The ultimate IT checklist for moving office
What’s your top tip for a stress-free office relocation?
There’s a lot to think about when you’re moving office locations. Who’s getting the corner office? Who gets a window? While these might be key considerations, pause for a minute and think about what’s going to happen when you turn on your computer at the new office. Have you got power? Is the LAN working? Can you access the internet?
Moving successfully is all in the planning. In the stressful pre-move mania, it’s vital to put your IT requirements at the top of your relocation priority list.
Before the move
- Assess your current needs.
- How much power does your office require?
- What IT equipment is coming with you and what are you getting rid of? Moving presents an excellent opportunity to apply the ‘use it or lose it’ rule.
- Are you using all six of your current printers? How many old keyboards are you hoarding?
- Are you keeping the same phone number?
- If you can, that’s great. If you’re not – put a call diversion in place
- If you have a new number, update as many of your online records as you can – website, social media, paid listings etc.
- Visit the new premises, preferably with your ICT provider to assess the network cabling requirements.
- Are data and voice services provided? Does the new office present any challenges in terms of Wi-Fi connectivity?
- Contact your current teleco and ISP (internet service provider) suppliers to provide them with the date of your move. NOTE: you might want to give yourself 24 hours overlap between turning everything off at your old premises and making sure everything is working at the new place.
- Back-up your data systems – all of them.
- Label EVERYTHING. Labelling your cables and matching them to equipment clearly and correctly saves a lot of pain when you’re unpacking.
- Disaster recovery and business continuity – if you haven’t currently got procedures in place to protect your data storage and critical business systems, now is the perfect time to look into it.
During the move
One of the key considerations on moving day/s is security. There’s a lot happening and it’s a prime time for stuff to go ‘missing’ in the move.
- Provide staff with details about when and how they can access the new office and have a clear process for handover of all the old office access passes
- Who’s got keys for the old office?
- Who is going to be the last person out of the old office?
- Meanwhile over at the new office, who’s managing the first day staff safety and security induction?
- Set the level of expectation for staff. Should they expect all the usual IT services to be up and running on the first day?
- Have a printed handout ready for staff (so you’re not reliant on the IT system working) with an office map, internal phone numbers, fire exits, emergency numbers, safety procedures etc.
After the move
If possible, have a representative from your ICT supplier with you. If not – get ready to make a detailed list of what’s not working. It’s important not to delay testing your equipment. Don’t forget about testing your back-up server, storage etc. Test them all on Day 1.
- Check you’re getting incoming calls. Test ALL the phones.
- Test that your data migration has worked
- Test all network connections
- Do remote workers still have access?
- Check incoming and outgoing emails
Relax
The hardest part is over. You’re in. Follow-up on any of the fails during the testing process, log any problems with the relevant third parties and then put your feet up on your new desk.
iFactory knows first-hand the hassles of moving office, we’ve just moved our award-winning digital agency from West End to Bowen Hills in Brisbane. Have you updated our new contact details?
