Limit Downtime During Your Office Move

One of the keys to ensuring your office move is a success is to minimize downtime, or eliminate it altogether, if possible. With the proper advance planning, and constant communication with key players within the company, a corporate relocation can be a relatively seamless transition.

Plan It, Map It & Pack It

Time is a key component, and three months is generally regarded as an ideal window within which to create an outline of the tasks to be accomplished. This includes taking inventory of what needs to be moved, assessing what can be sold, donated or discarded—coordinating pickup if needed—and mapping out how furniture and equipment will be laid out in the new office. It may be helpful to incorporate this information into a spreadsheet, where it can be accurately quantified and tracked through every step of the process. 

Packing will ultimately be the most time-consuming task on the list, making it helpful to break down by department, perhaps packing and temporarily storing non-essential items well in advance of the moving date. Be sure to have heavy duty boxes on hand for all breakables, as well as an excess of bubble wrap, packing paper, tape, labels, sharpie pens, moving blankets, and furniture movers and sliders. If any hardware is not making the trip, be sure to arrange for safe disposal, and purge whatever data remains. 

Transition Tech, The Rest Will Follow

If feasible, create an overlapping timeline between the old and new locales for a more gradual transition between offices. By coordinating network and communications systems, you can minimize downtime—ideally, try to limit it to one weekend and one business day, at most. Be sure to take into account computer servers, internet connectivity, the company network and phone system, as well as any security systems, time clocks, and card entry systems that may come into play. It’s recommended that businesses begin by migrating the sales team initially—computers, phones, faxes—preferably over a weekend, so systems can be up and running by Monday morning. 

By keeping employees in the loop every step away, you can ensure a more efficient transition. Clients and the public should also be kept apprised of the pending relocation, courtesy of phone calls, email progress reports, change of address cards, and signs. Be sure to notify the post office and any utilities several weeks in advance, to be sure services will be in place in plenty of time. If you do move during business hours, make sure phone lines and email inboxes are manned by at least one employee designated as an emergency contact.  

If all else fails, having the proper digital architecture in place, including remote work platforms, can facilitate uninterrupted progress while technical details are coordinated during the moving process. 

For further information on steps to take during your upcoming office move, contact Steinway Moving & Storage.