By Jim Carey – A Moving Professional at Clancy Moving Systems in New York and member of CRN – the Commercial Relocation Network
Make phone and data lines a priority in your office move planning. As movers, we often have the “pleasure” of seeing up close the types of factors that cause a customer of ours to have to delay their office move by several days and, sometimes, weeks. Phone and data lines can take much longer than anticipated.
In today’s business office environment, phone and data lines come in many different varieties and countless providers can provide these utility services. Having your phone and data lines installed and ready prior to your move into a new office location can be delayed by several causes. Our point is don’t take for granted that these services will be readily available in the time frame you need them. They really can cause a delay to your office move.
There are many reasons. With knowledge of some of the most common ones, we hope you avoid delays to your office move by working proactively with your phone and Internet providers.
First, when moving into an existing office space, try to find out how many phone lines were installed in your space for the previous tenant. If the previous tenant had 12 phone lines and your company needs 50, you need to make sure the phone company confirms they have the necessary infrastructure in the building to handle your needs. Phone companies usually build enough infrastructure in buildings to handle overall needs. But some of the more expensive components of phone service infrastructure are added as they are needed. Requiring additional phone or data infrastructure can add time to the phone and data line install.
Second, the phone provider your company uses may be a competitive provider. In other words, they are not the big behemoth phone company like Verizon, SBC or Qwest. These companies can bring phone or data service to your new location in one of two ways. The first way is they can utilize the big behemoth phone company’s phone lines to connect your office to their phone switch. When you notify them of your needs at a new office location and place an order, you can expect at least one month before those phone and data lines are installed. There is just too much red tape that goes on between the two phone companies and it will take 30 days or longer.
The second way is for your competitive phone and data provider to extend their own network into your new office location. (always over fiber optic cables) If the competitive phone company is already in the building, great! You just avoided a “build-in” process that would have taken 3 months. We have even seen the process take 6 months in some cases.
Relatively new on the scene to business phone and data services is your local cable company. They have the right-of-way to get to the curbside of most buildings, but getting in the building is a whole other story. It takes time to get permission and plan an entrance into a building, Depending on the owner of the building, your phone and data provider can be delayed for a few weeks or, worse, a few months. If your employer owns the building, you will obviously have an easier time getting any phone or data lines in the building.
Depending on the size of a move, the responsibilities of the move may be split amongst different departments. It is common for the IT staff to be involved in larger moves because of these and other complexities associated with phone and data lines. In such a case, make sure you remember to keep updated on their progress.
As experienced office movers, we often communicate with the IT staff on a variety of subjects, We take every opportunity to understand how they are doing with preparing the new office space’s phone and data lines. Remember, even though an IT staff may know a lot about the phone and data needs, moving is not something they do every day and these potential delays are largely beyond their control.
If you are responsible for your company’s upcoming office move, make the smart move and add phone and data line installation to your list.
About Jim Carey – Jim Carey is a moving professional with Clancy Moving Systems, based in the New York and a member of the Commercial Relocation Network.