Planning an office network refresh: a checklist before you ask for quotes

Most quotes come back vague because the requirement went out vague. If you gather the following before approaching suppliers, you will get comparable prices instead of three documents you cannot line up against each other.

Before you ask

1. Count, and count properly. Not just headcount — count the desks that will have a wired connection, the wireless access points you have now, and the devices with no human attached: printers, door controllers, CCTV, the time clock. The unattended devices are the ones that surprise people.

2. List your circuits. Every internet line, its speed, and its contract end date. If a circuit is out of contract, replacing it during the refresh is far cheaper than doing it as a separate project.

3. Decide about wiring. If the building is more than ten years old, your existing cabling may not support the speeds the new switches run at. A survey of what is actually in the walls is worth doing before you commit to hardware.

4. Write down what is moving. If you are moving a NAS, a server, an IP-PBX, or a line-of-business application, each one has its own migration requirements. Suppliers who do not know these exist cannot price them.

What a good quote tells you

A quote you can act on itemises the hardware by part number, states the lead time for each line, and separates hardware, licensing and installation labour. It also says what is not included — patching, cabinet space, cable runs, and the out-of-hours work needed to avoid disrupting the office.

The question nobody asks

Ask what happens after the install. Who monitors the new equipment, who applies the firmware updates, and who is called when it fails at 6pm on a Friday. A refresh that ends with better hardware and no support arrangement has moved the problem rather than solved it.

We are happy to work from your own list, or to walk the site with you and produce one.