Office Move IT Checklist: 90 Days to Moving Day

Office moves have hard dates. The lease ends, the movers are booked, and on Monday morning everyone expects to sit down and work. The IT side of a move rarely fails because something is difficult. It fails because something was started too late: usually the internet connection, sometimes the cabling, occasionally the one server nobody remembered was in the cupboard.

This checklist counts down from 90 days. If you have less time than that, start at the top anyway and do the long-lead items today.

90 days out: the long-lead items

• Order the internet connection now. A business fiber or cable circuit to a new address can take weeks, sometimes months if the provider has to build into the building. Ask for a firm install date in writing, and ask what happens if they miss it.
• Ask about a second connection. A backup line from a different provider (or a business cellular router) keeps the office working when the main circuit is late or goes down later.
• Walk the new space with the floor plan. Mark where every desk, meeting room, screen and network cabinet will go. Count the network points you need, then add spares.
• Find out what the building provides. Existing cabling, where it runs to, who owns the comms room, power and cooling for network equipment, and the rules for contractors.
• Make an inventory of what's moving. Every computer, server, network device and anything plugged into the network. Note what's old enough to replace instead of move.

60 days out: design and book

• Get cabling quoted and booked for a date well before the move, so it can be tested before anyone arrives.
• Plan the Wi-Fi for the new space, not the old one. Walls, glass and floor layout change coverage. Plan access points for where people actually sit and meet.
• Decide what happens to on-site servers. A move is a good moment to ask whether that server should move at all, or whether its files and apps belong in Microsoft 365 or the cloud. If it moves, plan its shutdown, transport and power-up like a small project.
• List every outside party involved: internet provider, landlord, cabling contractor, movers, and the vendors of your line-of-business software. Get a named contact for moving week from each.
• Check licences tied to a location or IP address. Some line-of-business software, remote access rules and security allow-lists are tied to your current public IP address, which will change.

30 days out: prepare

• Confirm the internet install date and chase it. If it's slipping, switch on the backup plan now.
• Pre-configure the network equipment (firewall, switches, access points) so it only needs to be plugged in.
• Take a full backup and test a restore of anything that matters, especially any server that will be moved. Equipment gets dropped.
• Update records that hold your address or IP: software vendor allow-lists, VPN settings, any service your provider has whitelisted by IP.
• Write the moving-weekend plan: who does what, in which order, and how you'll know each step worked. Include a fallback, such as working from home on Monday if the internet isn't live.
• Tell staff what to pack and what not to touch. Label every device and cable with its new desk number.

The week before

• Test the new cabling and the new internet connection on site.
• Install and test the firewall, switches and Wi-Fi in the new space.
• Confirm times with the movers, the landlord and every vendor on your list.
• Book your phone, printer and copier providers for moving week; their work depends on the network being ready.

Moving weekend

1. Shut down servers and network equipment cleanly, in the right order, after a final backup.
2. Move the network and server equipment first, and bring it up before desks are set up.
3. Check internet access, remote access, email and the line-of-business applications from inside the new office.
4. Set up desks, plug in devices using the labels, and test a sample of them end to end.
5. Walk the space with a laptop to check Wi-Fi everywhere people will work.

Day one and the week after

• Have someone on site first thing Monday to fix small problems before they become a queue.
• Keep a list of everything that didn't work, and close it out by the end of the week.
• Update your network documentation: the new layout, cabling map, internet details and equipment locations.
• Cancel the old internet service only after the new one has been stable for a while, and recover any equipment the old provider wants back.

The three things that cause most of the pain

If you only do three things from this list, make them these. Order the internet connection as early as possible. Get the cabling done and tested before moving day. And write down a fallback for Monday morning, so a late circuit is an inconvenience rather than a lost day.