Guide to office it relocation planning checklist

"Office It Relocation is as disruptive as moving house. Unless you can get stakeholders to understand the rationale behind the office move and your objectives for it relocation, forward planning and the execution of the move will be seriously hindered. The good news is that there are ways to make the office IT relocation less stressful."

There are many reasons why businesses relocate, but the benefits can be overshadowed by the disruption it brings, such as decreasing staff productivity and harming customer relationships. It is one of the things that a company can’t practice beforehand. Below is a guide to office IT relocation and how to make the transition go smoothly. It is not a definitive check list, but it can be used as a reference towards a seamless office move.

How to reduce disruption to voice services when moving offices 

During office moves, one of the processes that should be handled in advance is the transfer of the telephone line and ISP. It doesn’t matter what your carrier might be; it will take some time for the existing line to be reactivate to the new location. For instance, BT will take between six weeks and three months to complete a relocation order. You should keep this in mind when planning your office relocation.

Once the lines and the cables have been reconnected at the new location, then the next step is to transfer the broadband. This involves reconfiguring the gateway hardware to use the new connection, information. It is also likely that the office will have a new WAN IP that must be noted to reconfigure the remote service and email.

Factors to consider when moving IT Infrastructure to a new office

The next step in the guide to office IT relocation is transfer of the infrastructure, which are the hardware and cabling. Plans should include a comms area that will terminate all data cables and where the servers, routers, and switches are located.

The floor plan should also indicate where the desks will be placed and include provisions for power, data, and telephone outlets. If there are existing data cabling on the site, test them thoroughly to determine if they are working properly. You should also invest in cable trunking runs to keep the cables organised.

Employ a qualified IT Relocation Specialist to power the comms area as well as provide power outlets for the other locations as seen in the floor plans. Structured cabling engineering professionals must also be consulted to ensure that the system can run on the data cable as designed.

We're taking it with us. Just kidding. How can you minimise the risks of data centre hardware relocation?

Another element of an office IT moves is the relocation of the hardware. This involves the powering down and boxing up of the hardware to prepare its move to the new site. For this task, you need to employ a courier or a moving company that specialises in moving office computers.It is recommended to make a move after the desks and other office furniture have already set up in the new office.

Office IT Relocation will result to a downtime, but it can also be an opportunity to upgrade the computers to new ones. Make sure that you factor the benefits of upgrading the systems and use the downtime to do so. If the office can’t afford a new computer, at least replace the keyboards and peripherals with new ones.