsoft 365, accounting system and other applications depend on an internet connection, an outage can quickly become a business outage.

A managed IT provider can help businesses understand their connectivity requirements and determine whether services such as a secondary connection or 4G/5G failover are justified.

The goal isn’t necessarily to eliminate every possible outage. It’s to understand the risk and put sensible measures in place.

Business phone systems

Modern business phone systems are increasingly connected to the rest of the IT environment.

Cloud phone systems, VoIP services, Microsoft Teams integration, mobile applications and internet connectivity all overlap.

Having one technology provider involved across these services can make troubleshooting considerably easier when a problem isn’t clearly an “internet problem”, “phone problem” or “computer problem”.

Working with other technology vendors

One of the less obvious roles of a managed IT provider is dealing with other technology suppliers.

A typical small business may have separate providers for its:

• Internet
• Phone system
• Website
• Printers
• Microsoft 365
• Accounting software
• Industry-specific applications
• Domains and DNS
• Cloud services

When something goes wrong, it isn’t always obvious which provider is responsible.

A managed IT provider can become a central technical contact who understands the environment and can work with other vendors to help resolve problems.

For a business owner or manager, this can remove a lot of unnecessary complexity.

IT planning is just as important as IT support

Good managed IT isn’t only about today’s problems.

Computers eventually need replacing. Servers reach end of life. Software vendors change their requirements. Businesses grow. Employees start working from different locations. Security threats evolve.

An IT provider that understands the business can help plan for these changes rather than dealing with them as unexpected emergencies.

This allows technology decisions to become part of normal business planning.

Does every small business need managed IT?

Not necessarily.

A sole trader with one laptop and relatively simple technology requirements may be perfectly comfortable using IT support only when required.

But the equation changes as a business becomes increasingly dependent on technology.

If several employees rely on Microsoft 365, shared business information, cloud applications, internet connectivity and other systems every day, the impact of downtime or a security incident becomes much greater.

At that point, the question isn’t simply how many computers the business has.

A better question is:

How dependent is the business on its technology continuing to work?

Choosing a managed IT provider

When comparing IT providers, don’t look only at the monthly price.

Ask what is actually being managed.

Does the service include monitoring? What happens to security alerts? Are backups monitored? Who manages Microsoft 365? What happens when an employee leaves? Who looks after the firewall? What support hours are included? What isn’t included?

Most importantly, find out whether the provider is simply offering unlimited support or is actively taking responsibility for maintaining the environment.

There is a significant difference between the two.

A practical approach to managed IT

At itX365, we work with small and growing businesses across Perth to simplify their technology and provide ongoing IT support, security and management.

Our approach is straightforward: understand how the business operates, identify the technology it depends on and put appropriate systems in place to keep it reliable and secure.

That can include Microsoft 365, computers, cybersecurity, backups, internet connectivity, business phone systems, cloud infrastructure and ongoing technical support.

Technology doesn’t need to be complicated for the people using it.

It just needs to work.

Looking for managed IT support for your Perth business?

Talk to itX365 about your current IT environment and where we may be able to help.