Keep on Moving On 

Recently, one of our customers decided to move out of his high rent office in downtown Orlando to take advantage of an attractive offer to save a lot of money on rent in the building next door.  Sounds simple enough, right? But, when Bob LaFortune of Orlando Legal Copies discovered that the build-out of his new office space next door would take more time than he had left on his lease, he tried to work things out with his old landlord.  However, the landlord in the building he was leaving was not so happy or accommodating, which forced Bob into a dreaded situation:  the double move.

That’s right, a double move!  Because Bob had to vacate his old office before his new office was ready, he would have to move twice.  Fortunately for Bob, his new landlord was a lot more accommodating than his old one.  The new landlord agreed to let him move into a temporary space on the 7th floor, while he waited for the tenant improvements to be completed.  Bob called Straight Line Communications, his telephone vendor, to assist in the relocating of his business telephone system, and telephone and internet services. 

“Straight Line did a great job during our first move.  They arranged for our service with Nuvox Communications to be moved to our new temporary office, and everything was seamless.  Mel did a great job helping us trace the wiring in the new space, so we didn’t have to invest any money on voice and data wiring in the temporary office.  They even helped get our data network up and running, so we were back in business!”

Meanwhile, the new office space was being designed, and a contractor was selected to frame the new office walls, and prepare the new offices.  Prior to the planned move date, Scott Ohlwein, the project manager from Straight Line called and set up a time to meet with Bob to assist with the plans for the final move into the permanent office space.  That’s when things started to get a little sticky.

Bob wanted to install the voice and data wiring in his new office himself, in order to save some money.  He had lots of CAT5 cable from his old office, piled up on the floor in his temporary phone room.  He had seen a previous contractor install cables, and realized it was something that he could do himself.  Scott and Bob agreed on a plan to let Bob do most of the work himself, with Straight Line coming in at the end to handle some of the trickier parts of the installation. 

Then, a meeting with the contractor changed the plan in a hurry.  The two met the contractor on a Tuesday morning, and found out he had planned on having a final inspection on Friday or the following Monday.  This posed a problem for Bob, because he was hoping to install the cabling the following week, after the final inspections.  Scott explained that in the city of Orlando, a permit needed to be pulled, and two inspections needed to be done – a “rough-in” and “above-ceiling” inspection, and a final inspection – in order to allow Bob to get the final inspection approved and a certificate of occupancy issued.   

Straight Line jumped into action.  As a state licensed alarm contractor, Straight Line was able to pull a permit for the low voltage voice and data wiring.  “Some contractors that do voice and data installations in the city of Orlando are not licensed, so they can’t get a permit without the help of another licensed contractor like an electrician.  Because we are licensed, we were able to quickly request the necessary permit and start immediately,” explained Scott.  He called the office, and re-arranged the schedule to have two technicians on site Thursday morning for the pre-wire. 

Because things happened so quickly, the installers arrived on the job site only to find another surprise.  The building owner refused to allow the Straight Line technicians on the job site until they had an approved insurance certificate.  According to Ohlwein, the Real Estate Trust that owns the building needed special wording on the insurance certificate.  “I called Teresa in my office, and had her re-fax the insurance certificate request to our agent, to include the requested wording.”  Within the hour, the building manager had the proper insurance certificate.  By the following Monday, both inspections were passed and Orlando Legal Copies was ready to move!

As project manager, Straight Line’s Ohlwein was very pleased with the outcome.  “Our staff did a great job.  It took a lot of teamwork to overcome all the obstacles quickly to make sure our customer was able to keep doing business.  Our goal is always to make sure these projects get completed on time, and on budget.”

Bob LaFortune was equally pleased.  “Thank you, Scott for the great job you guys did.  Everything was almost seamless.  The network went up, everything was great, Mel was fantastic!  We just thank you for all the effort you put in for both of our moves.”

For a free publication “A Telecom Expert’s Top Tips for a Seamless Office Move”, click here: