Summary: Moving a business involves much more technology planning than unplugging computers at the old office and reconnecting them at the new one. Englewood businesses should evaluate internet availability, network cabling, Wi-Fi coverage, firewalls, phones, computers, cloud services, cybersecurity, backups, printers, conference rooms, and vendor schedules well before moving day. Starting IT planning early can reduce downtime and help employees arrive at a new office that is ready for work.
Why IT Should Be Part of Office Move Planning From the Beginning
Businesses usually think about obvious requirements when moving into a new location.
They evaluate rent, parking, office layout, furniture, signage, utilities, and construction.
Technology can receive less attention until the move gets closer.
That can create expensive problems.
A business may discover that its preferred internet provider cannot service the new building on the required schedule. Conference rooms may not have the right network connections. Wi-Fi coverage may be inadequate. The server room may not have sufficient power or ventilation. Employees may arrive before phones or printers are configured.
Many of these problems are easier to solve before the move.
The City of Englewood’s guidance for businesses that are starting, expanding, or relocating includes reviewing potential business locations and working through applicable development, licensing, building, and other requirements.
Technology deserves a place on that early checklist too.
Rocky Mountain Tech Team provides managed IT services and IT support in Englewood, CO and can help businesses plan the technology involved in moving, expanding, or opening an office.
1. Check Internet Availability Before Signing a Lease
Internet access is one of the first technology questions businesses should investigate.
Do not assume that every provider or connection type available at your current office will also be available at the new address.
Before committing to a location, determine which internet providers serve the building, what connection types are available, what speeds can be provided, and how long installation is expected to take.
Installation timelines deserve particular attention.
A new circuit may require construction, building access, permitting, or coordination with a property manager.
Businesses should also consider how dependent they are on internet connectivity.
If employees rely on Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, cloud accounting, VoIP phones, cloud applications, remote desktops, video meetings, and other online systems, an internet outage could affect most of the company simultaneously.
For organizations where connectivity is critical, a secondary connection may be worth considering.
RMTT’s existing IT Moving Guide and Checklist similarly recommends investigating broadband availability and network infrastructure while evaluating new office space rather than waiting until moving day.
2. Inspect the Network Cabling
Existing network cabling can save time and money, but only if it is appropriate for the new environment.
Determine whether network drops exist where employees, printers, wireless access points, phones, conference room systems, and other devices will be located.
Do not evaluate the cabling based only on the current floor plan.
Consider where employees will actually work after furniture, desks, conference rooms, reception areas, and shared equipment are installed.
A location may have plenty of network jacks while still having them in the wrong places.
Businesses should also understand where cables terminate.
Is there a dedicated network or telecommunications room? Is it secure? Is there enough space for the required equipment? Is appropriate electrical power available?
These details can affect the entire network design.
3. Plan Wi-Fi Around the New Floor Plan
Reliable wireless connectivity requires more planning than placing one access point near the center of the office.
Walls, building materials, neighboring networks, office density, conference rooms, and the number of connected devices can all affect Wi-Fi performance.
Businesses should consider both coverage and capacity.
A wireless network may technically reach every part of an office while still performing poorly when dozens of employees connect laptops, phones, tablets, conference room devices, printers, and other equipment.
Larger offices may need multiple access points positioned according to the physical layout.
Businesses should also decide whether they need separate wireless networks for employees, guests, and certain devices.
Planning Wi-Fi before the office opens is generally easier than troubleshooting unreliable coverage after employees have moved in.
4. Decide What Technology Should Move and What Should Be Replaced
An office move is a useful time to evaluate aging technology.
Moving outdated equipment to a new location only to replace it several months later can create unnecessary work.
Before packing equipment, review computers, servers, switches, firewalls, wireless access points, printers, monitors, battery backups, phones, and other devices.
Ask whether the equipment is still supported, reliable, appropriately sized, and suitable for the new environment.
An accurate inventory makes this process much easier.
RMTT’s guide to IT asset management for small businesses explains how documenting devices, software, warranties, licenses, and other technology can support budgeting and replacement decisions.
A move is a good opportunity to update that inventory.
5. Review the Firewall and Network Design
A new office should not automatically recreate every technical decision made at the old one.
The new location may have more employees, different internet connectivity, more wireless devices, new conference rooms, additional cloud services, or different security requirements.
Review the firewall and network design before equipment is installed.
Depending on the organization, that may include network segmentation, guest Wi-Fi, secure remote access, firewall policies, switches, wireless infrastructure, and connections to other locations.
Businesses opening an additional office should also determine how employees at the new site will access shared resources.
The appropriate design will depend on whether those resources are primarily cloud-based, hosted at another office, or running on local servers.
6. Protect the Network Equipment
Network equipment should not be installed wherever there happens to be an empty shelf.
Firewalls, switches, servers, backup equipment, and other infrastructure should be located in an appropriate physical environment.
Consider security, ventilation, power, and accessibility.
A network closet that anyone can enter may expose important equipment to accidental or intentional interference.
A poorly ventilated room can create heat problems.
Insufficient electrical capacity can cause reliability issues.
Battery backup systems may also be appropriate for critical equipment.
The physical environment supporting technology is easy to overlook, but it can directly affect reliability.
7. Coordinate Phone Systems Early
Many modern businesses use cloud-based VoIP phone systems, but those systems still require planning.
Determine whether phone numbers will remain the same, whether the provider needs advance notice of the move, how desk phones will connect, and whether call routing needs to change during the transition.
Reception lines, call queues, conference rooms, fax services, and emergency location information may require updates.
If employees are moving in stages, the business may need a temporary plan for routing calls between locations.
Phone planning should be coordinated with internet and network planning because cloud phone quality depends heavily on reliable connectivity.
8. Plan Conference Room Technology
Conference rooms have become technology-heavy spaces.
A typical room may include a display, camera, microphone, speakers, wireless presentation equipment, conferencing software, and network connectivity.
Businesses should decide what each room needs before construction and furniture installation are complete.
Where will displays be mounted?
Where are electrical outlets needed?
Does the room need wired network connectivity?
Will employees use Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, or multiple platforms?
Will visitors need an easy way to present?
Planning these details early can avoid visible cables, improvised equipment placement, and expensive modifications after the office is finished.
9. Review Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace
An office move may not physically affect cloud services, but it is still a useful time to review them.
Update business addresses and contact information where appropriate.
Review user accounts, licenses, permissions, shared mailboxes, distribution groups, file-sharing practices, and administrative access.
If the move coincides with company growth, additional employees may require accounts and licenses.
Security should also be reviewed.
RMTT’s guide to Microsoft 365 security best practices covers protections such as multifactor authentication, account security, and other controls that can help businesses strengthen their Microsoft environments.
10. Verify Backups Before Moving Critical Equipment
Moving servers and other infrastructure introduces physical and operational risk.
Before relocating critical systems, verify that important data is backed up.
More importantly, verify that recovery is possible.
CISA recommends that organizations regularly back up important business data and protect backups appropriately. Its small and medium-sized business resources also identify backups as a core cybersecurity practice.
Businesses should understand what is being backed up, where those backups are stored, and how restoration works.
RMTT’s managed IT services include backup test restores, which can help verify that protected data can actually be recovered.
If critical equipment will be physically moved, backup verification should occur before that equipment is disconnected.
11. Create a Plan for Servers
Businesses with on-premises servers require additional planning.
Determine when servers can be shut down, who will physically transport them, how they will be protected during transportation, where they will be installed, and when employees can expect systems to become available again.
Server moves may also affect IP addresses, internet configurations, firewalls, remote access, and other systems.
Some organizations may decide that an upcoming move is an appropriate time to evaluate whether certain workloads should remain on local servers or move to cloud-based infrastructure.
That decision should be based on business requirements rather than assuming either cloud or on-premises technology is automatically better.
12. Coordinate Printers and Other Shared Equipment
Printers have a reputation for creating IT problems even when they never leave the building.
A move introduces additional opportunities for configuration issues.
Document each printer before moving it.
Determine where it will be installed, whether it uses wired or wireless networking, what IP configuration it requires, and which employees need access.
The same planning should apply to scanners, label printers, specialized equipment, time clocks, security systems, and other network-connected devices.
Some equipment may also be maintained by outside vendors.
Coordinate those vendors in advance rather than assuming your IT provider can reconfigure every specialized system.
13. Review Cybersecurity Before the New Office Opens
Moving creates temporary disruption, and disruption can cause normal procedures to be overlooked.
Computers may be disconnected from normal networks. Temporary wireless connections may be created. Vendors and contractors may need access to the building. Employees may work remotely during the transition.
Cybersecurity should remain part of the move plan.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s resources for small and medium-sized businesses emphasize practices including multifactor authentication, software updates, backups, encryption, and logging.
Businesses should verify that endpoint protection remains active, MFA is configured where appropriate, firewalls are properly installed, wireless networks are secured, and temporary access is removed after the project.
14. Plan for Employee Downtime
A successful office move should have a clear answer to one important question:
When can employees work again?
Some businesses can tolerate a full day without access to office systems.
Others cannot.
Determine which systems are essential and create the move schedule accordingly.
Cloud-based organizations may allow employees to work remotely while office infrastructure is moved.
Other companies may need servers, specialized equipment, or local network resources operational before employees can resume normal work.
Prioritize systems according to business impact.
Internet, firewalls, network equipment, critical servers, phones, and cloud access may need to become operational before printers or less critical equipment.
15. Create a Moving-Day IT Checklist
Moving day is not the right time to rely on memory.
Create a written checklist.
The checklist can include shutting down equipment, labeling devices, verifying backups, transporting critical systems, installing network equipment, testing internet service, confirming Wi-Fi, reconnecting computers, configuring printers, testing phones, verifying cloud access, and checking cybersecurity tools.
Assign responsibility for each task.
Businesses should also maintain contact information for the internet provider, phone vendor, property manager, movers, electricians, cabling contractors, software providers, and IT support team.
When several vendors are involved, knowing who is responsible for each issue can save considerable time.
16. Test the New Office Before Employees Arrive
Whenever possible, do not make the first full test of the office network at 8:00 a.m. on the first workday.
Test important systems beforehand.
Can computers connect to the internet?
Does Wi-Fi work throughout the office?
Can employees access email and cloud files?
Are printers available?
Do phones make and receive calls?
Do conference rooms work?
Can remote employees access necessary systems?
Are servers and shared applications available?
Are cybersecurity tools reporting correctly?
Testing provides time to fix problems before the office fills with employees trying to work.
17. Update Your IT Documentation After the Move
Once the office is operational, update the organization’s technology documentation.
Record new internet provider information, network equipment, firewall configurations, wireless access points, printers, cabling, server locations, warranties, vendor contacts, and other important details.
Update the asset inventory to reflect equipment that was replaced or retired during the move.
Documentation can make future troubleshooting significantly easier.
It also prevents important information from existing only in the memory of the people who managed the relocation.
18. Use the Move as an Opportunity to Improve IT
A business relocation can be disruptive, but it also creates an opportunity.
Instead of rebuilding the same technology environment in a different building, evaluate what could work better.
Maybe the old Wi-Fi was unreliable.
Perhaps the business had too many aging computers.
Maybe network equipment was poorly documented.
Perhaps employees struggled with remote access.
The move creates a natural point to address these issues.
Businesses can standardize computers, improve wireless coverage, upgrade cybersecurity, document systems, replace outdated equipment, reorganize cloud access, and improve backup processes as part of the transition.
That can make the new office more than a change of address.
It can become a technology upgrade.
Give IT Enough Time Before Your Englewood Office Move
Englewood supports a substantial mix of office, professional, industrial, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, construction, and locally owned businesses. The city also actively provides resources for companies that are starting, growing, expanding, or relocating.
For any of those organizations, technology should be considered early in the process.
Internet service, cabling, Wi-Fi, network equipment, computers, phones, cloud services, backups, cybersecurity, and employee access all require coordination.
The earlier those decisions are made, the more options a business usually has.
Rocky Mountain Tech Team has supported Colorado organizations since 2002 with managed IT, networks, cybersecurity, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, backups, hardware, cloud services, and technology projects. If your Englewood business is moving, opening a new office, expanding its current space, or needs help evaluating the technology in a potential location, contact RMTT to discuss your project.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should IT planning begin for an office move?
IT planning should begin as early as possible, ideally while potential locations are still being evaluated. Internet availability, cabling, network infrastructure, equipment rooms, construction requirements, and vendor installation timelines can all affect whether a space will meet the company’s technology needs.
What technology should be checked before signing an office lease?
Businesses should investigate internet providers and connection options, network cabling, Wi-Fi requirements, electrical capacity, equipment-room space, phone requirements, and the physical layout. Organizations with specialized technology should also confirm that the location can support those systems.
Should a business replace computers during an office move?
Not necessarily, but a move is a good time to review equipment. Aging or unsupported computers, servers, network equipment, and other devices may be better replaced before or during the relocation rather than moved and replaced shortly afterward.
How can a business reduce downtime during an office relocation?
Plan vendor schedules in advance, verify backups, prioritize critical systems, test internet and network infrastructure before employees arrive, document responsibilities, and determine whether employees can work remotely during part of the transition. A detailed moving-day IT checklist can also help coordinate tasks.
Does RMTT provide office-move IT support in Englewood?
Yes. RMTT provides onsite and remote IT services for businesses in Englewood and throughout the Denver metro area. RMTT can assist with network planning, cabling coordination, internet connectivity, computers, servers, Wi-Fi, cybersecurity, cloud services, backups, and other technology involved in office moves and expansions.
Author: Brandon Hamilton
Brandon began his IT career in the late 1990s as part of a team managing a 1,500-user corporate network. After moving from Wisconsin to Colorado in 1999, he shifted his focus to helping small and medium-sized businesses throughout the Boulder and Denver areas get more from their technology. When he’s not solving IT challenges, Brandon enjoys skiing, mountain biking, traveling, and cheering on the Green Bay Packers. Be sure to ask him about his latest adventure around the globe.
