Changing integrators is rarely a clean handover. The new team inherits devices, panels and programming with whatever documentation the last one left, which is often very little. The first month decides whether the system becomes supportable or stays a mystery.
Signs it is time to switch
- Nobody has current drawings of what is installed.
- Only the previous integrator can add a credential or export footage.
- Cabinets are unlabeled and nobody wants to open them.
- Every proposal leads back to the same single product line.
“Or there was just one product line they were selling and when I wanted to look at others they were unwilling and that destroyed the relationship.”
Paul Sarnese, Virtua Health · Security Sales & Integration, 2022
Week 1: access and inventory
Start with what you need to operate the system without anyone's permission:
- Administrator credentials for recorders, video software, access control and intrusion panels.
- Software licenses and support contracts, and whose name they are in.
- A device list: every camera, reader, panel and intercom, with its location and address.
Week 2: condition
Then open the cabinets. Look at how controllers are mounted, whether runs are labeled, how power and data are routed, which firmware is running and whether recording actually meets the retention the organization expects.
Weeks 3–4: the written report
The audit ends in writing, with three lists and a price for each:
- Keep: what works and can be supported as is.
- Fix now: what is unsafe, unsupported or blocking operations.
- Plan: what should be replaced over the next budget cycles.
Make sure you own your system
Whoever takes over, the owner should end the month holding the administrator credentials, the software licenses, the drawings and the device list. Then the next change of integrator, if there ever is one, takes days instead of months.
Documentation is easiest to collect at the start, a lesson from construction closeout that applies here too: “Start gathering documents sooner rather than later.”
Smartech service & support covers takeovers, remote video retrieval and credential management.