Relocating is something that most businesses have to consider at some point in their lifespan. Perhaps a more suitable location has opened up, or perhaps the current location is having a negative impact on business, or perhaps your business needs more physical room to grow and expand—there could be any number of reasons to relocate your business office. An important step in relocation that many companies neglect is communicating and working with their IT resource. Not working with your IT vendor could result in you moving to a new building that doesn’t have the proper wiring or network capability that your business needs, so there isn’t a proper internet connection or phone line. These are all problems that are easily fixable: consult with your IT resource when you’re planning to move your office location.
When a business moves without working with their tech team, they commonly wind up spending twice as much money cleaning up bad infrastructure or adding important hardware than if they’d gotten their IT resource involved to begin with. When the new location is being examined, or initially moved into, IT resources like us would implement some temporary wiring and equipment in order to keep things functioning until more long-term solutions can come in. Not having that can really impact productivity and morale in a bad way. A growing business will move or change often, so imagine dealing with all of the problems without an IT crew to lean on, and doing it repeatedly. It’s best to just collaborate.
What are some of the most important IT-related things to look for in a new office location? It goes without saying that there needs to be high-speed internet available at the building—something that isn’t as guaranteed in the modern age as you might think. If the location does not have high-speed internet, then you need to work with your IT team to figure out how long it will take and how expensive it will be to get it implemented. The next big thing to look for is physical security; can you physically lock down your office and server rooms? This will be important for data security purposes. Next come the little things: are there accessible network jacks near suitable desk locations? Is there a good location for both power and connectivity for office equipment like printers, copiers, and postage machines? These are all things that your IT resource should be looking for when you’re looking to relocate your office.
It’s very important to call your IT provider before you move. They will help smooth the transition for you on the technical side, and their expertise will absolutely save you a massive headache in the moving process. Working with an IT team can be the difference between you moving into an office with good connectivity, and having to cut holes in the drywall to install the proper wiring while surviving off of cell phone hotspots.
It seems like a pretty easy choice from where we’re standing.
If you need a support team to help you with this process, schedule a call here.
