Office IT Relocation Checklist: How to Move Your Business Technology Without Disruption

Moving to a new office can be an exciting step for a growing business. It can provide more space, a better location, improved facilities, and new opportunities for your team. But behind the furniture, floor plans, and moving boxes is another major consideration: your technology.

Your employees depend on internet access, computers, phones, cloud applications, network resources, cybersecurity systems, and other technology to do their jobs. If those systems are not ready when employees arrive at the new location, an office move can quickly turn into lost productivity and unnecessary downtime.

That is why IT should be part of the relocation process from the beginning.

A well-planned office IT relocation gives your business time to evaluate its current technology, prepare the new environment, coordinate vendors, protect important data, and test systems before the new office becomes operational.

Here is an office IT relocation checklist to help you prepare.

1. Start Planning Your IT Relocation Early

IT planning should begin well before moving day.

Internet service may need to be ordered and installed. Network infrastructure may need to be designed. New hardware might need to be purchased. Phone systems may require configuration. Existing equipment must also be inventoried, disconnected, transported, reinstalled, and tested.

Waiting until the final stages of an office move can leave your team scrambling to solve technology problems while trying to get employees back to work.

Create an IT relocation timeline that identifies important deadlines for internet installation, equipment purchasing, network deployment, phone configuration, backups, physical relocation, testing, and employee setup.

Working with an IT provider early can also help identify technology requirements that might otherwise be overlooked.

Get IT Right Solutions offers One-Stop IT Shopping, including internet provider sourcing, hardware procurement, infrastructure design and deployment, and relocation support to help businesses coordinate these moving pieces.

2. Inventory Your Existing Technology

Before deciding how technology will work in your new location, you need to understand what you currently have.

Create an inventory of the technology your organization relies on, including:

• Desktop computers and laptops

• Servers

• Switches and routers

• Firewalls

• Wireless access points

• Phones and VoIP equipment

• Printers and scanners

• Backup equipment

• Monitors and peripherals

• Network-connected devices

• Software and cloud applications

Documenting your environment can help your IT team determine what needs to be moved, replaced, upgraded, or reconfigured.

It is also important to document how systems connect. Simply moving equipment from one building to another does not guarantee that everything will work correctly once it is plugged back in.

3. Decide What Should Move and What Should Be Replaced

An office relocation is a good time to evaluate aging technology.

Moving an outdated server, firewall, switch, workstation, or other device may save money initially, but it could also mean investing time and resources into equipment that will need to be replaced soon anyway.

Review the age, condition, performance, and business importance of your hardware before moving it.

You may discover that replacing certain equipment before the relocation creates a cleaner transition and gives the new office a stronger technology foundation.

Get IT Right Solutions can help businesses source PCs, servers, networking equipment, and other technology as part of its IT equipment procurement services.

4. Arrange Internet Service Before Moving Day

Few things can disrupt a new office faster than discovering that the internet connection is not ready.

Internet availability can vary significantly between locations, even within the same city. Your current provider may not offer the same service at your new address, and another carrier may provide better bandwidth, reliability, or pricing.

Research providers early and determine what level of service your business requires.

Consider factors such as the number of employees, cloud applications, VoIP phones, video conferencing, file transfers, remote access, and other bandwidth-intensive activities.

Get IT Right Solutions can assist with internet provider sourcing by identifying available carriers and comparing options for a business's new location.

5. Design the Network Around the New Office

Your new office probably does not have the exact same layout as your current location, which means your network should not simply be recreated without evaluating the new space.

Consider where employees will work, where wireless coverage is needed, where equipment will be located, and how devices will connect.

Your network design may include switches, routers, wireless access points, firewalls, cabling, and other infrastructure.

Proper planning can help reduce dead zones, network bottlenecks, unreliable connections, and other performance problems.

Professional managed network services can also provide ongoing monitoring, maintenance, security management, and optimization after your new network is deployed.

6. Plan Your Phone System Transition

Your phones are another important part of the move.

Determine how existing phone numbers, extensions, call routing, voicemail, and other communication features will transition to the new location.

Businesses using cloud-based VoIP systems may have more flexibility, but configurations should still be reviewed and tested.

Employees working remotely or across multiple locations may also need their phones and applications configured differently after the move.

Get IT Right Solutions provides business phone system services, including VoIP solutions and support for cloud and on-premise systems.

7. Back Up Critical Business Data

Before servers, computers, storage devices, or other critical equipment are disconnected, make sure your business has reliable backups.

Physical relocation introduces additional risk because equipment is being powered down, transported, reconnected, and reconfigured.

Confirm that critical business data is backed up and that those backups are functioning properly before moving begins.

A strong backup strategy should also consider how quickly information can be recovered if something goes wrong.

Get IT Right Solutions offers Data Backup & Recovery Services that include onsite and cloud backup options, offsite protection, monitoring, and recovery support.

8. Review Cybersecurity Before Recreating Your Environment

A business move is also an opportunity to review cybersecurity.

Instead of automatically duplicating every configuration from the previous office, evaluate whether your existing security controls still meet your organization's needs.

Review firewalls, user access, wireless security, remote access, security monitoring, endpoint protection, and other safeguards.

Changes in office layout, workforce size, remote work arrangements, internet providers, and network infrastructure can all affect how security should be configured.

Working with an experienced provider of Network Security Services can help identify weaknesses and establish appropriate protections for the new environment.

9. Test Everything Before Employees Arrive

Ideally, moving day should not be the first time anyone tests the new technology environment.

Once systems are installed, create a day-one testing checklist.

Verify that employees can access the internet and Wi-Fi. Test phones and call routing. Confirm printers and shared resources are available. Make sure employees can access cloud applications, files, servers, and other systems required for their jobs.

Remote access and VPN connections should also be tested where applicable.

Finally, verify that cybersecurity tools, monitoring systems, and backups are operating properly.

Testing ahead of time gives your IT team an opportunity to resolve problems before they affect the entire workforce.

10. Simplify Your Office IT Relocation With Get IT Right Solutions

An office move involves far more technology than packing computers into boxes and reconnecting them at a new address.

Internet service, network infrastructure, cybersecurity, phones, hardware, backups, cloud services, and employee workstations all need to work together when the new office opens.

Having one technology partner coordinate these systems can make the transition much easier.

Get IT Right Solutions provides businesses with comprehensive IT support covering infrastructure design, internet provider sourcing, hardware procurement, networking, cybersecurity, phone systems, backups, and ongoing managed IT services.

Get in Touch with Get IT Right Solutions

Whether you are relocating an existing office, opening an additional location, or building out a new workspace, proper IT planning can help reduce downtime and make sure your team is ready to work from day one.

Contact Get IT Right Solutions to start planning the technology behind your next office move.