January 17, 2021

Tips for a smoother office relocation

Relocation presents an opportunity for a fresh start and is an exciting and progressive time, but it’s certainly not simple to relocate an entire team of employees, high-value equipment, IT assets and furniture. Planning can be the difference between a seamless, stress-free relocation with minimum downtime and a hectic relocation with loss of precious operational hours.

If you are responsible for any kind of office relocation services, it’s vital that disruption is minimised and that new facilities meet your company’s current and future needs. With relocation so critical to your business and colleagues, it’s up to the office moves project manager (normally the facilities manager) to organise, manage and procure every aspect of the move with great detail, yet as seamlessly as possible.

To ensure you avoid the costliest mistakes of an office relocation project, we’ve put together 7 important tips you can use to successfully manage an office relocation project:

1. Office Relocation Plan

For an office relocation to be successful it is pertinent that there is a plan in place. Office relocations are often planned six months in advance, and large commercial moves can require up to two years of planning. The more time you give to planning the move to a T, the better the chances of a successful transition to a new environment. Assemble a planning team comprising key stakeholders and decision-makers involved in the relocation.

This ensures that all factors for a smooth operation are considered while transitioning to a new office. The core planning team should ideally involve members from the procurement, administration, HR, and IT teams. Operations should also be represented in case the move is that of a manufacturing facility. Appoint a single point of contact from amongst the internal team who can facilitate and follow up on each step to ensure that things are progressing. You will need to account for the total time and expenses required for the office relocation and you will also need to have a contingency plan in place if things don’t go as planned

2. Budget

Office relocations can be costly, but planned budgets can be easily overshot due to delays, oversights, and issues cropping up unexpectedly causing additional expenditure. The project manager will be responsible for handling and managing various costs such as interiors, furniture, and new stationery required to get the new office up and running.

Sticking to your budget can be equally as hard as actually setting it. Nasty surprises and hidden costs can crop up from things you may not have even thought of. Here are some common items that many budgets overlook:

Have you considered the cost of dilapidations or reinstating the office you are vacating?
Do you have any leased or specialist equipment that requires special handling? This could also include art collections or chemicals
Are there any access or timing limitations that will impact the cost of your relocation?

It is important that the budget is discussed in detail and decided well in advance. It is also necessary to consider that the budget might overshoot owing to last min crises and misjudgment of a few costs.

You may find it beneficial to take help from an office relocation company who will be able to shed light on the full costs of your move!

3. Design

The design will mainly depend on the current condition and the requirements of your new workspace. It may require substantial refurbishment or just updating. You can take help from a company that understands space planning and provides interior solutions you need – ideally, a company that provides turnkey solutions whilst delivering in terms of timeline, a high standard of finish and within your budget.

Assigning a company to help you manage your office interior from concept to handover will help you reduce your workload and take away any stress that comes along with handling it.

Moving into a new office is a great chance to improve on the problems or limitations you may have encountered with your previous workspace set-up or interiors while working there. Maximising your office space may also be a key objective for you, particularly if your company is growing quickly or moving to a slightly tighter new location. This is where the services of a space planner can come in handy. Speak to your relocation company, as they may be able to assist with the common issues that come with space planning and if they also provide refurbishment services then you can benefit from having to manage fewer contractors and simplifying the service integration element of the move.

4. Communication

Draft a checklist of your move, including individuals involved, required action items (like setting up phone and internet installation), and deadlines. Set expectations for the move so employees know their responsibilities ahead of time and can plan accordingly.

Create a master list of every employee’s keys and passes and refer to it when you need to collect outstanding access cards before moving day. Notify your security and housekeeping agencies of your move so they can terminate your service after your company has left the premises.

Notify customers, affiliates, and suppliers regarding your move via email or letters so that they know where they can reach you going forward. Make a list of subscriptions, mailing listings, and websites where your current address needs to be updated so your business doesn’t fall by the wayside during the move.

Here’s how to make a proper office relocation announcement.

5. Office Furniture

The decision for office furniture depends on how you would like to handle it. You can choose to move your old furniture to the new place which will be a fairly simple process of uninstalling the furniture and reinstalling it in the new office. You can also choose to refurbish the old furniture, which will leave you with the furniture looking as good as new. This process can be highly beneficial as it’s less wasteful and considerably cheaper than buying new – remanufacturing office chairs can cost up to 80% less than buying new. Or you can choose to discard or donate your old furniture and purchase new furniture considering the new office space and its interior.

An integrated services provider should be able to provide you with a range of options for your old furniture. They may have the capacity to turnaround office furniture remanufacturing projects quickly and provide you with other options for your old furniture, like marketing, selling or even donating it to charities on your behalf. Here are our quick tips for choosing the right furniture for your office.

6. IT, Data, Computers, and Connections

Handling and moving IT equipment is the most essential part of the entire office relocation process. Considering that almost all modern businesses are completely reliant on IT and technology for running their day-to-day businesses, you must ensure that moving this equipment should be carried out perfectly to the T.

Desktops

Each of your colleagues’ setups will be unique, both in terms of configurations and screen equipment. Before moving, you will need to audit equipment setups to recommission equipment ready for use in your new office. Once these have been very carefully moved, they then need to be recommissioned and connected to sometimes complex network infrastructures. These systems host sensitive data that needs to remain secure, hence why it is essential you need experienced and trained engineers to decommission and recommission your equipment.

Data Centres & Servers

Servers that host business-critical data need to be very carefully and safely relocated with downtime reduced to an absolute minimum. Migrations need to be seamless, secure, and optimally scheduled to minimise downtime.

Breakages, failure, or stolen data can be hugely expensive. It’s important that equipment is monitored in transportation and moved using specialist packaging to keep it safe and prevent static build-up.

Leased Equipment

For some of your equipment, you may need to request approval from your vendor before you can even move it or risk breaking warranty or service cover agreements. For some specialist equipment, the vendors may insist upon moving it or if you are responsible for moving the leased equipment yourself, the vendor may require you to follow an approved moving process. Your obligations when relocating leased equipment should be detailed in your contract documentation.

Telephones and Internet Connections

Transferring your current telephone and internet connections to a new location can be a tedious and time-consuming process. It involves handling multiple documentation, following up with the authorities to speed up the process and getting the connections live before your team moves into the new office. These tasks will need to be planned well in advance to avoid delays. Make sure you are in a position to identify, diagnose and fix problems before the moving day.

If your telephone numbers are changing, you will also need to pay an additional cost to have calls redirected from the old number to the new one. You will also need to inform your clients, agents, vendors and important stakeholders if your contact numbers are changing.

7. Seek Professional Help

Office relocations can get complex depending on the magnitude of the move. Hiring an amateur may save costs for your organisation in the short run but can prove costly in the intermediate-term with damage to your goods, extended downtime, and dissatisfaction among staff. It’s always advisable to hire a full-service moving company as they take care of the end-to-end needs during an office relocation.

From office search to space planning, from IT asset installation to furniture refurbishment, from workspace relocation to storage solutions, Crown Workspace understands the pressure to minimize downtime and maintain employee productivity through every aspect of an office move.

Project managing every detail – we have a proven record of expertise and experience of over 55 years in moving people and businesses.

Crown is unique among office relocation firms in that we have access to a globally respected in-house information management business. Relocation is often the time when organisations look to optimise the space that business records occupy. Our expertise to reduce disruption and streamline data management and advice on information architecture, storage, access and compliance (e.g. data privacy and protection laws) will improve business performance.

What Makes Crown Workspace India Stands Out

Support All Sizes Move

Expertise Dedicated Staffs

Minimize Operation Downtime

As a leading office movers provider in India, we have vast experience in moving large and small-scale public, private and specialist organisations – providing clients with stress-free workplace change projects.

To know more about our services and how we can deliver a successful workspace change project, please drop in an enquiry or speak to one of our consultants at +91 8080 322 322.