Office move network and IT relocation in London
The desks arrive on a Saturday and everybody expects to work on the Monday. The network is what decides whether that happens — and it is the part with the longest lead times and the least slack.
Furniture can be late. The circuit cannot
Everything else in a move can be solved on the day. Desks can be assembled late, boxes can stay packed, signage can follow. The network cannot be hurried at the end, because the two things it depends on — a working connection into the building, and cabling in the walls — both have to be ordered and installed weeks before anyone arrives.
That is why network planning belongs at the start of a move programme rather than near the end. By the time a fit-out team is on site, the decisions that matter — where the comms room goes, what the circuit needs to be, how many outlets and where — have usually already been made by default rather than on purpose.
What has to happen, and roughly when
- As early as possible: order the circuit. Providers publish standard lead times, but every order is subject to survey, and the timetable can extend when a wayleave is needed from the landlord or the council has to be notified for street works. This is the single most common cause of a move landing without a working connection.
- Early: agree the comms room. Its location is harder to change than anything else in the building, and it determines cable routes, lengths and what can realistically be served from it.
- Before the ceiling closes: design and install the cabling. Structured cabling is far cheaper before partitions, ceiling tiles and desks arrive, and far more disruptive afterwards.
- At design stage: survey the wireless. A predictive WiFi survey from the floor plans gives an accurate access point count and the cabling those access points will need, before hardware is bought.
- Before the move weekend: build and test. Rack, switches, firewall, wireless and circuit, configured and proven with the building empty rather than with two hundred people waiting.
- After the fit-out: validate. A validation survey confirms the wireless behaves as designed once the furniture, people and neighbouring networks are actually there.
It will not behave like the old one
The floor plan is different, the walls are made of something else, and the neighbours are broadcasting on channels nobody has looked at. A wireless design copied from the old office is a guess wearing a plan's clothing.
- Plasterboard, glass partitions, concrete cores and metal shelving all attenuate differently, and the mix is specific to the building
- In a multi-tenant building the neighbouring networks are part of your RF environment whether you like it or not
- A new layout usually means new density: more meeting rooms, more video calls, more devices per desk than the old office was designed for
The failures we are usually called about
The circuit was ordered late
Everything else was ready and the building had no connection. A temporary mobile connection carries a handful of people, not an office.
The comms room was chosen last
Allocated from whatever space was left over, often with no cooling, no sensible power and cable runs at the edge of their length.
Not enough outlets, in the wrong places
Cabled for the plan, not for how people sat once they arrived. Adding outlets after the ceiling is closed costs several times what it would have cost before.
Access points went where the cable was
Rather than where the coverage was needed, because the cabling was designed before anyone surveyed the wireless.
Nobody owned the lines nobody uses
Lift phones, alarm diallers, door entry and payment terminals sit outside the IT budget, so they get discovered on the move weekend.
It worked on the Saturday
An empty building is not a test. Capacity, interference and roaming all change when people, furniture and devices arrive.
One team, from the floor plan to the first Monday
We survey, design, install and test the same network, so nothing is lost between a drawing and the people doing the work. On a fit-out that means sequencing with the main contractor and the electricians rather than arriving after them. After the move, you can keep us on under managed support, or call us as and when something comes up — both are normal, and the choice is yours.
Office moves, answered plainly
Before the fit-out is designed, and earlier than most people expect. The circuit into the building has the longest lead time of anything in a move and it cannot be shortened at the end, so it should be ordered as soon as the address is certain. Cabling and the comms room follow from decisions made at design stage.
Longer than a move programme usually allows for, and it varies by product and building. Providers publish standard lead times, but every order is subject to survey, and a wayleave from the landlord or council notice for street works can extend it further. Treat the published figure as the simple case and order early rather than planning to the minimum.
Sometimes. If it tests clean and there is enough of it in the right places, reusing it saves real money. The way to know is certification testing rather than a visual inspection, because an existing installation with no test results and no documentation is an unknown, not an asset.
Similar buildings behave differently. Wall construction, glass, floor plates and the neighbouring networks in a multi-tenant building all change the result, and so does a new seating density. A predictive survey from the floor plans at design stage is what produces an accurate access point count before hardware is bought.
Yes, and on a fit-out that sequencing is most of the job. Containment, ceiling and electrical work all have to happen in the right order, and the landlord controls access and wayleaves. The earlier we are involved, the fewer surprises there are about routes and the comms room.
The connections that are not on the IT budget: lift emergency phones, alarm diallers, door entry, payment terminals and anything else with a phone socket. They tend to sit in a facilities or maintenance contract, so nobody checks them until the move weekend.
Got a move date?
Tell us the date, the building and roughly how many people. We will tell you what has to be ordered now, what can wait, and what we would check before anything is committed.