With the recent changes in the financial climate and a realisation that remote working can often bring about huge cost savings, many organisations are now considering downsizing their office space.
Over the years VCI has relocated twice but, during that time, I have helped with countless office moves for clients, ranging from moving up one floor in a serviced office to relocating a larger client from London to Loughborough.
At its most simple this is an exercise in getting hardware from location A over to location B in the least possible time, with minimal disruption and ensuring everything works when it arrives at the end destination.
What makes the move work well is planning; not just the scheduling and arranging, but the time spent making sure the new site is fit for purpose well in advance. When helping my own clients move, I take a look at the new location(s) with them and offer advice regarding what might need to be changed or updated to match their requirements. Prior to moving, we attend site and test all the network points so that there are no unpleasant surprises on the day.
In stark contrast, I was once asked if we could help move a company into a new office in Maidenhead. The request, made at the eleventh hour, came from the building owner. As far as he was aware, a networking company had been in and all the cabling ‘had been done’ – they just wanted somebody with IT skills on site to help connect things up. When I arrived, I was presented with about 50-60 cables appearing from a hole in the corner of a room; no network cabinet in place, no labels numbering the cables, no termination on the cables at all, just loose wires.
I was able to supply the required cabinet, patch panels and switches same day and had it installed to get the company up and running but it was time delay and expense which they had not anticipated.
When we have some control over the move, we also ensure that new internet services are procured, installed and tested ahead of the move date. This might mean a small overlap of time and cost as the existing services of the current office overlap the new services but there is no point in trying to save pennies only to find you are committed to move into an office where no broadband is available.
With the correct planning and preparation, the physical move of the network hardware can be made relatively straight forward and there would be minimal configuration required at the new location.
With the increased use of VoIP, where your telephony also uses the internet and is not tied to a geographical location as remains the case for analogue and ISDN lines, one can also move the communications with comparative ease and even remain contactable by phone throughout the move process via mobile app connectivity to the VoIP system and/or staff able to respond from either the old or new office.
Moving is still listed as one of the most stressful undertakings in life and moving a business of any size is not without challenge but, with good planning and appropriate help from your support companies who may well have been involved in multiple office moves over the years, it can be of minimal disruption and help take your business forward.
If you are planning a move, looking to downsize or simply want to know more about the options of VoIP telephony, please give us a call on 0118 976 7111.