New Year, New Office, Same IT Moving Problems

Does the new year have your business relocating offices sometime in the next 6 to 12 months? One of the most expensive mistakes a business can make when moving is treating IT like the last box to be packed (or unpacked). Instead of running the risk that your IT won't work as intended in your new space, we’ve compiled the three most important IT considerations for your new office location so your team can hit the ground running.

Audit Your New Site’s Connectivity At Least 90 Days in Advance

More often than not, the biggest IT-related concern with any office move is the Internet connection.

Some business owners assume that if the building is somewhat modern, the Internet is ready to go. However, bringing fiber into the mix often requires construction, permits, and other wiring that can take anywhere from 60 to 90 days to complete, or longer. We recommend that you contact your ISP to determine what work needs to be done well in advance of the move. This might require a site survey, ordering equipment, and verifying internal cabling.

If you do all this work up-front, it should guarantee that you aren’t spending Day 1 in your new office waiting around for a technician to solve the problem.

Document and Test Your Physical Infrastructure Requirements Before the Move

You can expect your IT equipment to be among the most fragile of your office inventory.

While standard moving companies may be able to handle desks, cabinets, and chairs without issue, they often lack the technical expertise necessary to handle servers, switches, and delicate appliances. Furthermore, your new office environment may not be ready to handle this equipment; for example, you wouldn’t want to move a server into a small closet with inadequate ventilation. We recommend that you nail down factors such as heating and cooling, as well as the locations of each piece of network hardware.

Taking care of this well in advance will prevent your IT infrastructure from being essentially dead on arrival due to a disorganized move.

Execute a Friday Night Move With a Structured Testing Phase on Saturday

Your ultimate goal with an IT move is to make it invisible to the end user.

In the worst-case scenario, your business experiences the “Monday Morning Surprise”; your team shows up, but their workstations won’t let them log in, the printers don’t work, and the wireless signal might as well not exist. To avoid this experience, treat your move like a 48-hour sprint with a specific sequence of testing:

• Friday at 5:00 p.m. (Teardown) - Shut down all equipment and clearly label hardware and cables for every workstation.
• Saturday at 10:00 a.m. (Setup) - Set up your infrastructure and bring the network online.
• Saturday at 2:00 p.m. (User Test) - Log into a workstation from the employee’s perspective, test a print job, make a test phone call, and join a video meeting from the conference room.
• Sunday (Buffer) - Leave Sunday open to address bigger challenges following the move.

Hopefully, when you follow this schedule, your team will show up on Monday morning, and everything will work as intended.

If you’re unsure of how to approach your next big IT move, Cambium Data can help. We can also help you eliminate unnecessary tech and upgrade your systems, so you can start the new year off fresh. Learn more today by calling us at (402) 514-3200.