A new office for OMB, open on day one.

OMB Solicitors moved into the top two floors of a new five-level Southport building in late 2022. We ran the site survey, specified the cabling and power, built a cloud-based environment for more than 50 staff and coordinated the ISP, print and legal-software vendors through to opening day.

The move

The firm signed for two empty floors with a fixed opening date.

OMB had outgrown its previous premises and signed for the top two floors of a new five-level building: around 1180 sqm with no cabling, power or network in it. More than 50 staff were to start work there on the opening date.

Every outlet specified from the plan

Every cable, outlet and rack location across the two floors had to be specified from the architect's plan, because there was no existing network to extend.

Five vendors on one fitout

Electricians, cablers, the ISP, the print vendor and the firm's legal-software providers each had work to do in the move, and none of them were coordinating with each other.

A go-live date the firm could not slip

The firm's client matters, court deadlines, settlements and trust-account work all continued through the move, so the new office had to be ready to trade on the morning it opened and the commissioning had to be finished beforehand.

Site survey

The site survey changed the electrical and cabling plans.

We ran the site survey early and fed the findings into the electrical and cabling plans before any cable was pulled.

The original drawings allowed one double power point and one network drop per desk. A legal workstation at OMB runs a desktop, two screens and a phone, so we doubled both, which keeps the desktop off the phone's network port. In the boardroom we moved the outlets so the screen and the conferencing kit each had their own.

Cloud environment

Staff sign in at any desk on either floor.

We built the environment on cloud services, so a person's files, sessions and settings follow their login to whichever desk they sit at.

A new hire signs in on their first day without a desk-side setup visit, and existing staff hot-desk between the two floors.

Vendor coordination

We coordinated the ISP, print and legal-software vendors.

Each vendor's access requests, decisions and sign-offs came through Evolve.

The electrician, the printer technician and the carrier each dealt with Evolve, and a decision that needed a partner was put to them by us.

Opening day

Opening day ran on two load-balanced 4G services.

The ISP missed the install date and its wireless backup was not working. We brought in a 4G service from the provider, added our own at the opposite end of the building and load-balanced the two, which gave coverage across both floors.

More than 50 staff started on the agreed date

Cabling, power and the network were commissioned before the move, and the firm traded from the new office from the first morning.

Hires since the move needed no rebuild

OMB has taken on staff since the move. Each one was given a login and a desk, and the environment has not needed any change to accommodate them.

Vendors still route through Evolve

The print, ISP and legal-software vendors still deal with Evolve for anything on the office network.

Bring us in before the cabling plan is signed.

We run the site survey, check the electrical and cabling plans and coordinate the vendors up to the cutover.

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