What to Do When Your IT Administrator Leaves

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What to do when your IT Administrator Leaves

It’s inevitable. You have finally found a stellar IT network administrator and things are running smoothly, when that person decides it is time to move on and explore new endeavors. For the community bank with limited resources, this can be a challenging time. If you have a one or two person IT department, it can be daunting to think about all that needs to happen for a smooth transition.

A community bank’s technological assets are every bit as valuable as the money in the vault! Today’s community bank relies on the IT department to maintain its hardware and software to ensure all systems are available when needed. The department is also responsible for monitoring an array of ongoing IT concerns like antivirus status, patch compliance and email security, just to name a few.

So, what happens when the key individual who is responsible for this crucial aspect of the financial institution decides to leave?

First, there are some technical issues to consider immediately. Change the IT administrator’s previous password and disable their account. This includes changing passwords for any service accounts that they might have known, including access to any virtual infrastructure as well as disabling access to all systems including email, email archival, network management, remote control, security monitoring, ancillary network services and remote access.

Contact information for key vendors should be changed and web hosting sites should be redirected. Also, make sure you know what reports need to be reviewed on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis to ensure no regulatory compliance lapses occur. This is just the beginning of a vast number of things that have to happen to ensure your institution is secure and run efficiently.

Solution Options

To help alleviate this cumbersome process, many financial institutions are turning to IT and security service providers to act as an extension of their organization and help augment internal IT resources. The right solution provider can serve as a true partner and work alongside current IT staff to manage the network and streamline technology needs. Outsourcing select IT business processes helps fill the personnel gap and provide added peace of mind to all.



An IT and security service provider can automate and control many of the administrative functions that normally fall to the IT department, making it less daunting for bank personnel. These service providers can also automate third party patch management and reporting, hardware and software inventory management, vulnerability remediation and compliance-focused documentation and reporting. Providing the ability to actively monitor network information for diagnostic or security issues not only saves time and improves efficiencies, but also extends the bank’s support hours beyond the traditional 9 to 5. The right technology service provider should offer your bank full support for the demands of today’s banking technology requirements and truly act as an extension of your internal IT department.

At Safe Systems, we understand the ever-growing complexity of community banks’ IT operations. By making the decision to partner with Safe Systems, your organization will benefit from time saving automation, an in-depth view of your IT network environment and additional support in co-managing your IT operations. We want to provide you with assurance that the institution’s IT network is functioning efficiently, optimally, securely and is in compliance with industry regulations at all times.

For more information on what to do when your IT administrator leaves, please download our complimentary checklist of tasks to complete.


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