Moving your business to a new location can be based on wanting to give it more visibility, reduce overhead, get closer to your customers, or even moving closer to your home. Whatever your reason, you want as little interruption of your business operation as possible. Creating a plan for your move is the best way to make sure it’s fast and efficient.
Since communication is one of the most important elements in your business operation, we’ve put together a list of issues you’ll want to address in relation to moving your telecom system.
- List your current telecom needs (seats, features, bandwidth, etc.) and what elements might be needed as your business grows.
- Determine what type of telecom system you will use in your new location: a hosted PBX, an on-premise VoIP or customer premise equipment (CPE)?
- Evaluate the condition and capabilities of existing equipment and whether new equipment is needed.
- Select the vendor to provide the service and/or equipment.
- Add up the cost of setup and ongoing telecom costs.
- Understand how long it will take to get your system up and running in the new location.
- Meet with employees and managers
- Evaluate what is being used and not used on the current telecom system for voice, mobile, and data.
- Ask for a wish list of features and capabilities they think might help make their jobs more efficient and productive.
- List the necessary features and capabilities
- Be sure to consider future growth plans in terms of additional seats, bandwidth, features, costs, etc.
- Decide which telecom option you will use in the new location
- Discuss with your telecom provider the capabilities of a hosted PBX vs. an on-premise system (Insights has discussed the advantages of each in previous articles).
- Continue with your current provider or select a new telecom provider
- List equipment that can be moved and re-used based on the type of telecom system you plan to use at your new location.
- If an on-premise VoIP system or CPE is the choice, establish where in the new facility the servers or PBX equipment can be housed
- Evaluate what is being used and not used on the current telecom system for voice, mobile, and data.
- Ask for a wish list of features and capabilities they think might help make their jobs more efficient and productive.
- Coordinate with your telecom provider to build a timeline for the installation and testing process
- Be sure to consider future growth plans in terms of additional seats, bandwidth, features, costs, etc.
- Assign one or more employees to handle or oversee each aspect of the installation
With all of these issues resolved and noted in advance of the move, it’s possible to reduce the downtime your business will experience and keep operational losses to a minimum.