The new office IT checklist

Eight weeks out. Order the internet.

Business internet installs take two to six weeks and sometimes longer when a building needs new service. Order as soon as you have a lease. Ask where the handoff will land in the space, because that corner becomes the network closet. If two providers serve the building, ask both for a quote and an install date.

Six weeks out. Walk the space with a floor plan.

Mark where people sit, where the printer goes, where the front desk is, and which doors need a badge reader. Count the cameras you want and where they point. Wi-Fi access points go where people work, not next to the modem, so a walk-through beats a guess every time. This is the walk we do as part of the new location package.

Five weeks out. Cabling before the walls close.

Every access point, camera, door reader, printer, and desk that should be wired gets a cable run now. Running cable through finished walls later costs more and looks worse. All camera and door wiring is performed under a Georgia low-voltage license.

Four weeks out. Order the equipment.

Network gateway, switches with power over Ethernet for the cameras and access points, the access points themselves, cameras, a recorder, door readers, and any new computers. Lead times on business gear vary, and ordering late is the most common reason an office opens on a home router.

Three weeks out. Accounts and email.

If you are new, set up Microsoft 365 with a login for every person and two-step login on from day one. If you are moving, this is when the plan for moving email and files is written so nobody loses a message during the switch. Order any new phone numbers or port the existing ones.

Two weeks out. Install and test with nobody in the way.

Mount the access points, cameras, and readers, install the network, and test every cable. Configure the guest Wi-Fi, the camera network, and the staff network as separate networks. Set up the recorder and confirm each camera records. Program the first badges.

One week out. Computers and printers.

Set up or clean up each computer, join them to the new network, install the printer, and set the password manager. Confirm backups are running to the new setup.

Move-in day. Hand over and document.

Walk the owner through the camera app, the door app, and the Wi-Fi. Leave a one-page document listing every account, every piece of equipment, and who to call, with the passwords in the password manager rather than on the page. Shut down the old office in the right order so email keeps flowing.

The mistakes that cost a week

• Ordering internet after the move date is set.
• Letting the drywall close before the cable is run.
• Reusing the home router from the old office.
• Setting up email on move-in day instead of three weeks before.
• Mixing camera brands, which means two apps and two sets of problems.
• No record of the accounts and equipment, so the next person starts from zero.

Our new location package does all of this as one scheduled project, from $8,500 for the design, setup, the standard camera and door packages, and Microsoft 365 setup, with network hardware itemized at our cost and any additional network cabling quoted separately.