An office move rarely fails on moving day itself. It fails three weeks earlier — when the lease date is fixed, the furniture is ordered, and everyone assumes that on Monday IT will 'just plug everything in'. By the time somebody asks whether the internet line has been installed, it turns out it has not even been ordered.
The mistakes below are common to moves of every size, from a twenty-person team to several floors of a corporate office. Each one is avoidable, and if it is caught early, most cost very little to prevent.
Planning mistakes
1. Fixing the move date before anyone audits IT
The date is usually dictated by the lease, and that is understandable. But if nobody asks IT before it is fixed, the project starts with a deadline and no plan. Do a basic audit first: what equipment exists, which systems are critical, what must be ready at the new site. Only then does the timeline mean anything.
2. Ordering connectivity too late
Internet and WAN lines often need a site survey, building management approval and installation work by the provider, and lead times vary. Order connectivity as soon as the new address is confirmed, and ideally arrange a second, independent link so that one delayed installation does not stop the whole office.
3. Nobody owns the IT part of the move
The removals company carries boxes, the landlord manages the building, the provider installs a line — and nobody is accountable for people actually being able to work on Monday. Appoint one owner for IT — an internal person or a relocation partner — with the authority to coordinate all the parties.
Site readiness mistakes
4. Trusting the new building's cabling without testing it
'The building already has network points' is one of the most expensive sentences in an office move. Existing cabling may be an older category, poorly terminated, unlabeled, or lead to a patch panel nobody can find. Have the cabling inspected and tested, and compare the number and position of outlets with the actual seating plan.
5. Treating the server room as a cupboard
Racks often end up in a storage closet with no dedicated power circuit, no cooling and no lock — but with a window facing the afternoon sun. Decide early where the network equipment will live and what it needs: power, ventilation or air conditioning, physical access control and room to grow.
6. Forgetting the systems nobody thinks of as IT
Printers and scanners, desk phones, access control, CCTV recorders, the alarm panel, door intercoms, meeting room displays and video conferencing kits all depend on the network, and all of them need planning. They are usually remembered on Monday morning, when reception cannot open the door for visitors.
Moving day mistakes
7. Disconnecting without labeling
Once the cables are pulled, the knowledge of what went where disappears. Label devices, ports and cables before disconnecting, photograph racks and desk set-ups, and record everything in the inventory. It takes an evening and saves days.
8. Moving everything, including what should be retired
A move is the cheapest moment to decommission old equipment, because you are handling it anyway. Moving a server that should have been retired years ago only relocates the problem. Decide in advance what is moved, what is replaced and what is disposed of.
After-the-move mistakes
9. No testing with real users and no support on day one
Systems that 'came up' on Sunday do not mean that people can work on Monday. Test with ordinary user accounts before handover, and have technicians on the floor on the first morning, so that small problems — a missing drive mapping, a phone on the wrong network, a printer without a driver — do not turn into a queue.
10. Leaving the documentation and the old site behind
After the move nobody updates the network diagrams, while the old office still has an active internet contract, equipment left above the ceiling and a lease clause that requires the cabling to be removed. Close both ends: update the documentation for the new site and run a separate checklist for the old one.
A short checklist to start with
- Audit equipment and systems before agreeing the move date.
- Order internet and WAN links as soon as the address is confirmed.
- Appoint one IT owner with authority to coordinate all parties.
- Inspect and test cabling at the new site against the seating plan.
- Plan the server room: power, cooling, access, space.
- List every network-connected system, including security and AV.
- Label and photograph everything before disconnecting.
- Decide what is retired and how the data on it is erased.
- Test with real users; plan support for the first morning.
- Update documentation and close out the old site.
Questions to ask an IT relocation contractor
- What exactly is in scope — and what is explicitly not?
- Who checks the new site before moving day, and what do they look at?
- How are equipment and cables labeled and recorded?
- What is the shutdown and bring-up sequence, and who approves it?
- How is testing done, and what does the handover documentation include?
- How is support organized in the days after the move?
If the move is also a chance to rethink day-to-day support, it is worth discussing ongoing IT support at the same time: the team that moved the equipment already knows where everything is.
Planning an office move? Tell us about it early — even a short conversation before the date is fixed removes most of these risks.