Moving office is stressful. Moving your IT infrastructure — servers, workstations, networks, phone systems, printers — without losing a day of productivity is a different kind of challenge entirely. Furniture can survive a bumpy van ride. Your server cannot.
We've handled IT relocations across London for years, and the pattern is always the same: the businesses that plan properly are back up and running on Monday morning. The businesses that wing it lose days. Sometimes a week. Sometimes data.
This is the checklist we use for every London office relocation. It's opinionated — the timelines are based on what actually works, not what sounds reasonable on paper.
12 weeks before the move
Start with connectivity (this is the longest lead item)
This catches people out more than anything else. Ordering a new broadband connection is not like ordering a desk. In London, fibre installation through Openreach can take anywhere from six weeks to nine months, depending on the building, the exchange, and whether the infrastructure already exists.
If you leave this until four weeks before the move, you will not have internet on day one. That's not a warning — it's a near-certainty.
- Check whether the new site has fibre broadband installed. Ask the building management. Ask the previous tenant. Check Openreach's availability checker online.
- If it doesn't, order it immediately. Nine months is not an exaggeration for some London postcodes, particularly in older buildings that haven't been connected to full fibre.
- Arrange 4G/5G failover for move day and the interim period. Even if your fibre order is on track, have a mobile broadband backup. Installations get delayed. Engineers cancel. Weather happens. A £40/month 5G router can save you from a week without internet.
- Contact your current ISP about contract transfer or termination. Check early exit fees. Some providers will transfer the contract to your new address; others won't.
- Verify the new building's riser and comms room access. In multi-tenant London buildings, the riser (the vertical duct carrying cables between floors) and the comms room may be shared or locked. You need access arrangements before move day, not on move day.
Audit everything
You need a complete picture of what you're moving. This sounds tedious because it is. But discovering that a critical switch was left behind at the old office is worse.
- Document every piece of IT equipment — serial numbers, locations, current configurations. A spreadsheet is fine. A photo of each setup is better.
- Photograph your server room and comms cabinet from multiple angles. When you're rebuilding at the new site, these photos save hours.
- Map your current network topology. What connects to what. Where the switches are. Where the access points are. How the firewall is configured.
- List all cloud services and their dependencies. Some services are location-agnostic. Others have IP-based licensing, location-specific configurations, or VPN tunnels that need reconfiguring for a new IP address.
- Check equipment warranties and service contracts. Some manufacturers void warranties if equipment is moved without authorisation or proper packaging. Some service contracts have relocation clauses. Check before you move, not after.
Plan the new layout
- Create a desk map. Who sits where, what equipment goes at each desk, how many power and data points each position needs.
- Plan cable runs. Power, data, and phone cabling for the new layout. If the new office needs structured cabling installed, that's another lead-time item — book a cabling contractor now.
- Decide what stays, what gets replaced, and what gets decommissioned. A move is a natural moment to upgrade old equipment. If a printer is on its last legs, replace it rather than paying to move it.
- Book an IT relocation company if you're not handling transport in-house. Specialist IT movers use air-ride vehicles and anti-static packaging. A general removal company does not.
- Check your insurance. Does your policy cover equipment in transit? If not, arrange additional cover. A server dropped in a stairwell is an expensive lesson.
4 weeks before the move
- Confirm the new site's connectivity is live — or that your failover is in place and tested.
- Order any new equipment needed for the new office. Factor in delivery lead times.
- Pre-configure equipment that can be set up in advance. New switches, access points, and workstations can all be configured before move day.
- Communicate the IT move plan to all staff. Tell them what's happening, when, and what they need to do (shut down laptops, disconnect peripherals, pack personal items).
- Schedule the move for a Friday evening or weekend. This gives you the weekend to set up, test, and troubleshoot before staff arrive on Monday. Moves that happen on a Wednesday inevitably cost the business two days of productivity.
- Set up a labelling system. Every cable, every device, every box gets a label with its destination desk or room number. This is boring and essential.
1 week before the move
- Run a full backup of all servers and critical data. If something goes wrong during transport, this is your safety net.
- Test the backup by restoring a sample file. A backup you haven't tested is an assumption, not a backup.
- Confirm transport arrangements. Air-ride vehicle booked. Anti-static packaging ready. Insurance confirmed.
- Pre-install network infrastructure at the new site if possible — switches, access points, patch panels, structured cabling. The less you have to do on move day, the smoother it goes.
- Distribute final packing instructions to staff. Laptops shut down and packed. Monitors disconnected. Personal peripherals in labelled bags.
Move day
This is where the planning pays off — or doesn't.
Disconnect in reverse order. Peripherals first, then workstations, then network equipment, then servers last. Servers should be the last things to leave the old site and the first things set up at the new site.
Label everything. If it wasn't labelled during the week, label it now. Every cable, every power adapter, every monitor. It all looks identical once it's in a box.
Transport with care. Servers and switches need anti-static packaging and a vehicle with air suspension. Hard drives don't survive rough handling. If you're using a general van, wrap equipment in anti-static bags and pad everything heavily.
Set up in order. At the new site: comms cabinet first. Then network switches and routers. Then WiFi access points. Then workstations per the desk map. Then printers. Then test everything.
Test everything before you leave. Every workstation should boot, connect to the network, access the internet, reach cloud services, and connect to printers. Every phone should ring. Every meeting room should have working video conferencing. Leave nothing untested.
Day one (staff arrive)
- Have an IT technician on site for the full day. Not available by phone. On site. Problems surface when real people use the systems under real conditions.
- Run a quick orientation. Where the printers are. How the WiFi works. If anything has changed from the old office, tell people before they discover it themselves.
- Test video conferencing in every meeting room. This is the thing most likely to have an issue — displays, cameras, room audio, network bandwidth under load.
- Verify phone system routing. VoIP calls, DDI numbers, hunt groups. Make actual test calls.
- Monitor network performance under real load. The network worked fine when you tested it alone on Saturday. It might behave differently with 30 people streaming, calling, and downloading simultaneously.
First week after the move
- Resolve remaining issues as they surface. Keep a running log. Some problems only appear after a few days of use.
- Update your company records. Website address, Google Business profile, client contracts, letterhead, business cards, insurance policies.
- Update DNS records if your IP address has changed.
- Notify vendors and ISPs of the new address.
- Create updated network documentation for the new site. Your future self will thank you.
- Decommission the old site. Return keys. Cancel utilities. Remove any remaining equipment. Confirm the lease obligations are met.
London-specific things that catch people out
Building access restrictions. Many London office buildings require advance booking for goods lifts and loading bays — sometimes weeks in advance. Check with building management at both sites.
Congestion charge. If you're moving during charging hours (Monday to Friday 7am-6pm, and Monday to Sunday 12pm-6pm in the central zone), factor this into transport costs. Multiple trips add up.
Parking and loading bays. You may need a temporary parking permit for the moving vehicle. Check with the local council — Westminster, Camden, and the City of London each have different processes and lead times.
Fibre availability varies wildly by postcode. A building in Shoreditch might have full fibre from three providers. A building half a mile away might be stuck on FTTC. Check availability early and with multiple providers — Openreach, Virgin Media, and alternative networks like Community Fibre or Hyperoptic.
The cost of getting it wrong
A botched IT relocation doesn't just mean a day without email. It means staff sitting idle. Client calls going unanswered. Deadlines missed. Data potentially lost. For a 20-person business, one day of downtime costs significantly more than doing the relocation properly in the first place.
Plan it, resource it, test it. And if it's not something your team has done before, bring in people who have.