How to Get Your Urban Office Network in Shape

Sorting out data and voice communications can be a major hassle, especially in inner-city facilities. Office buildings in densely-constructed cities like London can pose their own set of comms challenges.  With access often limited and space at a premium these areas may require an innovative network design.

However, getting a stable, secure and future-proof network for your urban office is still entirely possible. Following a few basic steps and enlisting some professional to help along the way you can ensure that you get a fighting-fit setup without huge amounts of expense or hassle.

It doesn’t have to cost a fortune for you to install and maintain a streamline, highly successful communication system for your business.  With some expert help and the right technology you can easily install a system that is fast, effective and productive for you.

Audit Your Requirements

Before embarking on any network project, it’s a good idea to sit back and have a good long think about what you really need your network to achieve. As with any technology purchase it’s often tempting to look for the latest and greatest bits of hardware to install, but don’t get carried away.  A new office network is a major undertaking at the best of times, and getting trigger-happy with your business credit card will leave you over budget very quickly.

Gather all your network stakeholders in a room and ascertain exactly what they would like to see from the network. With office networks affecting virtually everyone who works in a given facility, you’ll probably want to have representatives of a wide range of departments in the meeting. The key to success here is to find the intersection between what your stakeholders would like to see from the network in an ideal world and what is actually plausible in a technical and financial sense.

Budget Carefully

The B-word has been the end of many a business project in the past and network projects are no different. Successful budgeting relies on fully understanding the costs that your network will incur, both in terms of initial installation costs such as equipment purchase, and longer term costs like maintenance, administration and (eventually) obsolescence.

Without the ability to predict the future it’s nigh-on impossible to budget for a project like this with 100% accuracy. However, understanding your business’s long term goals will help, especially with regards to facilities and expansion. Will you be moving to larger premises in the next few years? Building an extension? How about setting up a warehouse? These are all factors that will impact the amount of money you should look to invest in your network.

Get the Pros in To Install It

Installing an office network is somewhat more complex than plugging in your home router and waiting for the DSL light to come on. Part of your budget should at least be to get some cabling professionals in to do all the heavy work for you, with contracting a professional network design consultancy also a smart move. A botched installation could lead to heavy reliability problems further down the line, meaning that scrimping on your installation costs isn’t really a risk worth taking.

This is one area where an urban location could play to your strengths, as most major cities have specialists that can deal in data cabling. London is particularly well-off for cabling specialists, with leading communication companies able to lend their expertise to the network design process early on. Go online now to quickly find a range of telecommunication services for all types of businesses and budgets.