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Key takeaways
- Order the internet service for the new office first. It has the longest lead time of anything in an office move and it cannot be rushed.
- Plan backwards from moving day: internet and cabling months out, equipment and Wi-Fi weeks out, and testing before anyone arrives.
- The new connection should be live and tested before the move, and the old one cancelled only once the new office is stable.
- Phone numbers usually move with you, but the emergency address recorded against each number has to be updated to the new site.
- An office move is a project with one owner in the business and one at your IT provider, not a job for the last week of the lease.
The date of an office move is usually set by a lease, a landlord or a fit-out builder. The technology runs to its own timetable, and it does not care about either. The furniture can arrive the day before. The internet service cannot.
For a growing business, say a 20-person engineering firm moving out of a serviced office into its own space in Braeside, the move is often the first time anyone has had to plan a network rather than inherit one. Done well, staff sit down on Monday morning and work. Done late, the business spends its first week in the new office running on phone hotspots.
Start with the internet, because it takes longest
Business internet at a new address is the longest lead item in almost every office move. Where the building already has a fibre or nbn connection in place, a new service can be ready quickly. Where fibre has to be built into the building, or the landlord has to approve works first, it can take weeks or months. Find out which you are dealing with before you sign the lease if you can, and order the service as soon as the address is confirmed.
Order a backup connection at the same time. A mobile network service that takes over automatically means the new office is not depending on a single line on its first day. Through AgileCONNECT, the primary service, the backup and the network behind them sit with one accountable partner.
Then keep the old service running until the new office is stable. Cancelling it to save a month of fees is one of the most reliable ways to end up with no internet at either site.
Work back from moving day
These are planning figures, not promises. A move into a building that is already cabled can be quicker. A fit-out that needs fibre built in can take longer. Either way, the order of the work stays the same.
| When | What needs to happen | Who usually owns it |
|---|---|---|
| Three months or more out | Confirm what connectivity the building has. Order the internet service and the backup connection. Plan desks, data points and the comms cupboard. Book a registered cabler. | You and your IT provider, with the landlord |
| Six to eight weeks out | Cabling installed and tested. Power and ventilation sorted for the comms cupboard. Firewall, switches and Wi-Fi ordered. The phone number move planned. | The cabler and your IT provider |
| Two to four weeks out | Internet live and tested at the new site. Network and Wi-Fi installed. Printers, alarm, access control and other systems booked in with their suppliers. | Your IT provider, working with each supplier |
| The week before | Backups confirmed. Staff told what to pack and what to leave. The moving-day plan agreed. | Your IT provider and office manager |
| Moving weekend | Equipment moved, connected and tested desk by desk. | Your IT provider |
| The first week | Support onsite on the first morning. The old site cleared, devices wiped and old services cancelled. | Your IT provider and office manager |
Cabling, the comms cupboard and Wi-Fi
Data cabling in Australia has to be installed by a registered cabler working to the wiring rules, and the cabler should give you a written statement that the work complies. The ACMA cabling provider rules set out what that means. Keep the statement and the test results: they tell the next installer what is in the walls.
- Count the data points properly. Every desk, meeting room, printer, Wi-Fi access point, camera and screen needs one, and a few spares cost far less during a fit-out than after it. For a new fit-out, Cat6A is the sensible choice because it will still suit the equipment that comes two generations later.
- Give the comms cupboard a real home. It needs power, airflow and a lock, not a corner of the cleaner's cupboard. Heat shortens the life of UPS batteries and network equipment, which our guide to how long network equipment should last covers in more detail.
- Design the Wi-Fi for the new space. A typical office can be planned and installed as part of the move. Larger or more difficult buildings, such as several floors, thick walls or a warehouse attached to the office, are surveyed and designed with a specialist wireless partner, and we manage the network once it is in.
- Decide what moves and what is replaced. A move is a natural point to retire a firewall or switch that is close to the end of its support life, rather than carrying it to a new site and replacing it six months later. AgileEQUIP supplies replacement equipment configured and ready to install.
Phones, numbers and the emergency address
Most businesses can keep their phone numbers. 1300 and 1800 numbers move with you, and numbers on a hosted or cloud phone service move with the service. A traditional geographic landline number generally stays usable within its own number area, which a move within Melbourne usually is. Confirm it with your phone provider before you sign anything.
The step most moves miss is the emergency address. Every phone service has an address recorded in the national database emergency services use for 000 calls, and the ACMA requires providers to keep it correct and update it when it changes. Your provider can only do that once you tell them the new address. With cloud phones and Microsoft Teams calling, the emergency locations set up in the phone system need updating too. AgileVOICE handles both as part of the move, and it is still worth telling staff to state their street address on any 000 call.
The moving weekend
- Before anything is unplugged, confirm the latest backups have completed and verified. If there are files the business could not lose, a manual test restore beforehand is cheap reassurance.
- Photograph and label as you go. A photo of the back of each machine and the network cupboard, and a label on every cable, turn reconnection into a matching exercise rather than a puzzle.
- Pack the network equipment separately and mark it clearly, because it is the first thing that needs to come out of a box at the other end.
- Power up in order. Internet and firewall first, then switches and Wi-Fi, then any server or storage, then the desks.
- Test before Monday. Every desk, printer, phone and meeting room screen, signed off on a checklist, so the first person through the door on Monday is not the first person to find a fault.
- Have someone onsite on the first morning. Small problems in a new office are easy to fix in person and frustrating to describe over the phone.
Do not forget the old office
Anything you are not taking still holds data. The OAIC's guide to securing personal information expects businesses covered by the Privacy Act to destroy or de-identify personal information they no longer need, and deleting files or reformatting a drive is not the same as erasing it. Have old computers, servers and storage wiped properly or destroyed, and keep a record of what happened to each one.
Return leased modems and phone hardware, cancel old services only once the new site is stable, and update the business address wherever your technology depends on it: Microsoft 365, your domain registration, phone listings and supplier accounts. Our guide to who holds the keys to your business is a useful list to work through while the addresses are being changed anyway.
Who owns the move
An office move needs two owners: one person in the business who owns the timeline, the landlord and the decisions, and one person at your IT provider who owns the technology plan. When the two talk early, the move is a planned weekend. When the IT provider hears about it a fortnight out, it becomes a scramble that the internet lead time has already decided.
Under AgileMANAGED, an office move is project work. We scope it and quote it as a fixed project fee before it starts, separate from the monthly service, so you know the cost before the boxes are packed. If you are fitting out a new space from scratch, our guide to setting up a business network covers what a proper setup includes.
We are based in Mornington and plan office moves for businesses across the south east, including the industrial and commercial estates around Braeside. If you have a move coming up, start with a conversation as soon as the new address is likely, and we will tell you what needs ordering first.