Office move management is a phrase used by two different sellers: firms who will run your move for a fee, and software that helps you run it yourself. This page is about the second, and specifically about what the person running a move actually controls, which is less than it feels like and more than they usually use. The lifting, the fit out and the connectivity are contractors. What the manager controls is the sequence, the information, the decisions and the record, and doing those four well is most of the difference between a smooth move and a bad one.
The four things you actually control
The sequence, which is what has to happen before what, and it is yours because only you can see all the dependencies. The information, meaning who knows what and when, which is the single largest source of complaint in any move and is entirely within your gift. The decisions, particularly what is disposed of rather than moved, which nobody else can make. And the record, meaning what was agreed with whom, which is what you will need when a contractor's account of an agreement differs from yours. Everything else is somebody's contract.
The weekly rhythm that keeps it visible
One standing half hour a week from the day the decision is made, with the same three questions: what is due before the next meeting, what has slipped, what is now blocked on somebody outside the company. Write the answers down where others can read them. Moves go wrong slowly and then quickly, and the weekly rhythm is what turns a slow slip into something visible while it is still cheap. In the last fortnight make it daily and keep it just as short.
What to refuse to take on
Anything with professional liability attached, which means the lease terms, the fit out design and anything about fire, access or building compliance in the new premises. Those belong to the lawyer, the designer and the landlord respectively, and an office manager who absorbs them takes on risk with no authority to manage it. Refusing is not obstruction; it is naming the right owner, and it is far easier to do at the start than after something has gone wrong.
Questions people ask about office move management
Should we hire a move manager?
For a large or complex move, or one where nobody internally has the time, it can be money well spent, and the cost per click on this phrase tells you those firms are actively bidding for the work. For a straightforward move of a small office, the four things above are yours regardless, and a hired manager does not remove them.
What does software add to a move?
A shared task list with owners, dates and statuses, and a record of what was agreed. That is genuinely most of it. Anything grander tends to be a project management product, which for a move of this size is more structure than the job repays.
When does the move record stop being useful?
Later than people expect. The supplier changes, the equipment moves and the address updates made during a move are exactly what somebody will need to reconstruct in a year, and the move list is the best record of them. Keep it rather than archiving it with the boxes.