Before choosing a business cloud solution, ask the supplier to demonstrate how you would leave it. Check what you can export, whether another system can use those files and who controls the administrator accounts. Agree the work, charges and access arrangements for a future handover before signing the contract.
Make this part of your buying decision, alongside everyday usability and support. You do not need a complete migration project before placing an order. You do need enough evidence to understand what leaving involves, including anything you would lose or have to rebuild elsewhere. Start with one important business process rather than a catalogue of features.
Name what you would need to take
Choose a process your staff rely on, such as preparing customer quotes or managing project documents. Ask the supplier to identify everything needed to continue that work in another service. Include the documents themselves, the customer records they refer to and any history your team needs to interpret them.
Request a written description of the export format and its limits. Ask separately about attachments, folder structures, permissions and previous versions. Do not accept a demonstration that stops at downloading a spreadsheet if your actual requirement includes linked files. Write down which items the supplier can transfer and which require a different approach.
Try opening a sample somewhere else
Ask for a small export using invented test records and non-sensitive documents. Have someone from your business open the result without signing into the original platform. Check whether they can find the right record, understand its fields and read the associated files. Record what works and what needs explanation.
For an important application, ask the proposed replacement supplier to assess that sample too. Request a clear distinction between data it can import directly and information that needs conversion or manual work. Set a pass condition based on a real task, such as finding a customer’s project documents, rather than merely confirming that a download completed.
Keep the business in control of access
Ask whose organisation will own the subscription and which people in your business will hold the necessary administrative roles. Request a handover process that includes an authorised deputy. Ask the supplier to explain how you recover control if your usual contact leaves, and document the answer somewhere your business can reach.
Include connected services in that conversation. Ask who manages sign-in, domain settings and links to other applications. Agree how a departing supplier’s access will be removed after a successful handover. Avoid sharing passwords for the sake of convenience; request named access and a documented approval process instead.
Agree the exit work and its price
Request the cancellation terms, notice requirements and any data-export or assistance charges in writing. Ask what support remains available during the notice period and whether the supplier will work with a replacement provider. Identify who authorises additional migration work, so staff are not left approving unfamiliar charges during a rushed handover.
Ask about the practical limits as well: how you request a full export, how long the supplier needs and whether staff can keep working while it runs. Request an explanation of how changes made after the first export would be handled. Keep these answers with the contract rather than relying on a sales conversation.
Separate cancellation from a completed handover
Microsoft’s cancellation guidance explicitly tells customers to save their data before cancelling a Microsoft 365 business subscription.[3] Use that warning as a prompt to check the exact sequence for every proposed service. Ask your supplier when access changes, what must happen first and which steps are difficult to reverse.
Plan a sign-off before cancelling anything. Ask a business owner to check representative records and documents in the destination, with exceptions recorded and assigned to someone. Agree what happens to remaining copies in the old service and request written confirmation of the supplier’s process. Do not use a cancellation request as the test of whether migration has worked.
Take an export question to your next review
If you already use cloud services, start with the application you would find hardest to replace. Request its current export instructions and arrange a small, authorised test. Keep the result with your service records, including unresolved questions, who owns them and when you will review the answers.
BMT’s cloud solutions page covers the services available for a wider discussion. Bring us the application name and the work you need to preserve. An export sample and the supplier’s written terms give that conversation a useful starting point, whether you are choosing a new service or reviewing one already in use.