Office Relocation Chelsea
Office Relocation Chelsea
Office moves and Office relocations can be a challenging affair. So much to consider, so much to prepare and so much to do in a short window to reduce business downtime. This project showcases the requirements needed to execute an Office Relocation.
One of our long term clients relocated offices from Beckenham, South London, to new plush offices in Chelsea and enlisted SBS IT to advise and conduct many parts of the Office Relocation.
Being involved from the outset, before all the legalities had been completed, aided us in making sure the transition was as smooth as possible.
Site Visit
An initial site visit to assess current network cabling, discuss floorplans as well as gathering as much information from the client as possible highlighted our first task.
The current network patch panel was incomplete and not in order. This meant that many floor points would not be usable in its current form, the legacy panel type was also using up more rackspace than needed. Having calculated the rackspace needed for the customer network equipment, we worked out that re-terminating the network patch into new patch panels meant that not only would we be able to ensure each floor point would be usable, tested and re-numbered to be in a logical order, but also we would be able to use the existing network cabinet and reduce extra expense of buying and installing a new cabinet.
Internet provision was a necessity in order for the client to be up and running following the office move. We spent time speaking with the existing provider of internet services at their current offices to work out exiting or relocation of services, before working on provision of new internet services at the new offices.
Pre-move date, the network had been re-terminated into new patch panels and cabling tested as well as the provision and testing of the new internet service.
Move Day
Planning is key, with the offices ready from a base level, the mammoth task and planning revolved around turning off the equipment (Computers, Telephones, Servers, Access Points, Printers, Telephones, Switches, Routers/Firewalls), lugging and loading the equipment safely and securely into hired vans, getting everything over to the new offices and unloading. Then the next phase of the project begins…
A first priority was to get the routers/firewall reconfigured to work with the new internet service.
Internet was a key requirement to get the business back up and running so this was the priority, followed by rackmounting the other network equipment and testing. Following this getting the 4 servers up and running so that network services would be available, external DNS changes made and tested to allow for remote access services, was complete.
As we started to get deep into the evening, the next phase was the unboxing of the end user equipment and positioning of machines on desks, cabling up monitors, keyboards, mice, power etc..
Now we were in the final stretches of the relocation, it was time to document the floor ports for each machine / telephone and begin the network patching into the specific switches for each device, position the printers and patch them accordingly also.
Testing
Finally, with the core infrastructure and services in place and tested, machines, telephones and printers ready it was time to complete final testing. This involved ensuring that machines can connect to the internet and server shares, telephones can make inbound / outbound calls and printers are visible to the machines and can print.
Now into the early hours of the morning, we are in a position to tidy up and hit the road safe in the mind that all aspects have been tested successfully and that downtime for the client was kept to an absolute minimum.
With the clients happy and working in their lovely new offices for a few months, they asked us to install 3 TV’s so they can keep track of the markets which we have completed, just a bit of cable re-routing outstanding.
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