An office IT move should start six to eight weeks before the move date. The critical path is carrier services — NBN, fibre and phone line provisioning at the new site can take weeks — followed by number porting, cabling and a staged weekend cutover with everything tested before staff arrive. The physical equipment move is the easiest part.
Start these now or the date slips
- Order carrier services at the new site. NBN, fibre or business internet provisioning is the single most common reason an office move slips. Lead times can run to weeks and nobody volunteers that.
- Survey the new site. Where the comms room goes, whether there's power and ventilation for it, how many data points are needed and where. Cheap to solve now, expensive on moving day.
- Check what cabling exists. Existing points may be the wrong category, wrong location or non-functional. Assume nothing without testing.
- Start number porting. Business numbers take time to port and it cannot be rushed on the day.
- Check your lease obligations at the old site — make-good frequently includes removing cabling you installed.
Plan and order
- Book the cabling installation, allowing time for it to be tested before the move
- Decide what moves and what gets replaced — an office move is a natural point to retire equipment you'd otherwise limp along with
- Confirm building access at both ends: loading dock, service lift bookings, after-hours access, security passes
- Plan the cutover sequence — what moves first, what moves last, and what has to be working before anything else
- Tell your staff what to expect and when, including what they need to take home
Cutover
- Verify the new site's internet is live and tested before anything else moves. Everything depends on it.
- Back up everything, and verify the backup, before a single machine is unplugged
- Label everything — cables, monitors, docks, phones. It costs an hour and saves a day
- Move non-critical equipment first, servers and phones last
- Test before anyone arrives: every workstation, printer, scanner, phone, EFTPOS terminal and shared drive
The five that catch people out
Carrier lead times
By far the most common cause of a slipped move. Order at the new site before you order anything else.
Number porting left late
Attempted on the day, it fails. You open at the new address with no phones, and there's no quick fix.
No comms room at the new site
Or one with no power, no ventilation, or in a location nothing can reach. Found during a survey; disastrous on a Saturday.
Nothing tested before Monday
Equipment that worked before the move is assumed to work after it. Printers, scanners, EFTPOS and shared drives are where that assumption reliably breaks.
Questions Gold Coast businesses ask us
How far in advance should we plan an office IT move?
Six to eight weeks, and earlier if the new site needs carrier services provisioned. NBN, fibre and phone line lead times are the most common reason an office move slips — the physical equipment move is the easy part. Number porting also needs starting well ahead rather than on the day.
What's the most common thing that goes wrong?
Internet not being live at the new site on day one, because it was ordered too late. Everything else depends on it — phones, payments, cloud applications and remote access. It's the first thing to order and the last thing anyone thinks of.
Will we lose our phone numbers?
Not if porting is started ahead of the move rather than attempted on the day. That applies to legacy PBX systems being relocated as well as to cloud phone systems.
Can the move happen over a weekend?
Usually. Non-critical equipment moves first, servers and phones cut over last, and everything is tested before staff arrive Monday. Larger estates sometimes need staging across two weekends.
Should we replace equipment as part of the move?
It's a natural moment to do it. Anything you'd otherwise limp along with for another year is worth replacing rather than paying to move twice. A fleet assessment before the move usually pays for itself.
Do we need new cabling at the new site?
Test rather than assume. Existing points are frequently the wrong category, in the wrong place, or simply non-functional. A survey establishes what's usable before you plan around it.
Got a move date?
The earlier we survey both sites, the fewer surprises there are — and carrier lead times wait for nobody.