August 2026 - Page 26 of 44

An underperforming IT provider rarely fails loudly. The relationship decays in small, deniable increments until an incident, an audit or an insurance renewal forces an honest look at the evidence. This guide sets out nine warning signs — response times that hide resolution failures, purely reactive account management, slipping patch and backup discipline, missing asset and licence registers, repeat incidents, unexplained cost drift, slow joiner and leaver processing, one-way communication, and undisclosed changes of ownership or offshoring. Each sign comes with the data you can gather yourself, the benchmark a competent partner should meet, and the question that separates a real explanation from an excuse. A nine-point scoring table turns the impressions into a number, and a four-step plan covers what to do once you have it.