Tips on moving and how cloud applications can help

1. www.unityconnected.com © Unity Connected Solutions

2. + Evaluate Your
Equipment
+ Take an Inventory
+ Network Access
Considerations
+ Where will it be
mounted
+ Site Preparation
+ Other
Considerations
+ How Cloud can
Simplify Your
Move
+ Available
Collateral
TABLE OF CONTENTS
+ Create a timeline
+ Don’t assume
anything
+ What to watch
+ Store everything
(in the Cloud)
​Plan in Advance ​Evaluate Your
Equipment
​Advanced
Capabilities
​Cloud: Simplify
Your Move
01 02 03 04INTRO
Pages 17-19Pages 14-16Pages 9-13Pages 4–8Page 3

3. INTRODUCTION
Moving your business can be a traumatic experience
​Moving your business can be a traumatic
experience at the best of times and it
would be easy to overlook something.
​Creating a checklist is the best way to
ensure that the key items are handled with
enough time to spare.
​In some cases, people may not be aware
of just how much lead time another
company needs, like your telephone
service provider, to bring in lines to your
new office or transfer your telephone
numbers.
​Advanced planning is critical!
​This checklist will provide some help in
ensuring it all goes smoothly.
​As a bonus, we also point out where
cloud tools may be able to help and
highlight these in green.
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4. 4© Duarte, Inc. 2014
Plan in Advance
01
+ Create a timeline plan
+ Don’t assume anything
+ What to watch
+ Store everything (in the Cloud)

5. CREATE A TIMELINE OF WHEN THINGS NEED TO BE DONE
​Moving office is a project all by itself. Most
people don’t manage major projects on a
daily basis, so are not used to using
formal project management tools.
​But there are a number of cloud based
tools that are free or available for a small
fee that might be useful.
​Most of these tools offer the ability to
connect your team together and update
each other and may be worth
investigating.
​Note: Online or cloud based tools will
be accessible even when your systems
are turned off during the move.
​At a minimum, set up a calendar
specifically for move related tasks. Again,
if you want to make it easily accessible set
up a Google Calendar.
Things can creep up on you as you try and get your ‘day job’ done and manage
your office move. Use a calendar or project management software for tracking
Sample Cloud Tools
Zoho
Basecamp
Milestone Planner
Planbox
Smartsheet
Trello
Evernote
Google Docs
Google Calendar
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6. DON’T ASSUME: WORK OUT YOUR LONGEST LEAD TIME ITEMS!
​You may be an agile, fast
moving company (no pun
intended) but your suppliers
may not be…
​You won’t know how fast your suppliers
can move until you call up and find out.
And past experience may not always be
valid. For example, the Telephone
company may have been able to install
your telephone lines in a few weeks in
your current location, but the new location
may be new, and the street infrastructure
may not be in place or the building is very
old and the cables are maxed out. You
won’t know until you call.
​Call well in advance to be sure
​Now you have your move calendar or
project planning tool in place, mark down
those items and determine your worst case
timeline. These items will need extra
attention to ensure it all goes smoothly.
​In addition, some items may be dependent
on another being completed first. Project
management tools let you indicate this
and can show you how that affects your
overall timeline. Two or three items that
depend on each other can become your
longest timeline - your ‘critical path.’
​One of these dependencies may be the
landlord of the new office, impacting when
you can access the facilities for any
leasehold improvements or for IT
requirements like cabling, racking or
additional power outlets.
​Also plan for contingencies in case things
don’t go well.
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7. THINGS TO WATCH
​Call Carriers well in advance
​Carriers or service providers need a lot of
lead time. They often quote 6 to 8 weeks
for any work, so you might want to give
yourself a couple of weeks on top and call
them 10 weeks in advance to make sure
you have your telephone and internet line
orders in place
​Negotiating time?
​We all know how carriers like to keep you
as a customer and moving is a great time
to renegotiate any existing contract,
especially as pricing has tended to fall for
basic, commodity services. Plus, at your
new location, you may be changing
quantities or bandwidth.
​After the move you have lost your
leverage.
Its your move, so you need to manage it
​Get the cables tested
​A lot can get miscommunicated during a
move. Drawings are not always clear and
the person you talked to may not be the
person installing the cabling. So make
sure that the cabling company properly
labels all the cables and tests them. You
don’t want to be chasing the wrong
problem and may not know where the
problem really is when plugging
equipment in. So get it tested beforehand.
​They have test devices that can do this
and even provide you a printout as proof.
​Get it in writing
​You are going to have many people
involved in your move, and you need to
keep it in writing. To keep things honest.
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8. STORE EVERYTHING – JUST IN CASE
​ Create a move binder
​Apart from getting things in writing, go one
step further and keep a record in a binder.
​Include all your contacts, any Logins,
passwords – things that are easy to forget
or your computer ‘remembers’ for you. It
may have been a while since you last
entered them directly and it is too easy to
forget. Even more so in the hustle and
bustle of the move, especially if something
isn’t going to plan.
​With mobile devices like a smart phone or
tablet, it may not be a binder but an app.
​Consider Cloud Storage
​Even better, consider loading files on a
cloud storage account like Dropbox and
passwords in a secure cloud storage tool
like LastPass.
​
You may need to track a
lot of information for
your move, and your
network may not be up
straight away. Cloud
storage can help…
accessed via a smart
phone or tablet
Cloud Storage Tools
Dropbox
Google Drive
Box
Microsoft OneDrive
Apple iCloud
www.unityconnected.com
Cloud Password Storage
RoboForm Everywhere
LastPass
Dashlane
Passpack Pro
Sticky Password

9. 9© Duarte, Inc. 2014
Evaluate your
Equipment
02
+ Evaluate Your Equipment
+ Inventory Your Existing Equipment
+ Network Access Considerations
+ Where Will Your IT Be Mounted?

10. EVALUATE YOUR EQUIPMENT
​So now is the time to take a look at your
technology requirements. Turning systems
down, relocating and then booting them
back up can cause problems. Especially if
very old equipment.
​Perhaps it was not working as fast as you
wanted, or you were running out of ports
and you needed to add more. Whatever it
may be, this is the best time to think hard
about upgrading because it could simplify
your move.
​Instead of moving all your IT, your new
equipment could be set up ready for when
you arrive, reducing any disruption to your
business and, even more so, to your
customers.
​Two things that are worth considering are
leasing and cloud.
This is the perfect time to take stock of your IT equipment.
Don’t move what doesn’t need moving
 Can I negotiate a good price
for replacement equipment?
 If under lease, the leasing
company may offer
attractive trade-up pricing to
stick with them
 If not under lease, consider
one as a way to flatten the
CAPEX
 Consider a cloud based
solution. It can reduce
the onsite equipment,
racking, power
requirements and more.
​Leasing
​Leasing can offer an attractive way to
upgrade or replace your current
technology and spread those costs out.
They can also provide a favorable residual
value which means you are only leasing a
part of the overall cost. For items that
change frequently like servers, this can
offset costs.
​Cloud
​There are several ways cloud based
solutions can help. One, they are priced
per month, so reducing up front
investment. Someone else worries about
the core equipment – storage, updates,
maintenance, and so on. Before thinking
about building out rack space in your new
office, you may need a lot less if
considering Cloud.
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11. INVENTORY YOUR EXISTING EQUIPMENT
​As part of the evaluation process it makes
sense to take stock and inventory
everything if you haven’t already done so.
​This should include the type of equipment,
when first installed, if any maintenance
agreement is in place, and any
outstanding lease or payments on it.
​It should also include any licenses, as a lot
of software today is licensed and those
license codes will be necessary if
transferring over to a new desktop, laptop
or server.
​This would be the time to create a flag
indicating whether the equipment might
need to be replaced. Perhaps using a
High/Medium/Low and the possible cost of
any replacement items.
​You can sort the spreadsheet and see the
possible cost.
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12. NETWORK ACCESS CONSIDERATIONS
​Depending on what decisions you make
regarding equipment, it will impact your
network access.
​Earlier we mentioned that it can often take
your network provider 6 to 8 weeks to
process any order for your new location.
And that you should call them at least 10
weeks out.
​But that also assumes you know what you
want, and that may change depending on
your choices.
​For example, if you decided to use a
Cloud Telephone System, then you will
want to increase the bandwidth of your
Internet connection, as your phone ‘calls’
will now be coming to you via your Internet
connection. And you may want to up your
speed.
This is the perfect time to take stock of your IT equipment.
Don’t move what doesn’t need moving
 Can I use new services like
SIP Trunks or Cloud
Telephony?
 If I do, how much more
Internet capacity will I need?
 Can my service provider at
the new location provide that
level of connectivity?
​Also consider that there are always new
telecom solutions. Your existing system
may not be able to take advantage but a
newer one might.
​SIP Trunking
​SIP Trunks are relatively new and can
save you from 30% to 60% over your
existing phone bill from the Telco. They
use your existing Internet connection too.
And you may need to verify availability.
But something worth considering.
​Even if going with the same equipment, an
adaptor can be used to connect up to SIP
Trunks.
​But given the cost savings and flexibility, it
is worth considering both Cloud and SIP.
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13. WHERE WILL YOUR IT BE MOUNTED?
​It is the rare company that hasn’t let their
IT equipment become a bit of a mess to
manage.
Some equipment is mounted on the wall,
some are in a rack or partial rack that is
mounted to the wall.
Power supplies, adaptors, pieces of
equipment from Service Providers. And
some of it is hard wired and some of it
connected by patch cords.
Labels may be old and don’t match reality,
as people and devices have moved
around over time.
After inventorying everything and making
decisions on what will and won’t move,
consider placing everything on a proper
rack in a proper space to support all of this
critical infrastructure to run your business.
​19” racks are the most common ‘footprint’
for technology. Most equipment comes
ready to mount in a 19” rack or is easily
modified to do this.
​It makes it easier to label and maintain
equipment.
​If you are going to use a UPS or
Uninterruptible Power Supply – and you
should – buy a single UPS sized to
support everything and rack mount it.
​UPS
​Besides being a back up for critical
technology of the power fails, it also
provides protection for power spikes or
brownouts or other more common power
issues that degrade technology reliability.
Get on if you don’t already have one!
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14. 14© Duarte, Inc. 2014
Site Visit & Prep
03
+ Advanced Capabilities
+ Advanced Notification
+ Advanced Reporting
+ Mass Notification

15. SITE VISIT PREPARATION
​Its important to get the most
out of any site visit as you
may not get too many and you
need to prep your suppliers as
early as possible
​If the space you are moving into is already
occupied or under construction, you may
not get too many chances to access.
Besides, given the lead times needed by
some of your suppliers, you want to be
precise regarding your requirements as
early in the project as possible.
​So a planning for the site visit is important.
​The table on the right lists a few things but
clearly there are many more items to
consider like flooring (non static flooring
where the rack or equipment will be
located.)
​One of the things most often missed are
the number of power outlets required.
Especially where you may place a few
items like copiers, printers, and more.
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Site Visit Checklist
Current floor plan
Various markers to indicate phone
jacks, data jacks, power outlest or other
important item locations
Sizes of your current equipment or
equipment you are going to buy. So you
can make sure enough space.
Where will printers, copiers go? Jacks
and outlets needed?
Where does the network provider
phone and internet access come in?
Do you have to cable to your rack?
Will the total equipment produce
sufficient heat to require cooling
and/or ventilation?
If installing door security, where will it
go? Will it need cabling?

16. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
•Do you have a packing schedule? What
can be packed in advance so its not always
done on the last day.
•Have you created packaging labelling
guidelines? Makes it clear what is inside
and where it goes.
•Do you have sufficient packing supplies?
Boxes, tape, labels, etc. Some moving
companies provide materials and rent
special purpose packing containers.
•Will you need to provide or schedule with
landlord to provide protection for floors,
stairs, walls, elevators when moving in?
•Any walls to be moved, flooring or other
improvements required at new location?
Before the Move
•Moving company
•Furniture installation
•Cabling
•Telephone Company/Carrier (Lines)
•Internet provider
•Document/equipment disposal
•Painter, etc, if your responsibility to leave
as found. OR if your responsibility at new
location
•Clean up/Janitorial
•Parking (for move and later)
•Post Office (redirect)
•Business Card printer
•Insurance (during move and after)
•Are there are building restrictions on
hours when you can move in?
•Do you have to book the elevators (if any)
ahead of time?
•Will there be any parking issues for
moving vehicles? Parking spots, access
and so on.
•Any permits required?
•Are boxes labelled by when required?
Immediate versus later. Clearly indicated
and visible. Save having to hunt for what
is needed straight away.
•Are you going to bring any sensitive
technology over separately
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Day of the Move Vendors to check with

17. 17© Duarte, Inc. 2014
Cloud:
Simplify Your Move
04
+ How Can Cloud Help My Move?
+ Available Collateral

18. HOW CAN CLOUD TELEPHONY HELP MY MOVE?
​A customer is 4 times more
likely to defect to a competitor
for issues related to Service
than Product or Price.
​
​96% of dissatisfied customers
don’t complain. 91% of those
just don’t return.
​It takes 12 positive experiences
to make up for one bad
experience.
​There are so many tools critical to your
business but none more so than your
Telephone System.
​No matter what tools you have available,
when people really need to get hold of
you, they call you.
​Don’t let your office move become a
reason for customer dissatisfaction.
​Insuring good support through a
move
​The chances are that ALL your IT
equipment is going to have to be powered
down, packed, moved and then re-
installed over a weekend.
​You may have provided prior notice to
customers, but they will only give you so
much leeway if they need to contact you.
​One way to offset all the possible risks is
to consider migrating your telephone
system to the cloud.
This provides many advantages, including:
1. You can have everything up and
running before the move.
2. It doesn’t need you to have equipment
installed at the new site to test it. It can
be tested using ‘soft phone’ or Apps
running on your mobile devices.
3. You can have predefined support
messages and voice mail set up
ahead of time.
There are many more, but these are the
key to a transparent move to your
customers.
www.unityconnected.com

19. AVAILABLE COLLATERAL
​Flexfone is not only priced
right for small business…
​But offers features that match
or exceed whatever you can do
on premise…
​And provide greater
flexibility…
​If you are moving, you need to
consider your cloud options
​We have created a dedicated website to
Flexfone our Cloud Telephony offer for
small business, Flexfone Essential, at
www.flexfone.net
​This explains the basics of cloud
telephony and other advantages, like
monthly payments to match your costs
and growth. How to test internet speed,
what other requirements are needed and a
list of core features.
​Take a look and you will see it has
features that match your current system or
more. And if you need more than that, you
can look at Flexfone Advanced.
​The list on the right shows all that are
available to view on the web or download
Available Documents
Flexfone Brochure
Flexfone Dedicated vs Shared
Flexfone Install Options
Flexfone FlexCare
Flexfone Website
Flexfone FAQ
Flexfone Flexibility
Flexfone Simplicity
Flexfone Worry-Free
Flexfone Quality
Flexfone Requirements Checklist
Flexfone VoIP Speed Test Guide
Flexfone Router compatibility
www.unityconnected.com

20. www.unityconnected.com
WANT MORE HELP WITH YOUR MOVE?
1-905-952-2540
bmiller@unityconnected.com
www.unityconnected.com
If you are reconsidering your telephone system and need some
help understanding how to go about the decision, we have a guide
that can help you there as well:
How to Buy a Business Phone System