How to manage your business telephony, IT, and hardware during an office move?

There are many reasons for moving your office. You are probably expanding your business and going to a new location. You have outgrown your current premises and need more office space. You feel it’s time to upgrade the technologies you use, and moving to a new office is the perfect opportunity. You have to reduce your costs, and you have found a better rental agreement. Whatever your reason might be, office moving can be a stressful process unless well-organized. 

Planning, organization, and communication are the key to having an office move with minimal disruption. Relocation usually means moving an entire team of employees, office furniture, valuable equipment, machinery, and electronics. It requires planning the logistics ahead of time and managing your coworkers effectively. And this can be a challenging task. To help you, we have gathered below the steps you can take to run your office moving smoothly and with less frustration. The focus is on effectively managing your telephony, IT, and installation transition during the move. Follow our guide to plan and prepare for the big event – moving your office.

Étape 1 : Analysez vos besoins et créez une stratégie de déménagement

There are different reasons behind every office move. Once you have cleared yours, you can start planning the process.

Entreprise en expansion – si c'est votre raison principale, vous devez prévoir plus de postes de travail dans le nouvel emplacement, équipés de tous les matériels/outils nécessaires.

Mais d'abord, il faut vérifier la connexion internet of the potential new office. You can contact your Internet service provider and ask them to do a quick research on the Internet infrastructure of the office building. When they are ready, they can advise you if the bandwidth capacity of this place will match your expanding needs for a high-speed Internet connection. Also, consider more open collaborative spaces and good accessibility to the company’s meeting rooms. All these are must-haves in the new modern office of your growing company.

Attirer des clients et des talents – your office can greatly impact your employees, partners, and clients. So, look for a place representing your brand, mission, and values. Finding the best spot can take a while, but it’s worth waiting if this means new business opportunities for you.
If your organization constantly searches for new employees, moving to an attractive office location can help you. It does not have to be at the very center of the city (or sometimes it does), but your potential team members have to access it easily. So your perfect new office should be seen as a hub for the talented workforce you want to attract.

It should be designed for the new working ways by offering modern communications solutions for your team.

If there were limitations in technical capacity at the old location, ensure that the new office has the right infrastructure to switch to new technologies.

Améliorer la productivité de l'équipe – if you decide to change your office because you care for your staff’s well-being, you made the right decision. And it is not just the fact that this improves your team productivity as employees feel more engaged. Considering their health and wellness, choosing a new modern office helps you create a better work environment and boost connectivity among teammates. How can the office you choose support your employees’ work-life balance:

• Si la technologie qui est disponible au bureau facilite le travail à distance. Un système téléphonique cloud par exemple vous permet de répondre aux appels professionnels directement depuis votre téléphone mobile et assure ainsi la flexibilité de votre équipe.
• Si le système d'entreprise est toujours accessible à ceux qui travaillent à domicile, grâce à la connexion internet fiable et sécurisée.
• Si votre bureau se trouve près d'un centre de fitness.
• if green spaces surround it and have enough natural light
• S'il y a de bons endroits pour déjeuner dans la région.

Small details make a big difference.

Once you have evaluated your needs for a new office, it is time to act. Start looking for the perfect place. When you find a potential new office with a good location, the first thing is to check its technical infrastructure. Review the network bandwidth and any possible technical restraints and solutions that will enable you to build a better telecommunications system for your company. You’ll have to contact your telecom, Internet, and IT service providers to get their professional opinion before deciding on the new office.

Create a detailed schedule for the office move when you find your new office space.

Planning your relocation should start six months before reviewing your current lease agreement. Assemble a planning team responsible for managing and executing the office move. Get quotes from moving companies to find the best offer that matches your needs. Set a budget to avoid overspending during the process. If you possess expensive equipment or machinery, it is probably wiser to have moving insurance. Delegate the task to your planning team to research and give you the options that fit your budget.

Étape 2 : Contactez votre fournisseur de télécommunication et de services IT 

After you find a potentially good place, it is time to contact your telecommunications, IT, and Internet providers for a thorough system audit. It happens 2 – 3 months before the set date. Analyze your current installation and set deadlines on when the new telecommunications and IT system should be ready. Check IT infrastructure, telecom facilities, and utilities at your new location. Design your office space and consider how you will organize your workstations, IT installation, and fixtures there.

Coordinate your office relocation with IT partners to review ICT systems and equipment needs. Inform your internet service provider on time about your office move and discuss your internet connection needs at the new place. When to order, install and activate your new internet lines and when to close the existing ones. Carefully plan any changes to your business phone numbers, corporate phone systems, or cabling needs with your telephony provider. You have to discuss with them your business telephony migration: 

• if you can port your existing numbers, or will they order new ones (and how long it take to have them activated)
• De plus, s'ils vont vous fournir de nouveaux téléphones de bureau.
• Réfléchissez aux lignes téléphoniques dont vous aurez besoin au nouveau bureau et demandez à votre partenaire de téléphonie cloud de les configurer selon vos plans.
• Qu'est-ce qui est nécessaire exactement pour le transfert complet de votre système téléphonique d'entreprise ?

Le timing est essentiel dans cette situation puisque vous ne voulez pas être coupé du reste du monde pendant des heures ou des jours lorsque vous vous installez dans un nouveau lieu. Après avoir inspecté votre infrastructure de communication et déterminé l'emplacement des composants Internet, vous devez demander à votre fournisseur d'accès Internet d'y établir la connexion. Une fois que vous avez installé et testé tous les téléphones, les ordinateurs, internet/Wi-Fi, les systèmes d'IT et les connexions de câbles, vous savez que votre bureau est complètement connecté et votre équipe peut commencer à travailler ici.

Étape 3 : Communication et planification de la logistique

Un emploi du temps clair et précis pour le déménagement est essentiel pour le succès du processus. Cela s'applique aussi bien si vous changez de lieu de travail que si vous passez à un nouveaz système téléphonique d'entreprise. Once you set a date, you know your well-organized plan should be ready. So communicate it internally and externally so the employees, partners, and clients know it.

Communication interne et externe 

Create a checklist for your office move and share it with the team who manages the process. It should include the necessary actions, employees, and deadlines. Apart from the planning team, the rest of the company should also know the timeline of your office move. And how they will be involved. 

Your legal department should be responsible for changing the company’s address on all contracts. The marketing team must review your social media accounts and branding materials to ensure your contact details are current. Also, remind the employees to update their email signatures when they move to the new address.

Notify your current landlord or property manager by giving an official notice beforehand. Create a list with all parties concerned, and share your new address with them. Include clients, affiliates, partners, or stakeholders. List all the institutions or delivery companies that need to be informed – the post, banks, or service providers.

Contactez vos fournisseurs de télécommunication, d'IT et d'Internet pour leur annoncer le déménagement, c'est l'occasion rêvée de renégocier les conditions de vos contrats.

As we already wrote, switching to new providers is the perfect timing if the current ones cannot meet your growing communications and IT requirements. Even better, you may try to optimize the number of your providers and find the one company that can provide business telephony, IT, and solutions internet pour vos besoins d'entreprise spécifiques. 

Review your existing contracts and get in touch with a new service provider. Then compare how different vendors handle canceling an internet line, opening a new one, porting phone numbers, and managing Internet outages – whether it takes too long or happens fast and seamlessly. 

When planning your office move, you must contact all your providers to clarify issues related to your telecom and IT systems. It is a period of highly intensive communication with many parties that can be exhausting and time-consuming. So you realize it would be more efficient to have one partner offering solutions for your business phone system, IT system, and Internet lines. That way, you will communicate with one company that will support you in all the different phases of the relocation – from audit/ planning to move/installation and after installation. 

Découvrez Mixvoip – tous vos services informatiques, internet et téléphonie d'entreprise en un seul endroit !

Planification de la logistique

Audit your current office furniture and determine if you will need more furniture in your new office space. Consider special furniture and expensive equipment requiring specific packaging and transportation boxes. Think ahead if you need your IT or Telecom providers to support you in disassembling complex hardware or installation systems.

Concevez votre nouveau bureau avec un plan de sol détaillé et définissez les zones de votre bureau, les zones communes et les salles de réunion. Identifiez les besoins de sécurité pour votre nouveau bureau. Créez également un plan détaillé du mobilier et de l'équipement et vérifiez si l'infrastructure technique correspond à vos besoins de communication. 

Réservez des services de nettoyage tant pour votre bureau actuel que pour les nouveaux locaux. Une fois que vous avez fixé la date pour le déménagement, il est temps de réserver une place de parking pour ce jour. Ainsi, vous garantissez que tous les camions de déménagement pourront se garer aussi longtemps que nécessaire pour charger et décharger.

Once you finalize all the paperwork concerning your new office premises, it is time to focus on one of the most important aspects of any office move—preparation of the whole telecommunications and IT infrastructure to match your specific business and communications needs.

Step 4 Office equipment – plan, prepare, and optimize your hardware during the relocation

Moving your office equipment is a task that must be managed carefully and on time. Office equipment includes:

• hardware that supports your daily work – like PC sets with a keyboard, monitor and mouse, laptops, téléphones de bureau, casques
• machinery for telecommunications and IT infrastructure such as servers, racks, switches, router
• other tools from your office – like conference systems, TVs, printers, copy machines, fax machines, IP doorbells, badging systems

When moving to the new office premises, decide which hardware is coming with you. If you already have a hosted phone system, all you need is to transfer your desk phones, cordless phones, and conference phones if you use any. And if you have a complete business telephony solution, you should count the pros and cons of moving the whole installation or upgrading it.

Si vous avez eu l'idée de passer aux communications cloud, c'est probablement le moment idéal.

Coordonnez ce processus avec votre fournisseur de services / téléphonie cloud. Il est préférable d'utiliser le temps d'arrêt pendant le déménagement pour configurer le nouveau système téléphonique cloud. Choses à considérer avant le déménagement :

• créez une liste de tous vos actifs informatiques et de télécommunications actuels qui doivent être transférés vers le nouveau site
• vérifiez si tout l'équipement fonctionne sans problème avec l'infrastructure actuelle dans les nouveaux locaux
• analysez votre stratégie d'entreprise et décidez si c'est le bon temps pour transférer vos communications vers le cloud
• if you plan to purchase new hardware inventory for the office, order it on time to be present when you move to the new location

Transférez votre téléphonie d'entreprise to the cloud and optimize the equipment you take to the new location!

Étape 5 : Sécurisez vos données et gérez la sécurité de votre réseau

If you already use a cloud-based telephony solution or plan to switch to it in your new location, ensure your Internet connection runs all the time, as all your outbound and inbound calls go through the Internet. Now you can benefit from your advanced communications system and redirect your calls to your smartphone or other mobile devices. It means your clients will still reach you, and you will not miss any important calls.

Find the best backup solution for any voice communication data during the office move. Whatever storage solution you choose, ensure you can access your data and have it up and running seamlessly in your new premises.

Considérez les choses suivantes quand vous gérez votre sécurité pendant le déménagement : 

• Listez tous les actifs qui contiennent des informations importantes et créez un plan sur la façon de le traiter pendant le déménagement.
• Créez une liste des employés avec les droits d'accès correspondants du réseau d'entreprise. De plus, vous pouvez l'utiliser pour leur attribuer des codes d'accès, des cartes ou des clés d'accès, et des cartes de stationnement. De cette façon, toutes les informations de sécurité sont stockées dans un seul fichier et vous serez en mesure de trouver rapidement tous les détails de dernière minute le jour de l'emménagement.
• Update your security policies to match your new office’s requirements.
• Inform your telecommunications service provider if you need additional security solutions to create a safe and reliable work environment in the new premises.

Moving your office is not a simple activity. It is a process that requires careful planning, preparation, and management. And while you cannot avoid moving your office furniture or team, you can upgrade your communications to facilitate the office relocation. Having a cloud-based business phone system helps you reduce the stress of your move and ensures minimal disruption in your business communications. 

Organization and internal and external communication are the keys to a successful office move. It can be costly but still, a meaningful investment, as moving to a new office increases productivity, more business opportunities, and more engaged employees.

Contactez Mixvoip, and we will answer all your questions about your business telephony, Internet, and IT services during the office move!

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