Keeping 70 people connected during a transition to a new office is no easy task, but planning kept the employees of Marcus Thomas in touch with clients and technology during an office move.
In December 2001, Joe Blaha and his partners at the marketing communications firm knew they had nine months until they moved into their new office. But they also knew that only careful planning would ensure the phones and data systems were in place when employees arrived in September 2002.
The first step was deciding what was needed.
“We looked at what technology we have and what we could improve on,” says Blaha, the company’s CFO. “We asked ourselves, ‘What are our business needs, our client needs, our vendor needs and our employee needs that aren’t being met by the technology we have in place?’ That led to the decision that now was a time to go with videoconferencing. It’s something that had been on our plate for three to four years, but moving into a new space was now a good time to do it.”
After talking to a consultant, the company also decided to upgrade its phone system before moving, because it was easier to move an existing system than to install a new one because it was changing to a different type of system. The company also decided a single T3 connection to the Internet wasn’t cost-effective, but two T1 lines were — one for videoconferencing, the rest for more routine data needs.
To handle emerging technology needs and keep maintenance easy, wires were run through troughs on top of the office walls.
“The IT consultant helped us put together a timeline that takes us from December to September, and in the process, bullet-pointed some key planning matters and marked some important dates on when we should order phone lines, find Internet service providers and put out bids for hardwires,” says Blaha. “We knew we needed to identify companies that would be providing basic phone service early in the game. Typically, to get phone and data service installed, you’ll want to give 45 days notice based on the backlog of installations.”
The order was placed in March for a May installation (which got moved to June), and by July, the connectivity was in place and being tested.
“The second biggest component besides getting all the lines up was figuring out who’s going to do the hardwire,” says Blaha. “In the construction project, it was only the cabling contract that wasn’t covered.”
The cabling installer was selected in June, giving him more than two months to get familiar with the project before the installation took place. But even with this much lead time, things can go wrong.
“One of the lessons learned was that the communication between the contractor and the telecom contractor could have been better,” says Blaha. “The telecom contractor should be kept intimately involved. We lost four working days that put us behind the curve because of miscommunication.”
Blaha also recommends building in a week at the end of the project prior to occupancy for testing and debugging of the phone and computer systems.
“Make sure your internal IT folks are workhorses and grasp the vision of what you are trying to accomplish,” says Blaha. “If they get that, they won’t mind as much about working 16 hours a day, seven days in a row to get everything ready.”
Blaha says the list the consultant provided at the beginning of the process proved invaluable.
“I probably referred to it three times a week over the last four months,” he says. “The basic to-dos in execution didn’t change from the original document. You have to have the challenges identified up front.”
Even though Blaha says he doesn’t understand some of the more technical tasks on the lists, he knew he needed to be checking with the people who did understand them to be sure they were done on time.
“Expect problems along the way,” says Blaha. “Expect that time will get crunched at the end as occupancy is approaching. Some tasks require a lot of time, so try to build in extra time in your plan to accommodate the unexpected, because the unexpected will happen.” How to reach: Marcus Thomas, (216) 292-4700
