IT Relocation & Office Moves

Office moves where Monday morning is uneventful

Office relocations break a lot of IT environments. A move that is planned six weeks out and executed on a Friday-to-Sunday cutover can land Monday morning with everyone plugged in and working. A move that is planned two weeks out usually loses a week of productivity to dragging tails — phones still going to the old number, the conference room AV still in boxes, the printer that nobody could find.

We have done a lot of these. Below is the playbook.

Six weeks out

• Site walk at the new space with the new-space architect or property manager. Identify the IDF/MDF locations, AP candidate spots, AV needs, camera coverage gaps.
• Order long-lead items: ISP install at new space, any new switch/firewall hardware, phone hardware, AV hardware.
• Initiate phone number port if the carrier is changing.
• Start cabling rough-in if the new space needs it.

Three to four weeks out

• Confirm internet circuit install date at new space.
• Schedule the move weekend.
• Begin packing-list inventory: every workstation, monitor, phone, printer, AP, switch, server, AV component, camera.
• Confirm building-management coordination at both old and new spaces (loading dock times, freight elevator reservations, COIs).
• Pre-stage configurations for new-space network gear.

One week out

• Validate the new-space ISP circuit is live.
• Pre-deploy cabling and APs at new space if they were not already in.
• Final user communication: what to expect Friday-to-Monday, where to bring laptops home for the weekend, who to call if there is an issue.

Move weekend

• Friday evening: pack and label. Disconnect and inventory every device. Take photographs of cable runs. Final backups of any equipment with local data.
• Friday overnight or Saturday: physical move. Equipment to the new space.
• Saturday: rack, cable, and configure. Validate every drop, every AP, every phone, every printer, every conference room.
• Sunday: monitor. Walk the space and verify nothing is missed. Document any punch-list items.
• Monday morning: on-site at 7:00 AM with the move team. Most of the actual work is reassuring people that yes, the printer is the new one with the same name, and yes, the headset still works.

What we move

Workstations and monitors. Phones and the phone system (or migrate to cloud during the move, which is often the right time). Network gear (firewall, switches, APs) — usually replaced rather than relocated if the existing gear is end-of-life. Servers and racks. Conference room AV. Cameras and access control panels. Printers and copiers (with the printer vendor — we coordinate). Anything else with a power cord.

What it costs

A typical 35–50 person single-location move runs $12,000–$28,000 depending on the complexity of the existing environment, the new-space buildout requirements, and how much equipment is being replaced rather than relocated. Larger moves and multi-floor environments scale linearly. The estimate is itemized so the trade-offs (replace vs relocate, cabling rough-in vs reuse, etc.) are visible up front.

If you are also doing the new-space buildout with us, the relocation is rolled into the same engagement and quoted as one project — see design-build infrastructure for that path.