tips for using cloud to simplify your move

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Page 1: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

www.unityconnected.com

© Unity Connected Solutions

Page 2: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

+ 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 04 INTRO

Pages 17-19 Pages 14-16 Pages 9-13 Pages 4–8 Page 3

Page 3: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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.

www.unityconnected.com

Page 4: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

4 © Duarte, Inc. 2014

Plan in Advance

01 + Create a timeline plan

+ Don’t assume anything

+ What to watch

+ Store everything (in the Cloud)

Page 5: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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

www.unityconnected.com

Page 6: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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.

www.unityconnected.com

Page 7: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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.

www.unityconnected.com

Page 8: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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

Page 9: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

9 © Duarte, Inc. 2014

Evaluate your Equipment

02 + Evaluate Your Equipment

+ Inventory Your Existing Equipment

+ Network Access Considerations

+ Where Will Your IT Be Mounted?

Page 10: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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.

www.unityconnected.com

Page 11: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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.

www.unityconnected.com

Page 12: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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.

www.unityconnected.com

Page 13: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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!

www.unityconnected.com

Page 14: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

14 © Duarte, Inc. 2014

Site Visit & Prep

03 + Advanced Capabilities

+ Advanced Notification

+ Advanced Reporting

+ Mass Notification

Page 15: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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.

www.unityconnected.com

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?

Page 16: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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

www.unityconnected.com

Day of the Move Vendors to check with

Page 17: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

17 © Duarte, Inc. 2014

Cloud: Simplify Your Move

04 + How Can Cloud Help My Move?

+ Available Collateral

Page 18: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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

Page 19: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

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

Page 20: Tips for Using Cloud to Simplify Your Move

www.unityconnected.com

WANT MORE HELP WITH YOUR MOVE?

1-905-952-2540

[email protected]

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