Office Move – Finding A New Place To Work
Survey of a New Site
These are 1 or 2 points that we bring to the awareness of moving customers when they are considering IT for office moves. Below you will find information that might directly impact the look of your space, the length of the move and the cost. We always advise that no work should be undertaken without an agreed lease.
Access to a New Office
One of the first things we do look at is access to the building, such as:
Lift size and height, and weight limitations
Width of steps
Size of entrances
Service entrance
If the access to your new office is limited, this can seriously increase the cost of your move.
Example: A quality Server cabinet will always come entirely built up. If the lift not be tall enough, and the stairway is too narrow, the cabinet will need to be dismantled, which will take time.
Office Layout Floor Plan
An office layout floor plan is a drawing of where all of the furniture and fittings will be placed. This is vital, as this can identify where data and power points will be going within the office. If you like, We are able to provide you with this as an element of the service, or we will put you in touch with a specialist. The typical cost for this service could be anywhere between £1,500 – £2,500.
Information And Power Wiring
Once you have your office floor plan, then you can start deciding how many information and power points you’ll need. Typically you will need to think about:
The quantity of Positions (remember monitors will need power too)
Faxes
Scanners
Projector
Telephones
Provisioning for the information and power cabling will have to be made, for the office not to look sloppy. Should a raised floor or suspended celling be available, we’re going to use that. Alternatively fringe trunking will be used.
Office Fitting
This is to do with the look of your new space. You may decide to create:
Meeting rooms
Director offices
Decorating the space, i.e. Carpeting, painting
Provisioning door access systems
Determining placement of comms. Room
Air-conditioning
Again, what you choose to do with your space will have a direct result on your financial position.
Comms. Room Necessities
First, you need to decide where you would like to position your comms room. Once decided, you can then plan for the correct power, data points and air-conditioning to be placed in this space. It is very important this room gets finalised first as you won’t be able to receive any fone or web services without it. We can help with recommending the right service providers and project-manage the power and aircon necessities.
Find the Wet and Dry Riser
This is vital because it may determine how certain elements at the office can be laid out. It is also worth pointing out at that point that lead times may vary between different service providers.
Example: BT is currently quoting 7 “10 working days for an ISDN2 phone line and 20 working days for ISDN30 telefone line. In truth, it is usually double that, and often even longer in December. Not provisioning for this wait-time can be terrible to your time line.
Michael Kiruba-Raja works as a business IT Support expert in the City of London’s fiscal district helping his client move office without a hitch. His consultative view is gained from 20 years of working with business IT support systems.
