Practical guidance for the decisions in front of you.
Checklists and answers for businesses opening an office, replacing equipment or trying to work out what their IT should look like.
Opening a new office: what to sort out, and when.
The order matters more than the list. Each stage depends on the one before it, which is why late decisions cost the most.
Before the lease is signed
- Check what internet options serve the address
- Ask what cabling already exists in the suite
- Find out where equipment can physically live
- Confirm what the landlord will and won’t allow
Order the long-lead items
- Order the internet circuit — this is the usual delay
- Agree the floor plan and desk positions
- Specify computers, servers and network equipment
- Decide phone system and numbers
Build the environment
- Run and terminate cabling to the layout
- Install the equipment area and switching
- Mount wireless access points for coverage
- Prepare and image the computers
Configure and test
- Set up accounts, access and email
- Configure printing and phones
- Turn on security and backup
- Test everything before staff arrive
Want this handled for you? That sequence is exactly what New Office IT Setup covers.
Ten questions worth asking about your current IT.
If more than a few of these are hard to answer, that itself is the finding.
- Who is responsible when something stops working?
- Which computers are oldest, and when will they be replaced?
- Are updates applied on a schedule, or when someone notices?
- Has anyone restored from a backup to confirm it works?
- Do former staff still have access to anything?
- Is there a separate network for guest devices?
- Would you know if a machine lost its protection?
- Where do your files live?
- How long could you operate if the internet went down?
- What is the plan if the main system is unavailable for a day?
Common questions
No. You can hand over the whole environment or a single service. Businesses often start with one thing — a new location, a network problem, ongoing support — and expand from there once they see how it works.
Yes. HAL can supply new equipment or work with what you have. If something you own is going to cause problems, we will say so and explain why, rather than quietly building around it.
With a conversation about the business rather than the equipment: what the office does, how a day runs, what keeps interrupting it, and any fixed dates. From there we assess what exists and scope the work, so you know what goes in and what it costs before anything is ordered.
The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, Richardson, Irving, Arlington, Carrollton, Lewisville, Southlake, Grapevine, Flower Mound and Coppell. If you are nearby but not on that list, ask.
Yes. New office setup is a major part of the work, but most of what HAL does is for offices that are already open: ongoing support, security, backup, network improvements, cloud, replacing aging equipment and retiring the old kit properly.
It depends on the size of the office and the scope of the work, so any number given before understanding your situation would be a guess. What we can commit to is that you will see the scope and the cost before anything is purchased.
More detailed guides.
[ Placeholder section — these guides have not been published yet. ]
Choosing office computers that last
[ A guide on specifying business machines so the office runs one standard instead of a collection. To be written. ]
Wi-Fi coverage in a real floor plan
[ A guide on why coverage fails in back offices and treatment rooms, and how placement is decided. To be written. ]
What to do before you throw out a computer
[ A guide on retiring equipment safely, including the devices most offices forget. To be written. ]
Rather just ask someone?
Checklists only go so far. Describe the situation and you’ll get a straight answer, including when the answer is that you don’t need us.