Business relocation is a vital boost that your business needs. The right time to relocate a business can be different to every business depending upon its position in the growth cycle. However, every business needs to move to a better or more appropriate digs, sooner or later.
Conventionally, office relocation was all about hiring professional movers to relocate the office staff including the large furniture and assets while the staff took care of the smaller belongings, mostly their items. However, today, technology is one of the core assets that needs to be addressed while moving an office.
As technology plays a crucial role in the functioning of an office, it is important that its safe relocation is the priority. If you are relocating your business and are concerned about the technological aspect, here is what you must know before hand:
Plan and organize:
Whether you are moving a small business or a large enterprise, even if you are relocating a residential unit for that matter, planning and organization remains the core of the process. Some of the key aspects to consider while planning the move include:
- Who is taking the charge of the move? It is important that you designate key in-charge to supervise the entire process. It is wise to designate department supervisors and then a top supervisor whom they would report the moving progress.
- Which moving company should you trust? Identify the credible movers near me why will be responsible for the move. Make sure they are office relocation specialists with great experience and caliber.
- Are the utilities being taken care of? Besides moving furniture and assets, you will be moving various utilities as well. Make a list of the utilities like internet, phones, servers and more and make sure someone is in-charge of relocating them.
Location:
- Is there a floor plan? It is very important that you have a clear understanding of the floor plan before you move. Make sure you have an idea of what goes where and how you can adjust the technological part in the new settings.
- Where to locate your IT setup? You will need a dedicated room for your IT setup. This may include your in-house server, computers or spare IT gadgets that are in the inventory.
- Check for the supply in the IT room. Once you have identified the room dedicated for your IT setup, make sure you check all the supplies and essentials required. Are there enough electrical sockets? What is the HVAC arrangement in the room? Is the fire suppression system working well? What about the physical security of the room?
Technology infrastructure:
- Start from telecom and the internet. As you relocate to a new space, you will have to reevaluate your IT needs. Every business needs a telephone and internet facility to run smoothly. Is there enough infrastructure to support this need?
- Check the telecom and internet providers. Make a list and chalk out the most credible ones. Establish a connection with them and negotiate for the best offer.
- Check the wiring and power requirements. You will need a lot of workstations, each one of them well powered and with wiring for the technology. Check the wiring provision and whether or not it is certified.
- Check the list of equipment you have and identify those which need an upgrade or replacement. Evaluate your current and future need for equipment and accordingly plan the inventory. If you are downsizing or upgrading, the difference between the existing and future equipment inventory would be significant. Besides, upgrading is a great way to save costs as modern technology and equipment are way more efficient than the ones you might have invested in previously.
Manage your service:
- Consider the downtime as the most critical aspect of the move. It is very loss generating if you cannot get into your feet at the shortest time. Wherever you are moving, make sure you are prepared for the downtime and try to minimize it as much as possible.
- Take backup and protect the servers. If you are operating on cloud servers, your hassle might be less. But, if you have in-house servers and data centers, make sure you have them protected. Also, ensure that all the data is safely protected, and a backup is created prior to the move. In the case of in-house servers, make sure you have another source of backup created.
What else to keep in mind?
Community is also an important aspect to lookout for when moving offices, along with the business climate. What are the regulations for labor, taxes, etc.? What about the ease of setting up a business? Quality of infrastructure? Aspects of politics such as stability and corruption?
A detailed analysis of the labor market will help you in reducing the uncertainty of moving to a new place. A change in location decision should be seen as a strategic move and must be treated the same way. It is more of strategic investment for incorporating better factors in life such as culture, growth opportunities, availability, talent, etc.
There are always certain hard decisions to take – like not merging to departments, even though they might become more cost-effective, so as to not affect the performance, retaining talent & optimizing their individual performances.
Takeaway
Moving a business is never easy. Today, more and more companies are moving to make their operations more efficient. Moving technology is one of the most complicated aspects of the move and it is important that it is handled with due care. Start getting estimates from moving companies as you begin with the planning of the move. Cost of living, or setting up the office here, and labor availability should be the highest concerns while moving offices. The earlier you start, the better you achieve a successful office relocation.
Some of the best moving companies working with Moving APT state that more and more companies have started using https://www.movingapt.com/moving-cost-calculator to identify the cost of moving and the elements that they factor include moving the technology.
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