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

There are many reasons for moving your office. You are probably expanding your business, and you are 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, and 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 managing your telephony, IT, and installation transition effectively during the move. Follow our guide to plan and prepare for the big event – moving your office.

Step 1 Analyze your office move needs and create a moving strategy

There are different reasons behind every office move. Once you have cleared yours, you will be able to start planning the process.

Business expansion – if this is the key driver of your office move, you should plan more workstations in the new location, equipped with all necessary hardware/tools.

But first things first – you should check the Internet connection of the potential new office. You can contact your Internet service provider and ask them to do quick research for 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 high-speed Internet connection. Also, consider more open collaborative spaces and good accessibility to the company’s meeting rooms. All these are must-have in the new modern office of your growing company.

Attracting clients and attracting talent – your office can have a big impact on your employees, partners, and clients. So, look for a place that truly represents your brand, mission, and values. Finding the best spot can take a while, but if this means new business opportunities for you, it’s worth waiting.
If your organization is constantly searching 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 terms of the technical capacity at the old location, make sure that the new office has the right infrastructure to switch to new technologies.

Improve team productivity – if you decide to change your office because you care for the wellbeing of your staff, you took the right decision. And it is not just the fact that this improves your team productivity as employees feel more engaged. Choosing a new modern office, considering their health and wellness, helps you create a better work environment and boost connectivity among teammates. How can the office you choose support your employees’ work-life balance:

• if technologies at the office facilitate remote working. Like a cloud phone system allowing you to take your business calls directly on your mobile and thus ensures flexibility for your team
• if the office system is always accessible for those who do home office thanks to the reliable and safe Internet connection
• if your office is near a gym
• if it is surrounded by green spaces and has enough natural light
• if your employees can find good places for lunch in the area

Small details that make a big differnce.

Once you have evaluated your needs for a new office, it is time to get into action. 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. It means you’ll have to contact your telecom, Internet, and IT service providers to get their professional opinion before you make up your mind about the new office.

When you find your new office space, create a detailed schedule for the office move.

Planning your relocation should start at least six months earlier with reviewing your current lease agreement. Assemble a planning team who will be 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.

Step 2 Contact your telecommunications and IT service provider 

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. At your new location, check IT infrastructure, telecom facilities, and utilities. Design your office space and consider how you will organize your workstations, IT installation, and fixtures there.

Coordinate your office relocation with your 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 one. Carefully plan with your telephony provider any necessary changes to your business phone numbers, corporate phone systems, or cabling needs. You have to discuss with them your business telephony migration: 

• if you can port your existing numbers, or they will order new ones (and how long it takes to have them activated)
• if they will provide new desk phones
• consider the phone lines you will need at the new office and ask your cloud telephony partner to adjust them according to your plans
• what exactly is necessary for the complete transfer of your business phone system

The timing is essential in this situation as you do not want to be cut off from the rest of the world for hours or days once you move to a new place. After you have inspected your communications infrastructure and determined where the Internet components will be, you should ask your Internet provider to set up the connection there. Once you have all the phones, computers, Internet/Wi-fi, IT systems, and cable connections installed and tested, you know that your office space is fully connected, and your team is welcome to start working there.

Step 3 Communication and planning the logistics

Creating a clear and precise schedule for moving your office is essential for the success of the whole process. It applies to both if you are changing your office location or switching to a new business phone system. Once you set a date, you know that your well-organized plan should be ready. So make sure you communicate it internally and externally so that the employees, partners, and clients are aware of it.

Internal and external communication 

Create a checklist for your office move and share it with the team who manages the process. It should include the necessary actions, employees who are involved, and the 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 has to review your social media accounts and branding materials to ensure that your contact details are up to date. Also, remind the employees to update their email signatures when you move to the new address.

Notify your current landlord or property manager by giving an official notice ahead of time. Create a list with all parties concerned, and make sure you 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.

Contacting your telecom, IT, and Internet providers to announce your planned move is the golden opportunity to renegotiate the terms and conditions of your contracts.

As we already wrote, it is the perfect timing for switching to new providers, in case 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 Internet solutions for your specific business needs. 

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, managing Internet outages – whether it takes too long or happens fast and seamlessly. 

When you plan your office move, you have to contact all your providers to clarify issues related to your telecom and IT systems. It is a period with highly intensive communication with many parties that can be exhausting and time-consuming. So you realize that it would be more efficient to have one partner that offers you 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. 

Discover Mixvoip – all your business IT, internet, and telephony in one place!

Planning the logistics

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

Design your new office with a detailed floor plan outlining your desk blocks, communal areas, and meeting rooms. Identify the security needs for your new office. Create a detailed plan of the stationary and equipment for the new place and check if the technical infrastructure matches your communications and IT needs. 

Book cleaning services for both your current office and the new premises. Once you set the office relocation date, it is time to reserve a parking spot for this day. That way, you will ensure that all moving trucks will park as long as needed to load and unload.

Once you finalize all the paperwork that concerns 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 so that it matches your specific business and communications needs.

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

Moving your office equipment is one of the tasks that have to be managed carefully and on time. Office equipment includes:

• hardware that supports your daily work – like PC sets with the keyboard, monitor and mouse, laptops, desk phones, headsets
• machinery for telecommunications and IT infrastructure such as servers, rack, switch, router
• other tools from your office – like conference systems, TVs, printers, copy machines, or fax machines, IP doorbells, badging systems

When moving to the new office premises, make up your mind 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 whether to move the whole installation or upgrade it.

If you had the idea of switching to cloud communications, it’s probably the perfect time.

You need to coordinate the process with your cloud telephony/service provider. It will be best to use the downtime during the office move to set up the new cloud phone system. Things to consider before the office move starts:

• create a list of all your current IT and telecommunications assets to be transferred to the new location
• check if all the equipment you bring will work seamlessly with the existing technical infrastructure in the new premises
• analyze your business strategy and decide if the time is right to move your communications to the cloud
• if you plan to purchase new hardware inventory for the office, order it on time to be present where you move to the new location

Move your business telephony to the cloud and optimize the equipment that you take with you to the new location!

Step 5 Secure data and manage your network security by relocation

If you already use a cloud-based telephony solution or you plan to switch to it in your new location, make sure your Internet connection is running 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 solution to create a backup for any voice communication data during the office move. Whatever storage solution you choose, make sure you can access your data and have it up and running seamlessly in your new premises.

Consider the following things when you handle your security during the office move: 

• List all assets that contain important information and create a plan on how to handle it in transit
• Create a list of employees with the corresponding access rights of the corporate network. Also, you can use it to allocate access codes, access cards or keys, and parking passes for them. That way, all security information is stored in a single file, and you’ll be able to find quickly any last-minute details during the move-in day.
• Update your security policies so that they match the requirements of your new office.
• Inform your telecommunications service provider if you’ll need additional security solutions for creating 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 your 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 that the disruption in your business communications will be minimal. 

Organization and communication both internally and externally are the key to having a successful office move. It can be a costly operation but still a meaningful investment as moving to new office results in increased productivity, more business opportunities, and more engaged employees.

Contact Mixvoip and they will answer all your questions about your business telephony, Internet, and IT services during office move!

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