Is your business planning to move to a new location? Relocating can be as challenging as it is exciting. Ensuring that you have everything in place in a timely manner is imperative if you want to avoid costly downtime and disappointed customers.
If you are an IT Manager or Facilities Manager then much of the planning and execution will be down to you Here are the main considerations for planning a successful office move.
Depending on the size of your organisation, planning needs to start weeks, or even months, before your move date. If you have an existing project management tool that will help you create a to-do list and assign tasks, use it to set a timetable and project flow. If not, consider using an app like Wunderlist, Asana, Basecamp or Trello to get people, tasks and timelines organised and on track.
Failing to keep your communications up and running can be devastating to your bottom line and your reputation. Check if your new location can support the same internet speeds as your existing one. In some cases, you might find that you can actually get a faster service in your new office. You can check the speed of you current office and future office using a fibre checker tool. Want to know if FTTP is available in your new location? Use our FTTP checker here. If you have a larger business with higher bandwidth requirements you may want to compare fibre leased lines. Naturally, you will also want to keep your office phone numbers, make sure that this is arranged in advance to avoid disruption.
Before the move, make sure all hardware and configurations have been fully audited so that they can be carefully moved, recommissioned and connected to the network. Your colleagues will expect everything to work just as it did in the previous office. If you are using the move as a good opportunity to upgrade IT & telecoms hardware or hosting, makes sure that users get adequate support and training for any changes that might affect their ability to work productively.
If you host software and data on premise, you will have business critical data and systems that require careful handling. Ensure that servers are adequately backed up, that the hardware itself is carefully packaged and that your data is transported safely from one place to the next. Aside from the obvious risks around damaged hardware, data losses and security breaches have to be carefully mitigated.
Do you have any leased equipment? Check your contract before moving anything that belongs to a vendor. Most contracts will include an obligation to inform the vendor of your move and some may require that you use them or a preferred 3rd party to move any of their equipment.
As you are doing all of this auditing, moving and reorganising already, it is a perfect time to ditch redundant equipment. Some equipment might require specialist disposal which can be expensive but many items can be sold or recycled. Just ensure that data storage is handled correctly before you sell, discard or send any hardware to be recycled for security reasons.