ITplanB
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ITplanB · Orlando, Florida

Because You shouldn't be afraid
to say goodbye.

Changing who runs your IT shouldn't feel like a risk. It should feel like a plan.

Report a bad IT manager sighting
The sighting

You'd know one if you saw one.

  1. Hoards passwords like a dragon.

  2. Stalls the company's progress.

  3. Wastes everyone's time.

  4. Vanishes when it matters.

The report card

Seen one? Report it.

Fill in the card. It takes a minute, and it's anonymous unless you want a call.

REPORT

a bad IT manager sighting

Reports are anonymous unless you ask us to call. We never share them.
Sightings

Stories.

Names removed. Lessons kept.

Sighting 01

We didn't own our own website.

A small company hired a contractor to build the website and set up email. Months later they parted ways. Two months after that the site went down and email stopped. The domain had been quietly moved to a private registration overseas. The old contractor said he didn't know anything about it, but maybe he could look into it. For $250,000. The company spent months with ICANN and the courts, with no website and no email the whole time.

Your domain is the front door to everything. If you don't control it, someone else does.

Exit plan, step 1
Sighting 02

Nobody knew a single password.

The only IT employee gave two weeks' notice. Management figured they'd hire a replacement. On day one the new hire asked where the admin credentials were. Nobody knew. Nothing was written down. Every password had lived in one person's head, or on a phone that walked out the door. No firewall. No email admin. Not even the office Wi-Fi router. Every vendor said the same thing: we only ever dealt with your IT guy.

If only one person knows how your IT works, you don't have an IT department. You have a dependency.

Exit plan, step 5
Sighting 03

The backups stopped 14 months ago.

For three years the monthly report said everything was backed up nightly. It was a line in the budget. Then the server failed and everyone expected a quick recovery. The backup software had thrown an error 14 months earlier and quietly stopped. Nobody noticed, because nobody but the IT manager could see the backup system, and he never looked. Years of project files, financial records and client data. Some came back from laptops and email attachments. Most of it was gone.

A backup you can't verify is not a backup. If you've never watched a restore, assume the worst.

Exit plan, step 4

All sightings

Before you let go

Collect these first.

If you're thinking about a change, get these in hand while everyone is still talking. In this order.

  1. 01

    Who owns your domain?

    Your domain is the front door to the website, the email and most of your logins. Get the registrar name and the login. If it sits under someone's personal account, move it before anything else.

  2. 02

    Who has admin on your email?

    Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, someone on the leadership team needs the global admin login. If one person holds it and leaves, every inbox in the company goes with them.

  3. 03

    Do you have admin on your business software?

    Accounting, CRM, the tools your trade runs on. For each one, a leader needs an admin login of their own. Not a shared one. Not a borrowed one.

  4. 04

    Where are the backups, and can you reach them?

    Ask where they live, how often they run and when one was last restored. If the answer is vague, or only one person can get to them, treat them as missing.

  5. 05

    Is anything written down?

    Network diagram, password list, vendor contacts, licences, how-tos. Get a copy. If there isn't one, that tells you something too.

Read the whole plan 10 steps

Plan B

There's a plan for this.

Three steps. Start with the first one. The third one is yours.

Step 01

Assess

Half a day, on site or remote. We find out what you actually have: who holds which logins, what's written down, what's backed up and whether it restores. You get a plain written picture of where you stand and what to do first. Nothing gets touched.

Step 02

Stabilize

We put the keys back in your hands. Domain, email admin, backups, network gear, vendor accounts, all moved into a vault the company owns. Documentation gets written as we go. If someone is leaving, this happens before they do.

Step 03

Choose

Once the keys are yours, the next move is yours too. Hire again, and do it better this time, with the documentation in hand. Keep us on as your fractional IT department. Bring in someone else entirely. Whatever you choose, nothing is locked, and everything comes with you.

  • No lock-in.
  • Your passwords are yours.
  • Jane picks up, day or night.

happily ever after

Whatever you choose, the keys stay with you.

Already have a great one?

Keep your IT person. Give them a second line.

Good IT people aren't afraid of a Plan B. They ask for one. Anything important should be understood by more than one person, and the person who built it knows that best.

We stand behind strong IT leads so they can take a real vacation, pass the hit-by-a-bus test, and know the business won't stall when they step away. Same half-day, on demand, no retainer needed.

Give them a second line

Talk to us

Jane picks up, day or night.

Call, book a time, or talk to Jane. Say what's going on. We'll tell you what we'd do, even if the answer is nothing yet.

Schedule a call
Address
3415 W. Lake Mary Blvd #951260, Lake Mary, FL 32795

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