Guides & Checklists

Office move IT checklist: what to do 12, 8, 4 and 1 weeks before you relocate

A week-by-week IT checklist for an office move: connectivity lead times, cabling and Wi-Fi survey, hardware and cloud decisions, phones and serviced offices.

By Dig IT SolutionsUpdated 8 September 20267 min read

Short answer

Office move IT planning should start at least 12 weeks out, because connectivity is the long lead item: order a leased line or FTTP as soon as the address is confirmed. At 8 weeks, survey cabling and Wi-Fi. At 4 weeks, configure and test the network and phones. In the final week, back up, confirm and brief staff.

An office move tests every part of a business's IT at once. Equipment that has run for years without a restart is switched off, transported and expected to work in a building with different cabling, different Wi-Fi conditions and, quite possibly, no internet yet. Weaknesses that were invisible in the old office (undocumented networks, unverified backups, a firewall long out of support) appear on the first morning. This checklist, arranged by weeks before the move, is how Dig IT plans relocations for businesses of up to 250 people across Hertfordshire, west Essex and London, followed by the extra points that apply to serviced and shared offices.

Why moves expose hidden IT problems

Staff adapt to slow computers, patchy Wi-Fi and an unreliable shared drive until the workarounds feel normal. A move removes the familiarity. Common discoveries during relocations include servers on hardware that should have been retired, cabling with no labels and no diagram, software versions that differ from desk to desk, backups nobody has tested, passwords known to one person, and a phone system that cannot be moved. The checklist below is designed to surface those before they matter.

12 weeks out: connectivity and the plan

Connectivity is the item with the longest lead time, and the one most often ordered too late.

Confirm the address and check availability. Use the Openreach checker for FTTP and ask suppliers about leased line availability and any excess construction charges. Industrial units and older buildings in Hertfordshire and outer London often lack full fibre.
Order the connection now. A leased line typically takes two to three months, longer with new ducting. FTTP is usually a few weeks where fibre already serves the building. SoGEA is quick but limited to around 80Mbps. See leased line versus business broadband.
Order a failover connection (second FTTP or 4G/5G) at the same time. It also covers the gap if the primary line slips.
Assign an owner. One person inside the business and one at your IT provider, with a shared plan.
Inventory everything. Every device, its age and support status, every software licence and where it is tied to hardware, every supplier contract. This is an IT audit in miniature, and it drives the replace-or-move decisions.
Decide what stays behind. Servers past warranty, firewalls out of support, PCs that cannot run Windows 11, printers on expiring leases. A move is the cheapest time to retire them.

8 weeks out: survey, design and order

Cabling survey. Walk the new building with the engineer. Count desk positions, identify the comms cabinet location, check for power and ventilation, and test any existing cabling. Landlord fit-outs frequently leave Cat5e runs that fail certification. Plan new structured cabling where needed.
Wi-Fi survey. Building materials, partitions and layout determine access point count and placement. A heat-map survey avoids the dead zones that a guess produces. Wi-Fi 6 or 6E is the normal choice, with Wi-Fi 7 for dense or difficult buildings.
Network design. Firewall, switches (PoE for phones, access points and cameras), VLANs for staff, guest, voice and CCTV, and any site-to-site links to other offices.
Cloud decisions. If a file server is being retired, plan the move to SharePoint now, with library structure and permissions designed rather than copied. See SharePoint and Teams setup.
Phones. If you are still on analogue lines or an on-site PBX, port the numbers to a cloud system such as 8x8. The PSTN switch-off in January 2027 means the old lines will not survive long anyway. Ofcom's guidance is at ofcom.org.uk.
Order hardware. Firewall, switches, access points, replacement PCs, UPS, cabinet. Allow for supply lead times.
Physical security. Locked comms cabinet, door entry, and CCTV. UniFi Protect cameras can share the network infrastructure. See CCTV and physical security.
Notify suppliers. Software vendors whose licences are tied to location or hardware, the printer lease company, and any hosted services with IP restrictions.

4 weeks out: build and test

Configure the new network off site. Firewall rules, VLANs, Wi-Fi, VPN and monitoring set up and tested before anything is installed.
Install cabling and the cabinet as soon as the building allows, ahead of furniture.
Confirm the internet order. Chase the provider for an install date and engineer visit. Test the failover connection.
Test the phone system from the old office: inbound, outbound, queues, voicemail.
Verify backups with a test restore. Not a green tick in a console, an actual restore of a server or a file set. Moving a server or NAS without a verified backup is the most avoidable data-loss risk in a move.
Prepare devices. Update, clean up and label every PC. Configure replacements with the standard build.
Document. A network diagram, an IP plan, admin credentials in a password manager and a port-to-desk map for the new office. Most old offices never had these.
Brief staff. What changes, what to pack, how to report problems, and the expectation that personal drives and local files must be moved to SharePoint or OneDrive before the move.

1 week out: confirm and freeze

Internet live and tested at the new site, including failover. If the primary line has slipped, the failover carries the first weeks.
Install and test the network. Every desk port, every access point, printers, scan-to-email, meeting-room screens, door entry and cameras.
Final backup of anything being physically moved, verified.
Change freeze. No new software, no configuration changes, no new starters set up that week.
Move-day plan. Order of shutdown, transport arrangements for servers and NAS (padded, upright, in a car not a van), who reconnects what, and the engineer's schedule.
Confirm with removals which items are IT-managed and which they may handle.

Move day and the first week

On the day, an engineer shuts down and packs servers and network kit last from the old site, installs and powers up first at the new one, and runs the test checklist before staff arrive: internet, Wi-Fi, phones, printers, shared files, VPN. Staff arrive to a working office, or to a clear list of what is not yet working and when it will be.

There is also an administrative list that IT usually ends up owning: update the registered address with your domain registrar, Microsoft 365 tenant and every hosted service, change the emergency location on the VoIP system so 999 calls report the new address, update email signatures, the website, Google Business Profile and invoice templates, and confirm that any IP-restricted client or supplier portals accept the new connection.

For the first week, keep an engineer available on site or on short notice. The problems that appear are small and numerous: a monitor at the wrong desk, a printer default, a meeting room adapter. Fixed quickly, they are forgotten. Left, they become the story of the move. Reinstate the change freeze exemption once the environment has been stable for a few days, and update the documentation with anything that changed on the day.

Moving into a serviced or shared office

Shared offices remove some of the above (the building provides an internet connection, Wi-Fi and meeting-room screens) and add a set of issues that businesses regularly underestimate.

Responsibility. The operator maintains the building infrastructure. Your computers, Microsoft 365, security, backups, printers, licences and user support remain yours. Clarify in writing what is provided, what is shared and what you may install.

Shared bandwidth. The building's connection is divided among every tenant. At busy times, cloud applications, video calls and VoIP suffer. Ask for the connection size, contention and whether a dedicated line or your own FTTP can be installed to your suite.

Shared Wi-Fi. Building-wide wireless serving dozens of companies is congested and, unless properly segmented, not private. Businesses handling client data should run their own firewall and VLAN behind the building connection, and ideally their own access points in their space.

Security and privacy. Higher foot traffic, shared printers and open meeting rooms all need addressing: secure print release, privacy screens, device locks and a clear-desk habit. Compliance obligations under UK GDPR and any Cyber Essentials certification stay with the business, not the operator.

Printers, VoIP and meeting rooms. Confirm that your printer can join the network with a static address, test VoIP call quality on the building connection before committing, and check that meeting-room screens work with your laptops without a bag of adapters.

Servers. Serviced offices rarely have a suitable server room. A move into one is usually the moment to retire on-site servers in favour of Microsoft 365 and cloud hosting, with a NAS for local backup if needed.

Growth. If the shared office is a stepping stone, choose connectivity and phones that come with you when you leave.

What to do next

If a move is planned within the next six months, the connectivity order and the inventory are the two things to start this week. Dig IT's office move IT service covers the whole checklist above, from the availability check to the first week in the new building. Talk to an engineer about your dates.

Frequently asked questions

How far in advance should IT planning start for an office move?

Twelve weeks is the practical minimum, and longer if a leased line is needed. Leased line installations commonly take two to three months in Hertfordshire and London, and longer where new ducting is required. Openreach FTTP is faster where it already reaches the building, typically a few weeks. Everything else in the move can be done in four to six weeks. Internet cannot.

What is the biggest IT risk during an office move?

Arriving with no working internet. It stops email, cloud applications, VoIP phones and card payments at once, and it is the risk most often caused by ordering connectivity late. The second is data loss from moving servers and NAS devices without a verified backup. Both are avoidable with an early order and a test restore before the move.

Should we replace old equipment when we move?

Usually some of it. A move is the cheapest time to retire an unsupported firewall, an old switch or a server that is out of warranty, because the new site needs installing anyway. It is also when hard drives and power supplies that have run for years without a restart tend to fail. Anything that cannot run Windows 11 should not be moved.

Do serviced offices provide IT support?

No. The operator provides the building infrastructure: an internet connection, shared Wi-Fi and meeting-room screens. Your computers, Microsoft 365, security, backups, printers and user support remain your responsibility, and the shared network is often unsuitable for business use without your own firewall and VLAN behind it. Confirm what is included and what is shared before signing.

Can we keep our phone numbers when we move?

With a cloud VoIP system, yes, and nothing changes: the handsets and the app work wherever there is internet. If you still have analogue lines or an on-site PBX, the move is the moment to port the numbers to a cloud system, not least because the PSTN switch-off in January 2027 will end the old lines anyway.

What should be tested before staff arrive at the new office?

Internet speed and failover, every desk port, Wi-Fi coverage in every room, printers and scan-to-email, the phone system inbound and outbound, VPN or site-to-site links, meeting-room equipment, door entry and CCTV, and a test restore from backup. A checklist signed off by the engineer the day before the move is the standard practice.