“This office move will be a breeze! After all it’s not like we’re moving to another building…”
While not of the “famous last words” variety -- nobody to our knowledge has been fatally wounded during an internal office move -- the fact is that the sentiment captured by the phrase above (i.e. that an internal move will be ultra-simple and easy just because it’s internal) is a disaster waiting to happen!
You may have already decided – or will soon come to the conclusion – that hiring a professional moving company is the safest, smartest and simplest way to ensure that your office move is successful. Or to put things a bit differently but perhaps more memorably: you know that hiring professionals will keep your office move from blowing up and turning into a confusing, chaotic and costly nightmare.
Let’s start with this: if you have a robust plan and the right partner, then you can expect your business move to be smooth and successful.
When preparing for an office relocation, “disaster planning” probably isn’t top-of-mind. After all, we’re talking about a business move – not data recovery.
As you prepare for an office move in the next few weeks or months, you may be unsure of whether you should handle furniture removal yourself (i.e. the DIY route), hire non-professionals, or work with a professional furniture removal company.
When it comes to purchasing and configuring new office furniture, obviously your business environment is unique – which means you don’t want to take a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Indeed, choices that work for some organizations or in some industries/marketplaces, don’t translate into general rules that you should adopt without doing some research and analysis.
With apologies to the immortal Shakespeare, the question for many business owners, facility managers, and other business executives is not “to be or not to be?”, but rather the more down-to-earth and pragmatic “should we repair or replace our office furniture?” True, this inquiry is not especially literary or likely to trigger an existential crisis, but then again, Hamlet probably would have been a great deal happier as a competent facility manager than the gloomy Prince of Denmark.
A key piece of your office relocation puzzle will involve creating a plan that sets actionable expectations with a furniture installer.
One of the most important questions you need to ask a prospective office furniture installer is: how will you handle moves, adds and changes? (which in the industry is typically referred to by the acronym “MAC”).
While the idea of changing your office space may be attractive, or possibly even necessary, the thought of re-inventing your environment – and allocating tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars – is enough to curb your enthusiasm (to say the least!).