If you’ve heard “Welcome back to work!” from your corporation in recent months, you may not be thrilled to re-enter the commuting-to-the-office lifestyle.

By labor day, over half of NYC offices will return to full capacity(link article). Lately, many corporations are making critical decisions on what their shape their workforce will take. This may be fully back to in-person or fully WFH. However, the easiest resolution in order for firms not to lose valuable employees is to create a flexible(article) work environment. This model can support employees working some days from home, and some days in the office. 

Now, your office may be looking to set up smaller satellite offices close to employees to forgo the tragic commute to Manhattan. 

Setting up a new and smaller office away from Headquarters will require a fresh and new IT setup.

In order to get employees back to work, here’s how to get the new satellite office internet up and running in under a week:

Step 1: Determine the needs / capacity of your new space

Before starting, determining the number of desks, desktops, laptops, and smart devices in your space. This will determine your overall bandwidth, to make sure everyone’s devices have fast internet speeds for video calls, and large application usage. Also, determine if your business will be storing files locally or in the cloud. Finally, be prepared with a VPN for any employees who continue to stay remote as this allow them to connect virtually through a protected gateway.

Step 2: Find the Internet Service Provider in your building

You’ll need to confirm what internet service provider has fiber-optic wiring within your office building. From there, chose the amount of bandwidth you’ll need in a service package for wireless connections (WiFi).

Step 3: Acquire proper hardware

Your new office will need 2 critical pieces of hardware to get the network up and running.

First, a router / firewall. These may be separate devices or a single device. Both play the role of directing “traffic” within the network, and getting the information you need from a bigger network, into your device. A firewall is crucial for protecting your business from security threats like malware.

Secondly, your network will require a switch. This will allow communication between multiple devices on your network. This includes your printers, desktops, access control, and any other “smart” device. A switch is crucial for your network to connect devices together via ethernet.

Diagram of router, firewall, and switches creating your network.

Step 4: We’re here to help!

If the thought of building out a network for a small office sounds incredibly intimidating, that’s what we’re here for! At ThomDigital Group, we are your outsourced in-house IT partner. From determining bandwidth to installing hardware, our experts are here to make your move into a new office as easy and quick as possible. If your office is looking to make a transition come the fall, contact us at info@thomdigital.com to learn more about how we can help!