How You Can Move Your IT Equipment To A New Office – Painlessly
Commercial moving is always a struggle. It requires you to interrupt your business, uproot your staff, and can even force facility closures for days at a time. Moving filing cabinets, desks, chairs, and even entire conference rooms can be very time-consuming and require quite a bit of time and effort.
But in the modern office, furniture and other items aren’t a priority. Commercial movers can easily handle furniture and other important items. Today, the most important infrastructure any company has is their IT infrastructure. Not just workstations and printers, but huge server farms, networking equipment, miles of cat5 and cat6 cable – and it all has to go to the new office, and get installed correctly.
This is an enormous challenge, not just for commercial moving services, but for the IT employees of the company. So we’ve put together some simple tips that can help your local move of IT infrastructure in the Davie, FL area go smoothly.
Though your move will still take quite a bit of effort, these tips and tricks can ease the transition.
Plan, Plan, Then Plan Some More
A commercial move is almost never unexpected – leases are usually set in stone, and if your company is coming up on the end of its lease with no intention to renew, make sure you’re aware of the impending move.
- Your company will likely already have a location lined up, so the first step is to visit the new office location. If this office is owned by your company or managed by a large company, it may have on-site IT staff. Confer with them to get an idea of the networking infrastructure of the building, and schedule upgrades and additional network installations as necessary.
- Assess all of your communication requirements. Check the number of phone lines, Cat5 and Cat6 cables, and power outlets, in use at the current office. Will you need more? Does the new location have enough, or do you need to make some upgrades?
- Contact all of your equipment carriers, vendors, and ISPs, and let them know your move date. This will allow easy shutoff of internet service at the old location, and ensure that connectivity is restored as soon as possible at the new location.
- Get a copy of the plans for the office, and determine the appropriate locations for just about everything – workstations, power jacks, network lines, printers, scanners, and routers – and make sure that the server room is up to par, with appropriate security, cooling, dimensions, and infrastructure. You can shift some things around eventually if some locations are inconvenient – but it’s important to start with a fully-realized plan.
- Schedule resumption of telecommunication services at the new location. Now is a good time to shop around for new business phone services, etc. Consider the future. You’ll likely be in this office for 3-5 years – do you need to have excess phone lines? Will you use VoIP, PBX, or other phone technology? Ensure you have enough capacity to expand.
Prepare Your Equipment
After you’re done planning, it’s time to get ready for the move itself.
- Start by backing up all of your data. This includes cloud backups, if available, and multiple physical copies of data which can be transported independently. You want plenty of redundancy to ensure you have everything you need to get started at your new location – even in case of some damage or data loss.
- Ensure wiring and cables are attached to equipment and labeled correctly so that they can easily be reinstalled at the new location.
- Use your inventory system to your advantage – check off each piece of equipment as it gets wrapped, packed, and sent. You can rest easy knowing that everything has been moved once your inventory sheet is zeroed out.
- Be on-hand (and have other IT staff) to help with disconnection and packing of equipment for your local move, in case staff need help shutting down equipment and disconnecting it.
Get Set Up – And Test Everything
The worst of the move is over – if you’ve prepared correctly. Your local moving services provider should have help you unload everything, and since you have a comprehensive plan for placement of your new equipment, all you’ll have to do is connect it in the appropriate areas.
Naturally, some troubleshooting will be required – it’s a good idea to have a telecom representative with you in the office on day one to test connectivity. Take the following steps:
- Verify the correct location of all equipment and cabling, according to your master plan.
- Check phone numbers and their locations to ensure they are accurate and correct.
- Make sure call forwarding works from your old office, if necessary.
- Check workstations, their connection to the network, and their performance.
- Test servers, test network capability.
- Ensure e-mail systems are working correctly.
- Check your corporate website, intranet, and extranet connection.
- Test each network connection – even the ones that aren’t in use.
That’s it! Over time, you’ll likely have to adjust some aspects of the office IT infrastructure, but with this list of steps, you can make sure that your IT move goes smoothly.
Hire A Professional Local Moving Service – With IT Experience
You’re probably not going to be able to move all of your infrastructure yourself – even if you decide to rent a box truck for a local move. You’ll want to make use of a local moving services provider – one with plenty of commercial moving experience in the Davie, FL area.
Orange Movers is a leader in the commercial moving services industry in Davie, FL. Our local movers are familiar with all IT best practices to ensure safety of your IT infrastructure when moving, and our full-service commercial moving offerings can help you disconnect, pack, move, and reconnect your important tech infrastructure.
Learn more about our commercial moving services at our website, and get in touch for quotes and further information.