How to Keep Your Business Going While Moving Your Office

There are many reasons why moving an entire business to a new location isn’t at the top of anyone’s list of favourite hobbies. It costs time and money. It requires boxes, packing tape, and a significant amount of elbow grease. According to research cited by the Business Relocation Resource Center, the average business relocation entails an extra 2,800 hours of time just to manage moving related tasks. That works out to well over one full year of work weeks!

Businesses of all sizes can face relocation at some point, but this doesn’t have to be looked at as a significant challenge. There are ways to move your business with as little disruption and downtime as possible for your staff, customers and partners.

Here are some tips to help you transfer your IT systems and services as smoothly as possible during your big office move:

Go mobile
– Arm your staff with laptops and other mobile devices so they can perform all their regular business duties and communicate freely from any location during the move.

–  Don’t forget to sync your email, calendars and contacts from your PCs to your mobile devices; many of today’s cloud-based services, like Office 365, automatically sync these for you.

– Use cloud-based services and apps to make working outside the office easier (there’s more on this below).

Embrace the cloud
Cloud-based services and applications can boost productivity well beyond your moving date; in a 2012 IDG Research survey, 48 per cent of companies using cloud-based applications reported higher employee productivity after adoption. If you’re looking to increase employee productivity, consider:

– Utilizing cloud-based services to help your workers create, share, access and collaborate on documents from any Internet-enabled location during your move – and thereafter. You can also use cloud-based services for other business functions like accounting, invoicing and customer relationship management (CRM) to cut down on the need for staff to tap into any on-site software and databases at your office (which you will, of course, be moving).

– Using the cloud to store and backup your business data off-site before you move; it’s safer and easier than transferring a large volume of data to discs and external hard drives which could get lost, stolen or damaged in transit.

Tap into expert resources
Sure, you could spend hours researching various IT upgrade options, sending out change of address notices and figuring out how to prepare your e-mail system for the big move. Or you could simply consult the major service providers and other experts at your disposal. Bell has many resources to help your business move, especially to seamlessly transfer your company’s phone and Internet service. And Canada Post’s online change of address service also makes it easy to notify your clients, suppliers, utility providers and partners of your new location.

The bottom line
Moving to a new office is actually a great opportunity to upgrade to newer technologies and cloud-based services that can make your business more productive and cost-efficient. Although this takes time and effort, it can ultimately save your company valuable time and money long after you relocate.

What tip or technology tool was most helpful when you moved your business? What tiny but important detail would you remind other businesses not to forget in the midst of such a massive undertaking? Share your thoughts in our comments area below.