An office move is the one time everything has to work at once: internet, Wi-Fi, laptops, phones, printers, meeting rooms and the systems your business runs on, on a fixed date, without stopping the business. Most problems on day one come from things that were ordered too late or never tested.
This checklist follows the order we use when we plan office IT relocations and new office setups in Hong Kong. Timings depend on the size of the office; start as early as you can.
As soon as you have signed the lease
- Name one person to own the IT side of the move, and agree how they work with your fit-out contractor, movers and building management.
- Visit the new space with your IT provider. Where will the server or comms cabinet go? Is there enough power and cooling? Where do the desks, screens, meeting rooms and printers go?
- List what moves and what is new: servers, network equipment, desktops, phones, AV. It is a good moment to replace equipment near the end of its life rather than move it.
- Order the internet lines now. New lines can take several weeks to install, sometimes longer in a new building. For a business that cannot stop, order two lines from different providers, so one can take over if the other fails.
- Order any specialist lines early too. If you use market data or trading connections, the providers have their own installation lead times. Ask them first.
- Ask building management about the rules: riser and cable routes between floors, after-hours work permits, loading bay bookings, and any rules for work in the ceiling or floor.
Two to three months before the move
- Design the cabling and network: data points per desk with spares, Wi-Fi coverage, separate networks for staff, guests and devices such as printers and cameras.
- Plan the server room or comms cabinet: racks, power (a UPS for clean power and a short battery backup), cooling, and a lock and access control.
- Decide what moves to the cloud. A move is a good time to move file servers, phones or backups to Microsoft 365, Azure or AWS, so there is less to carry and less to fail.
- Plan phones: keep your numbers, decide on desk or mobile phones, and whether call recording is needed. Recording can now run in the cloud, with no recording equipment in the office.
- Plan meeting rooms: screens, cameras and microphones for Teams or Zoom.
- Plan security: CCTV and card or biometric access for the office and the server room.
- If your firm is licensed by the SFC, ask your compliance team whether the move affects where regulatory records are kept: under section 130 of the Securities and Futures Ordinance, a licensed corporation needs the SFC's prior written approval for premises used to keep records (see our SFC guide).
Four to six weeks before
- Cabling installed, tested and labelled, before the ceilings and floors are closed.
- Network equipment and firewalls installed and configured, Wi-Fi tested across the floor.
- Internet lines installed and tested, including switching from one line to the other.
- New equipment delivered, set up and labelled for each desk.
- A written move plan with times: what is switched off when, who packs what, what is reconnected first, and how you go back if something fails.
Move week
- Check that backups are complete and that a test restore works before anything is switched off.
- Tell staff what to expect: when to log off, what to pack themselves, what will be on their desk on day one, and who to call.
- Shut down in the agreed order, and pack servers and network equipment with care; label every cable.
- Reinstall in the planned order: firewall and network, servers, then desks, phones, printers and meeting rooms.
- Test every desk before people arrive: sign-in, email, files, printing, phones and any specialist systems.
Day one and the first week
- Have engineers on site, walking the floor to fix problems on the spot, and keep a list of every issue until it is closed.
- Check the things that are easy to miss: printers and scanners, meeting room screens, door access cards, Wi-Fi in every corner, and the phone numbers on your website and email signatures.
- Update your IT records: the asset inventory, network diagrams and the list of who has access to what.
After the move
- Clear the old office properly: wipe or destroy disks in equipment you no longer need, return providers' routers, cancel old lines and keep the confirmations.
- Review what went well, and keep the plan for next time.
How Dual Layer IT can help
We have set up and moved offices and trading floors in Hong Kong for over 20 years, working alongside fit-out contractors and movers, so you deal with one team for the IT. We plan the move, build the network and security, move or replace the equipment, and support your staff after the move. See New Office IT Setup, or, for regulated firms, IT support for financial firms.
