When you are tasked with managing an office move, it’s a complex – and high-profile – project that’s often added to your regular responsibilities. Pulling it off successfully starts with careful planning. When will the move occur? How can you minimize impact to employees and business productivity? What will it cost? Finding experienced office relocations professionals to help you answer these questions is your first important task.
Getting a realistic quote
Moving an office – whether a business, educational institution or medical office – entails a lot more than a personal move. You may be dealing with sensitive/costly equipment, dozens of employees, confidential files or items such as pharmaceuticals. Make sure your relocations expert has the experience necessary for your situation, as they will be able to anticipate the challenges and plan accordingly.
Office and industrial moves require a completely different set of tools and utensils for moving equipment, so it’s important to check that out as well. Do your movers have gondolas, carts, panel carts and security totes for confidential materials? Are they accustomed to working with security escorts, who are often required for sensitive and confidential contents?
If the overall estimate seems too good to be true, look carefully at the promised deliverables, and press for a firm quote before making a final decision.
Planning
Planning is the most critical aspect of any office move and is the key for minimizing the overall impact on your business. You’ll need ongoing communication with employees, who can be rattled by change. You need to coordinate IT for seamless changeover of computers and phones. And you need a system for moving offices that ensures they don’t get mixed up in the process.
Without proper planning, a move will quickly become stressful for employees and can have a real impact on your bottom line. You want to avoid extended downtime that can occur due to moving day damage to equipment or leased buildings, poor logistics with setting up your IT systems, or office materials shuffled into the wrong spaces.
Alison’s Relocations has a tried-and-true system to help you anticipate all these challenges and more: checklists, boxing and labeling strategies, preparatory meetings with your employees and other entities such as the IT group.
The move
If you’ve chosen the right relocation experts and invested in proper planning, the move itself should be smooth. You can still anticipate some “controlled chaos”, as movers, IT professionals and key personnel coordinate. However, experienced relocation professionals will guide you through the process and help troubleshoot any unexpected challenges.
Alison’s Relocations – experience, certification, and a stellar track record
On the Alison’s Relocations team, you’ll find Rick, Ben and Alison, the only Certified Office and Industrial Consultants (COIC) in Alaska. The rest of the team has a depth of experience as well, after handling moves across all sectors: from banks and prisons to schools, government agencies and hospitals. They’ve even moved election-day voting equipment and 50 trailer loads of geological samples (rocks).
One of Alison’s Relocations most recent contracts was for Wells Fargo, which needed to move approximately 150 employees and their items from building to building. Planning for this move took place over several months, with regular phone calls involving about 20 people. The project manager, who was located out of state, reports that the large relocation went off just as planned. Alison’s Relocations were “spot on” anticipating the needs after each walk-through, and the move went “extremely smoothly,” with no lost or damaged items and no damage to buildings. “Alison’s came through 100%,” the project manager reported. “The crew showed up on time, the move went according to schedule, everyone was on the same page due to proper project management, and I was consulted on moving day as part of the decision-making team. I’ve never worked with a mover I could trust as much as I could trust Alison’s Relocations. They are pros.”
Are you anticipating an office or industrial move? Give us a call to discuss your relocation needs.
