Typical project · Quebec and Ontario
An office move on a fixed date: cabling, Wi-Fi, doors and phones ready on the first morning
These are typical projects, described from the kind of work we do. They do not describe a named client or a specific building.
The old lease ends on a day that cannot move, the new floor is still being fitted out, and four systems have to work when the staff arrive. This is how the work is planned backwards from that morning.
The situation: a date that cannot move and a floor that is not finished
The client is a company moving its office to a new floor in another building. The date is set by the end of the old lease and by the movers. The new space is under construction: the partitions are going up, the ceiling is open, and the general contractor of the fit-out has its own schedule.
The company wants its people to sit down on the first morning and work: computers on the network, Wi-Fi in the meeting rooms, phones that ring on the same numbers, and doors that open with a card. Nobody in the company has moved an office before, and each of these systems is ordered from a different place.
What the first visit to the new floor finds
- A furniture plan that is still changingDesks have been moved twice since the drawings were issued. Outlets placed from the old plan would end up under a corridor.
- No room set aside for the networkThe drawings show a closet shared with the cleaning supplies, with no ventilation and no dedicated power.
- An internet service with a long order timeThe carrier's line for the new address has not been ordered, and its installation date is the one thing nobody on site controls.
- Doors that belong to the landlordThe suite entrance is on the building's own access system. What the tenant may install on it, and on its own inner doors, is written in the lease.
What is designed, and why
Everything is designed from the moving date backwards, and from the furniture plan the client signs.
- Cabling drawn on the signed furniture planEach desk, meeting room, printer and access point gets its outlets on a drawing the client approves before any cable is pulled. Spare outlets are placed where the teams are expected to grow.
- A network room that can be worked inThe room is chosen with the landlord and the designer: a rack, power on its own circuit, ventilation and a door that locks. The cable from the building's entrance room arrives there.
- Wi-Fi planned for the rooms, not the floor areaAccess points are placed for the meeting rooms and the open areas where people gather, on the drawing first, then checked by measurement once the partitions and the glass are up.
- Door access that fits the building's systemThe suite entrance and the inner doors that need it, such as the server room, get readers. Where the landlord allows it, the same card opens the building and the suite.
- Phones moved with their numbersThe phone system is prepared before the move, with the call routing the reception wants. The transfer of the numbers is requested for the moving day, and a fallback is planned in case the internet line is late.
How the work is sequenced backwards from the moving day
The moving day is the last line of the schedule. Every other date is counted back from it and agreed with the fit-out contractor.
- Long orders first
The internet line, the transfer of the phone numbers and the equipment with the longest delivery are ordered as soon as the design is approved.
- Cable while the ceiling is open
Cables are pulled and supported before the ceiling tiles go in, in step with the electricians and the partition crews.
- Rack, terminations and tests
Once the room is clean and locked, the rack is built, each cable is terminated, labelled and tested, and the results are kept.
- Network, Wi-Fi, doors and phones before the furniture arrives
The switches, access points, readers and phones are installed and tried in the empty office, with a temporary connection if the carrier's line has not arrived.
- The first morning
Someone who knows the installation is on the floor when the staff arrive, to move a phone, patch an outlet or add a card on the spot.
What is handed over
- The floor plan, with every outlet numbered as it is labelled on the wall and in the rack
- The test results of each cable
- The Wi-Fi coverage measured with the furniture and the partitions in place
- The list of doors, readers and cardholders, with administrator access for the people the client names
- The phone system settings: numbers, extensions and call routing
- The network diagram and the administrator access, in the client's name
Services involved
Industry
Other typical projects
- Entry panel and fobs in an occupied rental building
- Cameras, alarm and a radio link on a construction site
- Low-voltage package of a new mixed-use building
- Wi-Fi and dock cameras in a warehouse that never closes
- A cut fibre backbone repaired and re-certified
- Leak detection with shut-off by riser in a condo building
- Mobile coverage for two levels of underground parking
- Analogue cameras replaced by IP cameras across a group of stores
- Access control for an office building with several tenants
- Licence plate recognition at the gate of a logistics yard
- Audio and video for the meeting rooms of an office
- A network put back in order after a security incident
- An old alarm system replaced in a store with offices and a stockroom
A project like this starts with the moving date and the floor plan
Tell us the date, the number of people and what the lease says about doors and cabling. We visit the new floor, meet the fit-out contractor if there is one, then send a quote with a schedule counted back from the moving day. We reply in English or French.