With the number of remote workers changing due to the pandemic, many businesses are looking to downsize their office space. However, planning an office move can be incredibly daunting. It’s not quite the same as moving your home, since you still need to keep your business running during the move.
While IT services companies likely won’t help you move your furniture, there are several reasons you will want to involve an IT services provider with your office move.
Detailed server move planning
In order to keep the business working, you will likely need to keep your server running as long as possible. The timing of this move is absolutely critical.
It is also important to make sure the server is connected properly and will be able to handle the environment it has been placed in. Servers can get extremely hot, so an enclosed space with no air will be detrimental to the health of the server.
Hiring someone who knows how to disconnect, transport and reconnect a server in a new location is a great way to know it’s going to get done right. It will also help reduce downtime.
This not only applies to the server itself, but the entire rack of equipment like switches, battery backups and more. Reconnecting everything in the proper locations and order is extremely complicated and should be handled by a professional.
Proper cabling
While much of the world lives on WiFi, the regular employees working in the office will be much more efficient using a wired connection. The best time to make sure all of the cubicles and offices are wired properly is prior to moving everyone in.
Cabling needs to be run to a central location, and then the switch that gets the network connection to each end point needs to be configured. You can wind up with a mess of cables like this from someone in the company that is just trying to make it all work.
Connect printers
During a move printers can get all jumbled and mixed up. The printer that goes near office 6 could now be near office 20, and all the print jobs are suddenly going to the wrong locations.
IT services providers can help coordinate this move and make sure everyone is printing to the correct locations as soon as the network is up and running, so employees don’t miss a beat.
WiFi Network
While the wiring in your new office is important, proper WiFi signals are also essential. Your new offices will likely have different wall materials, different office space configurations and more. Placement of the wireless access points will be critical to getting good WiFi speed throughout the office.
An IT services company can check your signal strength throughout the new offices and place devices to make sure you have a signal even in the conference room or other parts of the building you may be reliant on WiFi.
Moving offices is stressful enough. Hiring an IT services provider can help take the load off of your shoulders.