How to plan an office move.

Moving IT equipment to a new office.

The effects of 2020 and 2021 are still being felt in the workplace, with many organisations heading towards a permanent hybrid working model. With so many people working from home at least part of the time, this has left a lot of businesses with premises that no longer give them the best value.

As such, business managers may find themselves thinking about moving; to downsize if the office is half-empty, or to lower rental costs if it is no longer vital that their premises be in the middle of town. Regardless, moving office is a big task, but it needn’t be a headache. With the right planning, and with a bit of help, an office move can be an opportunity for a fresh start, with benefits for the entire business.

Where to start? Things to think about when moving office…

Moving offices is a lot more than packing the contents of your desk into boxes and chucking them in the back of a van. People are relatively easy to move, but IT equipment needs a little more planning, especially for businesses with server setups, conference rooms and other facilities.

Below is a few things we think you need to prioritise when it comes to the planning stage. All businesses are different, and your perfect office will be unique to you, but here’s where we think you should start…

Internet, internet, internet. This should be the absolute number one thing you plan for. Depending on the location of your new office, it can take weeks – if not months – to get it online. You should approach an internet service provider (ISP) as soon as is possible to allow for account setup, wayleave, installation, and activation. If you’re lucky, your new building will already have a line that just needs activating. If you’re not lucky, it could involve digging up pavements.

Plan IT Support can liaise with ISPs on your behalf, and even organise the installation of a leased line for you.

Servers. Where’re your servers going to go? Or, if we may be so bold, do you still need a physical server? There’s been a big push to cloud computing in the last couple of years, so you may find that this is the perfect opportunity to finish the job and get the rest of your operation up into the cloud. Speak to us about the managed IT services that may be available to you. Cut the umbilical cord and be rid of expensive physical servers and their upkeep once and for all!

There’s a lot of reasons why you may still need that server though, and that’s fine, but it needs to go somewhere. Servers and their respective networking equipment need adequate cooling to prevent their lifespan being significantly shortened – they do not like heat. Your server room will also need a proper power supply (ideally on its own circuit), and needs to be in a location that allows for network cabling to your workfloor.

Connectivity. Speaking of network cabling, where’s that going to go? Do you need wall-ports or floor-ports, or both? How many? Cable runs will need to be planned. As will wifi! The size and shape of rooms and the placement of partition walls all needs to be taken into account. Proper consideration needs to be given to the locations of your wireless access points (WAPs) to ensure even coverage across the office space. We have the tools to do that for you!

While not strictly a connectivity issue, you also need to think about powering all of your desk equipment. Do you have enough power sockets in the right locations? We’ve done a tonne of office moves, as well as designing brand new offices from the ground up, so give us a nudge and we can help.

Moving day. The day all your planning pays off! You should have done an IT equipment audit back at the old office, and boxes will be labelled accordingly. Your big stuff like servers, printers and all the heavier equipment should be left to the professionals to move – you don’t want any costly accidents, and this way you’ll be covered by their insurance. The hefty stuff should also be moved first, so that you don’t have to navigate around an unholy mess to get them into place.

Getting everything plugged in, booted up and configured properly is what we’re good at, so we’ll be in the office with you making sure that everything works as it should.