Office and IT technology relocations are one of the most complicated tasks faced by UK business owners when they decide to upsize or downsize their operations. IT relocations should never be done on a whim. You will need plenty of time to plan and execute your move if you want it to happen smoothly and problem free.
Whether your office is bursting at the seams and you need more elbow room for your staff, or you plan to expand your business and employ more people, moving to new business premises isn’t as simple as throwing your office equipment into packing boxes and loading them onto a van.
You will need to catalogue and label every piece of office equipment, every cable connection and router before uninstalling it. Packing your sensitive IT assets for your move also requires careful consideration.
Flimsy cardboard boxes won’t offer the best protection for your assets while in transit. You will need robust packing crates for your office equipment, and specialist insulated packing containers designed for moving fragile and heat-sensitive server equipment.
Relocating your office and IT technology must be done on time. If you are ending your current business premises lease this Friday and plan to have everything in its new home by next Monday morning, you will be biting off far more than you can chew!
How to make your office and technology move easier
If you want to make your office relocation as easy as possible, it makes sense to place the task in the capable hands of a professional business relocation specialist, such as Restore Harrow Green.
While you may think you can manage the move by yourself with some help from a local domestic home removals team, you will quickly learn that moving offices and sensitive IT technology is far more complicated than you thought. Domestic home removal services are excellent for the job they do, but they are used to moving large pieces of furniture such as double beds, free-standing wardrobes and sideboards.
However, domestic removal firms are not trained in moving delicate IT technology that can often be fragile, needs to be kept at a low temperature throughout the move, and contains sensitive data that you cannot afford to lose.
This is why you should only entrust your move to a company such as Restore Harrow Green, which has years of specialist experience in office and IT technology relocations. We have teams based all across the country, so we will have a team local to you that knows the local area well and will conduct your move with the highest of professionalism.
Planning and preparation are key
Relocating your office and IT technology needs careful planning well in advance of your move. You must give yourself enough time to plan and prepare for the move to cause the least disruption to your staff and day-to-day business practices.
Moving offices is challenging, so before you start unplugging your office computers and packing them into moving boxes, you need to give yourself the opportunity to review your assets and decide which pieces of office equipment you want to take with you and which you don’t.
Just about every busy and productive office in the country will have built up an amount of ‘junk’ made up of broken or obsolete IT, office equipment and furniture that you really don’t want cluttering up your new office space.
Luckily, Restore Harrow Green offers IT Reuse and Recycling services that help you get rid of any broken or obsolete IT equipment in a data-secure manner with zero data-breach risks. We will ensure that any data is professionally wiped from any data-storage devices needing disposal. As Restore Harrow Green has a zero-landfill policy, all of your waste materials will be recycled.
If you have surplus IT equipment that is still working, we can arrange to have it refurbished and put into the circular economy. This enables new start-ups and lean businesses to buy refurbished IT equipment and stay within budget.
Dealing with WEEE regulations
Much of the redundant material generated by an office relocation will need to be carefully disposed of following WEEE guidelines. Restore Harrow Green will help you to reduce the cost of disposing of these items by coordinating the decommissioning of this equipment during your relocation process.
We will thoroughly audit your redundant IT assets and electronic waste and dispose of them on your behalf to help you meet your duty of care under WEEE regulations. Our disposal practices comply with the UK’s WEEE directive and Control of Hazardous Waste legislation and are disposed of at our fully licensed recycling facility.
By auditing your IT assets, you will have a more informed office and technology relocation. It can be easy to lose track of what assets you own and what may require imminent replacement. If you have old IT nearing the end of its life, it makes little sense to include it in your office relocation if you plan to replace it in the next few weeks.
Auditing your IT assets will allow you to understand precisely what you have and the condition of your assets. You may decide to dispose of ageing IT at the time of your move and buy new equipment for your new premises. Restore Harrow Green can help you make this decision and securely decommission any IT assets you no longer need.
Working with Restore Harrow Green
A significant benefit of working with Restore Harrow Green is that we can be as involved in your office and technology move as you wish. We can manage the whole move for you if you prefer to take a hands-off approach, or you can hire some of our most valuable services if you want a joint approach to your move.
It will help to assign a manager from your team to coordinate things from your side. We can appoint an experienced project manager from our team, who will work together to plan and execute your move.
We can also plan and prepare your new office location to establish what is needed, assess what is available and ensure your new premises are appropriately designed to receive your office assets and IT infrastructure.
Contact us today to discuss your needs. You can arrange a visit by one of our team of office relocation specialists to audit your office and IT technology to establish a plan and get a quote for our services.