So you’re planning to start building an office. Before you get stuck in, there are a few things that you need to consider first… it’s the best way to make sure that you cover all of your bases.
If you do want to build your own workspace – answer these questions first:
- Is it for yourself or a large company
- Are you going to be storing confidential information
- Does your work rely on a solid Internet connection
- Are you going to be moving data from an existing office
Of course, there are thousands of questions that you could be asking yourself. Make sure that you take the time to consider all of the possibilities.
Our advice? Take a few days to really think about what your newly built office is going to need. If you’re sharing the new office space with a friend or business partner, make sure that you consult with them – are all of their needs going to be fulfilled?
Whatever your decision is – there are a number of crucial IT services that you’re going to need if you want everything to run like clockwork.
IT Solutions for Building an Office:
Hopefully, by now you’ve spent some time thinking about your new offices general requirements:
Your office design will include everything that you and any associates need to complete their everyday tasks and projects. However, its all well and good have matching desks, comfortable leather desk chairs and a state of the art designer filing cabinet… but how’re you going to complete your work?
If you’re building an office, then you’re going to need these 5 IT services without fail:
- VoIP Telephone System
- WiFi Installation
- Office Cabling Installation (Standard or Fibre)
- Server Room/Rack Space
- Data Migration
Getting the Right Telephone System:
Before we get into the nitty gritty of business telephone lines and the options available, let’s just clear one thing up to save you a lot of time:
If you’re building an office for occasional usage or a small home based business – then you’re not going to need a VoIP telephone system.
VoIP stands for “Voice Over Internet Protocol”.
To cut a long story short – it is an Internet-based telephone system that is best installed for large organisations with at least 6 individual desks with a telephone line.
You may have seen in movies and in larger offices where a receptionist takes a phone call and transfers the enquiry to the sales team 3 stories up and at the back of the office – this is a VoIP telephone system installation and makes taking enquiries and sales calls a lot easier.
A Stable Internet Connection:
Let’s face it; in 2017 a reliable Internet connection can be the difference between securing a sale and losing one.
For example, let’s say that you run a removals company in London and operate out of your newly constructed home office. A basic residential Wi-Fi installation simply isn’t going to be reliable. You need something that can handle a lot of usage and not drop out when you need it most.
As a company that offers removals, the level of competition in a location such as London is going to be high – you need to make sure that you’re able to take enquiries online, through social media or via your newly installed VoIP phone system without downtime (drop-outs).
There are many options available to you which makes finding an installer that much easier. Fibre optic Wi-Fi is obviously the best and fastest available, however, not every area in the UK is able to have it installed as its still being rolled out.
Getting the Right Office Cabling:
During your office design, deciding on the correct level of cabling is just as important as finding the right people to work within it.
Office cabling installations aren’t the same as residential installations.
They’re designed to collaborate with a number of IT applications and services to provide a reliable and secure network.
Of course; if you’re building an office for casual usage, you’re not going to need a full network cabling installation. These are generally for larger businesses and workspaces that transfer a lot of data from servers to multiple sources.
However, should you decide that you do need a cabling installer for your build; you have two main options – standard network cabling or fibre.
Standard cabling is usually good enough for the majority of smaller businesses. If you don’t have a particularly large amount of client information or business resources to store, then this would be a good option.
Fibre cabling installations on the other hand are better suited to large organisations with large volumes of staff that need to continuously access information on a server. Fibre cabling is able to transfer the information over larger distances faster.
Do You Need Rack Space?
Rack space, or server space is rarely used for small businesses. However, that doesn’t mean that you don’t need it. Whether you’re going to store client information on site in a secure server room or through a cloud-based system – getting the right system is imperative for your new office.
Server installations aren’t cheap, so consider them with a lot of thought.
Only have a physical server installed in your office if you 100% need it. If you’re a local MOT servicing centre – then you’re not going to need an on site server are you?
However a local marketing agency that hosts websites and stores online information for their clients may find that investing in a new server could be beneficial in the long term.
Transferring Existing Data and Business Information:
OK then, for argument’s sake, let’s assume that you’re building an office for an existing company that employs 50 members of staff and has a customer base that exceeds a couple of hundred.
You’re going to have information stored that needs to be kept available and secure. The best way to keep that information secure is through data migration.
For those of you that may not have heard of data migration before, let’s break it down:
Migration = transfer/to move.
Before you can get your newly constructed office operational, you’re going to need all of your existing client details. Data migration ensures that all of the existing information on an older server is safely stored and transferred to a new facility (your new office).
Of course, if you’re not a large business with physical on-site data storage, you’re not going to need this, but its good to know its available should you grow into a nationally recognised company.
