We already have an IT company. Where do you fit?

Alongside them, almost always. And I want to be introduced early rather than discovered later.

Different jobs

Most IT providers keep your business running — network, devices, email, backups, security, the helpdesk. That is a different discipline from building software that did not exist before, and being excellent at one does not make you excellent at the other.

Where it goes wrong is when nobody says this out loud. Your IT provider finds out about a new system after it is live, discovers it touches infrastructure they are responsible for, and is understandably unimpressed.

How I like it to work

• They are introduced during discovery, not at handover.
• They tell me the constraints — what the network allows, where things are permitted to run, what the security policy actually says.
• We agree who owns what in writing, so nobody is surprised at 4pm on a Friday.
• If they want to take over support afterwards, that is a good outcome and I will document it for them properly.

The awkward case

Sometimes the IT provider is not enthusiastic, because a new supplier can feel like an encroachment. I understand that. It usually resolves once it is clear I am not going after their contract.

If it does not resolve, that is worth knowing about your incumbent, quite separately from whatever you were planning to build.