Company Relocation: What the IT Department Should Consider

Author: Andrew Mikhaliuk, CEO of CoreWin

In these difficult times, the management of many companies has been forced to make a difficult decision to ensure the stability of business processes and the safety of their employees. We are talking about relocation of the company. This is a complex process that requires detailed planning. Let’s deep dive into some tips that will make it easier.

Step 1: Planning your relocation

Before you start, assess your situation. Here are some things to do when you start planning:

Create a moving schedule and identify all projects that may be affected by the move.
Determine how business-critical operations will be performed during the move or when they will be interrupted.
If you are moving to a new building, contact an architect or contractor. You’ll need to have a floor plan to develop an equipment configuration plan.
Analyze the new premises and its features, such as the mains voltage, cooling systems (ventilation), Internet channel, and other technical factors.
Contact your Internet provider, operators, and suppliers of other necessary technologies, and agree on the exact date of connection, installation, etc.
Estimate the costs of moving, including a reserve fund, and create a budget.

When you visit your new office, you will have the opportunity to complete the following steps:

Create a detailed office plan with workstations, IT infrastructure, equipment, etc.
Identify the locations of workstations, printers, scanners, routers, network cable points, power jacks, data cables, etc.
Analyze the server room for compliance with cooling, ventilation, electrical, and security requirements.

Step 2: Inventory

The next step is to take an inventory. Assess the physical condition of your equipment. If it’s outdated, you have a great opportunity to upgrade it and start installing newly purchased equipment. All in all, this is a great opportunity to identify the weak points and take care of improving your IT infrastructure.

Take an inventory of all current IT assets.
Compare your current IT infrastructure with the infrastructure at your new location.
Determine your current communication requirements and whether your new office space will meet them. Analyze how much line capacity you will need.
Determine the placement requirements for your equipment, peripherals, and connections.
Assess your network cabling requirements.
Select a service provider to install the structured cabling system.
Review all upcoming upgrades and acquisitions related to the software part of the IT infrastructure and decide if you can complete them at the same time as the move to save time and simplify procedures.
Create a plan to sell or dispose of obsolete equipment.
Work out the issue of network downtime. You may need to create a strategy to minimize downtime and purchase additional software or hardware to support critical operations during the move.

Step 3: Prepare the telecommunications system

Determine what your business communication needs are and how much line capacity you will need.
Ensure continuous communication with a VoIP phone system and SIP trunking technology. These phone systems typically come with built-in continuity and disaster recovery features, so you can set up call forwarding if you suddenly lose connectivity during the move.
Determine how voice data will be handled on your network during the relocation and setup process.
Take an inventory of your communication devices. Examine your entire phone system – computer system softphones, smartphones, and other mobile devices. You need to determine the individual needs of users, as well as how much network capacity your business needs to support all of this.
Assess your Internet connectivity has to determine what type and preference of Internet access you have to run your business efficiently.
Determine how many phone lines you need and arrange for the transfer of any phone numbers you want to keep.
Notify your telecommunications provider of your move and discuss with them how calls will be handled during the move.
Gather contact lists, including email addresses and phone numbers, and back up any data from your telecommunications systems before moving your office.

Step 4: Secure your network and data

Be sure to put in place steps that increase security and protect your data during the move itself.

Take an inventory of all existing and expected protected assets and resources.
Develop a plan for protecting business data in transit. Use carriers with experience in transporting electronics, and involve your IT department and your service provider in the process.
Create a detailed list of employees, business groups, and administrators and their current network access rights.
Describe your company’s security policy in detail and update it if necessary to include all access and verification procedures.
Identify all tools needed to implement or maintain your procedures and protect your equipment and data.
Seek the assistance of a managed IT provider to maintain the security of your data during office relocation.

Additional elements to consider

Develop multiple contingency plans to cover any delays, equipment breakdowns, and security breaches.
Make physical copies of all your data and store the backups in a safe place while you move. Make sure you can perform a disaster recovery if something happens during transportation.
Back up your systems to a public or private cloud and notify your provider of the move to discuss security protocols, potential changes, and any special conditions that may apply to the new environment.
Clearly label your equipment and keep cables on the proper equipment.
Seek help from a company that has previous experience in overseeing IT infrastructure moves.
Test all of your equipment and systems after the move to ensure that everything is working, and your business procedures can continue without problems. Check the network connections and phone numbers you will be using in the new location. Also, check call forwarding, server performance, incoming and outgoing emails, network connections, etc.

It’s worth adding that now is a good time to review your IT service providers and assess how satisfied you are with their work. If you realize that the services provided by some of them do not meet your expectations, then moving is a great time to consider another company. Some IT solutions may also need to be revised or modernized. For example, if you’re not already using private cloud services, now might be a great time to integrate them. This way, you can simplify the migration process and also solve the issue of data storage for good. Private cloud services can help you protect your data while adding greater network access and voice capabilities. Particular attention should be paid to network security and control measures.

Conclusions:

You need a detailed plan for each step. In other words, plan everything that can be planned, take care of negative scenarios. The quality of your future IT infrastructure depends on this.
Moving is a great opportunity to identify the weak points of your IT infrastructure and, if necessary, to update the hardware.
Check whether all IT assets are properly protected. Develop a plan for transit protection of business data. Be sure to pay attention to security, work out all related issues.
Launch software complexes into commercial operation only after checking them for security and integrity.