Every day a company is not working costs money. For a sales team it means lost deals, for an accounting firm delayed closings, for a call centre an unavailable line. A well-planned move is therefore measured not only by whether anything got broken, but mainly by how much working time the company lost.
Start with one question: what must not stop?
Before dealing with furniture, write down what has to keep running even during the move. Typically:
- the phone line and e-mail for customers,
- systems that clients or branches connect to (server, online shop, booking system),
- invoicing and payments, especially at the end of the month,
- a warehouse or dispatch, if the company has one.
For each item, decide how long it can be out of operation and who is responsible for it. That gives you both the order of the move and the date.
The weekend as the basic strategy
For most offices the simplest solution is to move between Friday and Monday. On Friday afternoon workstations are packed, on Saturday furniture is taken apart, loaded and moved, on Sunday it is assembled and equipment reconnected, and on Monday morning people work. Smaller offices can even be moved in one evening after working hours.
A weekend move also has practical advantages: the lifts in the buildings are free, there is more parking space on the street and no colleagues are wandering between the boxes. More on the weekend office moves page.
Larger companies: moving in stages
When a company does not fit into one weekend, split the move into stages. A proven order:
- Archive and storage. Not used every day, they can go one or two weeks ahead and free up space.
- Shared areas. Meeting rooms, kitchenette, reception. The new office is already working when the first people arrive.
- Departments with the least customer contact. Internal teams, development, back office.
- Departments that must stay available, ideally over a weekend: sales, support, reception.
- Servers and network devices according to a separate plan, often at night or at the weekend.
Leave a buffer between the stages. If something takes longer, you do not want it to push back the move of the sales team.
IT: the biggest risk of downtime
Furniture can be assembled at any time. What really stops operations is technology: internet not installed, printers not working, a server that does not start after transport. Therefore:
- order internet for the new premises as soon as you know the address,
- check that the new premises have power sockets and network ports where the desks will be,
- back up servers and storage before the move,
- label computers and monitors with the workstation number,
- if possible, have the new network installed and tested before the furniture arrives.
More in the article on moving IT and the server room.
Communication with customers and suppliers
Customers should not notice the move other than through the announcement of the new address. Send it in advance, state the date from which it applies and mention any limitations (for example that reception will not be available on Friday afternoon). If you have premises that people visit, put up a sign at the old address.
Floor plan and labels: the cheapest insurance
A simple system saves hours: every workstation in the new office gets a number, every box, monitor and computer a label with the same number. The floor plan hangs on the door of every room. The movers do not need to check anything with you and on Monday nobody is looking for their drawer.
Who decides on moving day
Appoint one coordinator who is on site or on the phone during the move. The moving crew needs quick answers: where does a cabinet go that is missing from the plan, should the kitchen unit be taken apart, what to do with furniture that does not fit into the lift. Without a coordinator, people wait.
Buffers people forget
- booking the goods lift at both addresses,
- a reserved parking space for the van in central Prague,
- access to the building at the weekend (cards, keys, security),
- protection of floors and door frames required by the building manager,
- time to hand the old premises back to the landlord.
A sample schedule for a company of forty people
To give an idea of how the stages might be spread for a medium-sized office. The real plan always depends on the premises and operations:
- Two weeks ahead: moving the archive and storage, installing and testing the network in the new premises.
- One week ahead, Thursday evening: shared areas, meeting rooms and the kitchenette. The rest of the company keeps working in the old premises.
- Friday afternoon: packing workstations, disconnecting computers.
- Saturday: disassembly, transport of furniture and equipment.
- Sunday: assembly, placement according to the floor plan, reconnecting and testing workstations.
- Monday: operations in the new premises, someone available in the morning for small issues.
- The following week: clearing the rest of the old premises and handing them back to the landlord.
What if the date moves
The new premises are not finished, the landlord postpones the handover, the internet is not installed in time. It happens more often than you would expect. Therefore:
- check with your current landlord whether the lease can be extended by a few days or weeks,
- build a buffer into the plan between the handover of the new premises and the end of the old lease,
- ask well in advance whether building work in the new premises is on schedule,
- if the date moves, tell the moving company as soon as possible. Weekends at the end of the month are usually booked.
Working from home as a safety net
If the company can work remotely, this is a big advantage during a move. A day or two of working from home can cover the stage when workstations are being moved, and Monday in the new office does not have to be perfect. It is enough for laptops, e-mail and the phone to work.
Moving a company without downtime is not a matter of luck but of the order of steps. Once you know what must not stop, the rest can be planned around it. How we prepare such a move is described on the company relocation page.
Planning a company move?
Tell us what is being moved and what must not stop. We will suggest stages and a date.
Related service: Company relocation