Modern day offices are heavily dependent on business phones and broadband which makes office relocations extremely challenging. When you move into your new office location, you need to ensure seamless business operations without any delay or downtime.
When you are planning for an office relocation, it is important to understand your existing voice and data cabling infrastructure and assess the new location to ensure that the new premise has everything you need for your business operations. A site visit to the new office location with your telecom service provider is extremely important to understand the cabling infrastructure. Some of the common things to note would include: Structured cabling points, Power outlets, Number of ISDN or VOIP lines, Number of analogue lines, the broadband speed in the area etc.
Voice and Data Cabling Checklist
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Choosing a new business phone system or even relocating your existing one is one of the most challenging part of any office move.
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Do you need to upgrade your existing business telephone system?
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The cost for reinstalling or upgrading the voice and data cabling infrastructure.
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Is the existing cabling infrastructure in the new office location capable of meeting your business needs and technology requirements?
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Are you planning to recruit additional staff which would mean need for additional phone systems and lines.
Do you know the broadband speed requirements necessary for your business? -
The relocation should be planned after office hours and at weekends to minimize downtime and delays.
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There should be a robust business continuity plan and necessary data backups kept ready for any misadventure during the relocation.
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Post relocation, all packaging and waste should be cleaned and disposed from the site to avoid hazards.
The benefits of any upgrade should outweigh the cost. Also, consider voice and data cabling infrastructure as a long term investment which means you should never compromise on the quality.
Office relocation not only opens up additional business opportunities but also provides an excellent opportunity to review your current voice and data cabling infrastructure and equipment. Once you know what you need, and what you got, you should consult a professional Telecom provider and seek assistance with the relocation of voice and data cabling infrastructure.
Traditional phone lines may need new cabling or re-patching during an office move, however Voice over IP i.e. VoIP systems can be easily integrated with the new network infrastructure. One just needs to have a CAT5 or CAT6 outlet to plug the VoIP equipment. There should be lot of planning and decision making done much before the actual move so that you can have an easy relocation without any issue.
The only difference between a successful and failed office relocation is the lack of experience and planning. Avoid that! Professional telecom experts would provide a single point of contact, quality control, impeccable customer service and dependable services. Building codes in many states makes it important to remove any old cabling before replacing it with new voice and data cabling infrastructure. Depending on your budget and speed requirements, you may even consider upgrading to fiber optic cabling.
While choosing a new office location or even upgrading the existing voice and data cabling infrastructure, always ensure to have the cables patched and labeled accurately which would allow ease of maintenance. Test all existing cabling and repair or replace them before your actual move to avoid any unexpected downtime. A good cabling infrastructure would optimize performance and offer great user experience along with improved business productivity and profits.
