Moving offices? Read this ninety days before the truck comes.

Every office move we have ever been called into late had the same problem: the internet circuit. Carriers take six to twelve weeks to install service at a new address, and nobody thinks to order it until the furniture is booked. By then it is too late, and move-in day happens on a cellular hotspot.

So the first item on our checklist is the circuit, ordered the week the lease is signed. Here is the rest, roughly in order.

Ninety days out. Order the internet circuit. Walk the new space with your IT provider and decide where the rack goes, how cabling runs, and how many drops each room needs. Count the conference rooms and decide where access points go so the Wi-Fi actually reaches them.Sixty days out. Decide what moves and what retires. A server that is due for replacement should not be moved twice. A recently purchased backup appliance is a sunk cost worth a conversation before anyone throws it out. Plan the phone number port: the old address should stop ringing on the right day, not a day early.Thirty days out. Gear that is being replaced gets configured and tested in the shop before it ships. The cabling contractor and electrician have the drawings. Everyone who will be on site during move week has each other's phone numbers.Move week. One person coordinates every vendor touching the network. Rack, plug in, test. On the first morning, people sit down and work.

The whole thing is less about technology than about sequence. Get the long-lead items first, decide what not to move, and give one person the calendar.