At some point in time you are likely to need to move your business from one location to another. This blog offers advice on making the process as easy as possible, avoiding major pitfalls and downtime.
This guide is the result of 25 years of experience and each one of the recommendations is based on a true stories and real needs that we faced during a client move.
Let’s get started:
- Allow yourself a minimum of 30 days, preferably 45 days, to start planning the move from the date you are moving.
- If you have 20 or more users, make sure to hire a professional project manager. These experts will save you a lot of time, trouble, and money due to their knowledge and experience.
- If you are a smaller company with 10 or less users, it is likely you will assign the move to your office administrator. We can work directly with them to help find resources including a cabling company, phone system vendor, internet connectivity, and other suppliers if needed. We have worked with many vendors at our client locations, and can recommend vendors proven to deliver cost effective services.
- Bring your IT team to the new site before you sign a lease. Do a walk through with them, and get a professional opinion from technical experts regarding any potential issues that might not be obvious to you, but will affect your costs. For example: should you choose to move into an office that does not have the correct network and phone cabling installed? If so, you will need to know the costs of the work to be done, which may make you re-consider your choice. Start making lists of all the things required for the move and confirm your moving date and movers.
- Check with both buildings about insurance policy requirements for the move, and any special forms required for equipment removal and installation from the two buildings
- Check with an electrician that your heavy duty equipment can work with the existing power outlets, and if not you may need to upgrade the circuits (for example installing a big copier, having a larger server area).
- With regard to the internet provider in the new building, they will need two weeks to a month to install and test a circuit. This is very critical as you will not be able to move into any building that does not have dedicated Internet for your office.
- How old are your servers? Do you have a recently tested backup? This is very important as damage to data can occur when servers are moved around, or just simply turned off for a few hours. Without a backup, there is a risk the server will not start correctly in the new location, and your system will be down.
- Discuss all your concerns and plans with your IT team. We are here as your professional advisors and have a lot of experience from other installations and moves. Trying to solve problems on your own will often lead to more complex issues leaving little time to solve the original problem.
- One week before the move you should have your new location completely wired, tested, with an internet connection that is running and has been tested for IP address and speed. Keep in mind that you will likely want static IP addresses.
- Avoid making the mistake of canceling your existing internet connection in the current building in order to activate it in new building. We advise having one month where you pay for both lines in both buildings in order to make this transaction simple.
- On the day of the move, you should plan to STOP all business and focus on the move. If you have any critical documents you are working on, you should copy them to a laptop. If you have important deals with clients, advise them on the best way to reach you via an alternate phone or email system that is not part of your main server.
- Ideally, moves should occur over a weekend as it allows for the movers, IT team and other vendors to complete their work with little interruption. This also allows for time to correct most unexpected problems.
- The better you plan, the smoother the move will take place. A move is a complex project for any size company and the best approach is to be proactive, limiting the risk of any potential issues in advance. Don’t wait until the last minute hoping it will just all work out, as unfortunately this is rarely the case.
There are other smaller issues we have seen during moves, and many of our solutions are based on our creative way of solving issues, and the experience needed to get them resolved. We hope you find this article a helpful road map to a successful move for your business.
Need help with the technical logistics of your move? We are available to help you with all your move needs.
For more information – please review www.accuratecomputers.com
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