Change is an unavoidable part of being in business year after year. Electronic equipment will eventually reach the end of its lifecycle and require replacement. Organizations will occasionally see a change in their space needs, requiring a move. When changes happen, it s important to have a plan in place to ensure your equipment is safely and securely reallocated.
National Computer Warehouse Services (NCWS) specializes in partnering with businesses for all of their equipment needs. Companies of all types and sizes, across all industries, rely on NCWS to help with all of their equipment-related needs. NCWS s IT specialists can serve as a consultant to businesses, gathering information and crafting a project proposal that addresses all of their needs. Once a business chooses NCWS, we remain on call whenever that business has a new project, whether that project is a small one-time task or a large, company-wide move that requires months of planning. This guide will help you learn more about how an equipment specialist can help your business with all of the changes that are likely to come your way.
Business Relocations
At one time, businesses moved only when they grew and needed more space. However, the growing popularity of open-plan offices and remote work has allowed businesses to relocate in order to save money. Your business may find that by moving to a smaller space, you can save significantly on your lease each month, giving you extra money you can put toward growing your business.
When that happens, however, businesses usually find that they face overwhelming challenges. Companies that have on-site servers must deal with relocating that equipment without impacting the customers and employees that need to connect to them each day. Additionally, there are the numerous computers, printers, and peripherals that fill every floor of every office building. Each of these items must be safely disconnected, moved, and connected at the new location without suffering damage.
Larger companies often have on-site servers stored in a server room or data center. When a relocation becomes necessary, moving those items can be tricky, especially if they host the business s website or applications that are accessed by a large number of customers. It s important to plan well in advance to minimize downtime, possibly even setting up a backup to temporarily serve customers until the primary servers can be relocated and commissioned at the new location.
No matter how much advance notice a business has, a relocation can seem daunting, especially for IT teams that have little experience with large-scale equipment moves. NCWS handles this type of move on a daily basis, from workstation-only moves to projects involving relocating a large data center serving multiple clients. We prepare months in advance to plan for every step of a business s move, reducing the risk that comes from move day surprises. We ll ensure that each piece of equipment arrives at its new location without suffering damage or compromising security.
Staff Changes
Another inevitable change involves the employees who make up a business s teams. When an employee leaves, equipment is affected, especially if the employee isn t replaced by someone else who will be using that same equipment. Often this extra equipment is shifted to a storage closet, where it remains, forgotten, until the stockpile gets so big a business must deal with it. In recent years, desktop computers have been replaced by laptops, which can travel with workers as they move from the office to home to business meetings. This has also helped add to the excess decommissioned equipment businesses have in storage. In many cases, this equipment will never be used again.
In addition to normal turnover, some businesses eliminate multiple positions at once as part of a downsizing effort. This always leads to a surplus of old equipment that needs to be disposed. In addition to taking up space in a storage closet or workspace, these computers, printers, and peripherals also create extra work for IT and administrative staff members, who are tasked with inventorying and tracking the items every year as part of their annual auditing processes. Over time, this surplus of equipment becomes a nuisance for businesses, especially if they face an upcoming move where they ll have no choice but to dispose of it properly.
As part of the consulting services we offer, NCWS can come into your business and conduct a full audit of your equipment. We can come up with a plan to properly dispose of any old devices and peripherals in a way that will not put your security infrastructure at risk. Best of all, if you choose our services you ll have the convenience of having your equipment removed by experienced technicians who come to your location and handle everything for you.
Equipment Removal
The recommended replacement cycle for devices is longer than it once was, but many organizations still replace computers within five to six years. If you wait much longer, you ll likely find your systems slow down and lock up, disrupting productivity. Unfortunately, even if you re replacing equipment less often, you ll still have a surplus somewhere in your office.
If you choose to handle equipment removal yourself, you ll need to ensure you have a truck that can handle transporting all of the items. You ll also need to make sure you ve wiped all data from the drives before taking them to their destination, even if you plan to recycle them. Failure to do so could put your business s data at risk. Unfortunately, without the right procedures in place, there s no guarantee to potential auditors that you ve safeguarded your customers or clients in your disposal processes.
NCWS s equipment disposal procedures take security to the next level, using both erasure and destruction to ensure a business remains safe from a costly data breach. We erase drives using degaussing, which makes the data unreadable if for some reason the drive remains intact enough for someone to try to read it. The second step is hard drive shredding, which decimates each drive into shards, making it impossible to access. Once this two-step process is complete, businesses can offload the remainder of the equipment without the drive intact.
We make this service even better by handling everything for the business. Our technicians can remove the equipment and transport it to its disposal site. We have agreements with major recycling centers in each town we serve, but we can also donate equipment as requested by our clients. Prior to this disposal, we take care of the hard drive destruction process, which can be completed remotely or on site. Our shredder trucks give clients the opportunity to oversee destruction if they choose. Best of all, instead of businesses allowing equipment to pile up in storage areas, businesses can set up a plan to remove equipment on a regular basis. This takes the pressure off of you and lets you focus on other things.
Space Saving
In today s office environment, space is at a premium. If you re paying for extra storage space for surplus equipment, you re wasting money. You could squeeze another employee into that area or downsize to a smaller space. But in addition to excess equipment, many businesses waste space on storing paper-based files that could easily be converted to a document management system.
NCWS also provides workspace audits to advise businesses on what they can do to make the most of the offices they re leasing each month. This includes the excess equipment you ve stored in various areas of your office, as well as any server room you have on site. We can consolidate your racks to save space when necessary, which will free up extra room for storage or setting up a workstation. When you upgrade your servers, we can handle offloading your equipment to keep your server rooms safe and clutter-free.
Another area where we can save space is through document management. NCWS can turn years of excess paperwork into electronic files, converting your documents into a format that can be easily managed. Once your paper files have been stored electronically, you can eliminate the file cabinets that have long been taking up space in your offices. When combined with the space that we ll free up by removing any excess equipment, you ll be able to repurpose wasted space.
Before taking on any project, NCWS provides a free consultation where we determine how we can help you. We can prepare a detailed price quote to give you an idea of how much the project will cost, as well as what the timeline we ll be. Once you ve committed to work with us, we ll assign a project manager who will work with you to identify your needs and recommend the best approach to help your business with its relocation or equipment removal project. Your business s security is our top priority in everything we do, so you ll know when you trust NCWS with your relocation projects, you ll be in good hands.
Contact NCWS today to get your free project estimate and learn more about how we can help you. We can handle local moves, as well as those that cross state lines, and we work with a variety of businesses across all industries.
