There's a moment in every office move or buildout where the technology decisions get a lot more expensive: the day the drywall goes up.
Before that, adding a network drop, a camera location, or a spot for an access-control reader is cheap — it's just a wire in an open wall. After that, it's a change order, a ceiling tile, and a conduit run. The single best thing you can do for your technology budget is to make these decisions before the walls close.
Here's a plain-English checklist to run through while it's still cheap.
Business internet is the one thing you can't rush. Fiber and business circuits can take weeks — sometimes months — to install. Put in the order the day you sign the lease, not the week you move in. And decide early whether you need a second connection for backup, because that's another lead time and another cable path.
This is the big one. Every desk, printer, wall-mounted TV, access point, camera, door reader, and phone eventually needs a wire behind it. Walk the floor plan and mark every one now. A few extra drops during construction cost almost nothing; running them later costs real money and downtime. When in doubt, add the drop.
Your switches, patch panel, and internet equipment need a spot with power, a little cooling, and room to work — not a cramped coat closet. Decide where it lives, get power to it, and keep it central so cable runs stay short.
Access points belong in the ceiling, wired back to that closet. If you plan them now, they're clean and invisible. If you add them later, you're fishing wires above finished ceilings. Think about where people actually work — including the conference room, the warehouse, and the patio — not just the open floor.
Most businesses don't need a rack of phone lines anymore. But you do need to decide: desk phones, softphones on laptops, cell phones, or a mix? That decision affects what you wire and what you buy.
Every exterior door, every entrance, and a few key interior spots are worth a camera or a badge reader. Those need wires too, and they're much easier to place before the walls close. Decide who needs to get in which doors, and when.
Technology needs power in the right places: at the network closet, behind every TV and camera, at each desk cluster, and near the access points. It's easy and cheap to add outlets during construction and painful afterward.
If a screen is going on a wall, plan the power and the data behind it now, at the right height. Same for conference-room displays and cameras. Nobody wants a cable dangling down a freshly painted wall.
If it plugs in or connects, it needs a wire and a spot — and both are cheap before the walls close.
The businesses that end up frustrated aren't the ones that spent too much on technology. They're the ones who made these decisions after construction, one expensive change order at a time.
If you're planning a move or a buildout, get your technology partner in the room with your contractor and architect early — before the walls are framed. An hour of planning now saves a stack of change orders later, and it's the difference between technology that disappears into the building and technology that's bolted on as an afterthought.
— Michael
Your Friendly Neighborhood Tech Guy
Planning a move or a buildout? A short technology-planning conversation — ideally before the walls are framed — makes the whole project cheaper and calmer. See how we handle business networking and infrastructure.