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Moving an office is a major undertaking. Let me share our story so you can see what we did right, and what we did wrong, when we made our big move in 2012.
To give them time for planning, we met with a space planner to help us design work flow, lighting, colors and many other factors. Our manager Kasey ran this deliberation. She engaged everyone in our office for input on work flows and personal needs, then convened a small group of four to organize and conceive a plan. This process took about 4 weeks and gave us a good starting point for build-out plans once the building was ours.
Once we owned the building,we were eager to start build-outs and get ourselves moved. We had interviewed and selected local commercial builder Callahan Hoffman and gave them an ambitious time frame from early January to late February for their work. Even with a fairly detailed plan there are many on-site decisions and changes, so we spent more time on location than we expected. Having been through the process, you should plan on more time and daily visits if your expectations are aggressive. Ultimately, Callahan Hoffman organized the contractors incredibly well. We all have a new respect for the intricacies of building mechanics, and the trades in general.
Once we owned the building, we began notifying customers, vendors and others about our move. We provided press releases to complement (and enhance) the realtors’ press notices, posted our move on our web front page, and mailed two notices to our customers and prospect list. As our space in Norwell Center would thus be unoccupied, we had two large signs including our new address and a map placed in the windows to redirect people to 306 Washington Street.
We planned our move for the Washington Birthday long weekend to allow some additional time for IT or other surprises. Since most of our "inventory" is information, the IT move was the single most important part of the process. See my separate blog on that subject. Other items consisted mostly of office supplies; and each employee was responsible for moving items from their own workstations (except PCs).
We had not made plans with National Grid (electric) and Commonwealth Gas for establishing accounts for the space, so the day of our closing on the building, they turned off the electricity and gas. Because our closing was in late December, this was a major oversight. Fortunately the weather wasn’t as cold as January can be, so we didn’t suffer any frozen pipes or other serious damage, but it did make for chilly space during early build-out (demolition) and was a major personal distraction in the first part of the year. Neither company was particularly interested in our plight, nor did they share our urgency, but this is characteristic of monopolistic services absent relationships, and we should have known better. Fortunately, Chip Perfetuo at Perfetuo Electric had the problem solving skills and relationships with folks at the electric company to fast-track that piece.
We planned an Open House for a month after our move-in date, and that is the subject of another blog. Suffice to say, we were all immensely proud of our new space and glad to show it off.
Overall, extensive planning and selection of competent partners made the difference in making our move to new space efficient, with as little stress as possible. We underestimated the time commitment, but that was manageable through the period of preparation and move. Keeping everybody involved current on progress status and managing expectations helped keep the team together, and the end result is better work space.
