Author: Lance Cameron, Business Development Representative, Maptician
Most companies spend months planning the physical side of an office move, lease negotiations, construction timelines, and furniture orders. The technology decisions? Those often get made in the last few weeks. And that’s usually where things get complicated.
After talking with a lot of companies going through relocations, a few questions come up over and over. Here’s what’s actually worth thinking through before moving day.
Do you know how your current space is being used?
Before you sign a lease on a new space, it helps you to understand what you actually need. How many people are coming in on any given day? Which days are busiest? Are there teams that cluster together or floors that are consistently empty? If you don’t have visibility into that, you’re essentially guessing on square footage, desk ratios, and layout, and locking into a multi-year commitment based on that guess. According to CBRE, 40% of companies have already found they can’t accommodate employees on peak attendance days, a direct consequence of over-trimming space without reliable occupancy data.
Have you decided how the new space will work?
Open seating, assigned desks, neighborhoods by team, the model you choose affects everything from your floor plan to your tech stack. This decision needs to happen early, not after the furniture is ordered.
What systems will employees use to navigate the new space?
A new office is disorienting, especially in a hybrid environment where not everyone is in every day. Employees need an easy way to find available desks, see where teammates are sitting, and book the spaces they need. Without that, large amounts of friction will exist in the first few months and create habits that are hard to undo later. Research from ScienceDirect shows that productivity impacts from poorly managed relocations can persist for 12 or more months, which makes getting the technology layer right from day one one of the highest-leverage decisions in the whole process.
Are you bringing your technology into the move or starting fresh?
Relocations are a natural reset point. If your current tools aren’t working or you don’t have workplace technology at all, this is the right time to implement something. It’s much harder to retrofit after people have already settled into new routines
Who owns the day-one experience?
Someone needs to be accountable to make sure employees can actually function on the first day in the new space. That means wayfinding, desk booking, visitor management, and reporting are all set up and tested before you open the doors, not figured out after.
Office moves are one of those projects where the operational complexity sneaks up on you. The companies that handle them well usually have one thing in common: they made the technological decisions early and treated the move as an opportunity to set up better systems, not just new furniture. With more than 57% of current commercial leases set to expire by 2030, and peak expirations hitting in 2026, a significant wave of relocations is already underway. The companies that prepare now will be in a much stronger position than those that scramble later.
Tools like Maptician give teams visibility into how their space is actually being used before, during, and after a move, so the decisions being made are based on real data, not assumptions.
If your company has a relocation on the horizon and you’re still figuring out the workplace tech side of it, it’s worth having that conversation sooner rather than later.
Office Move Technology Checklist
Before You Sign the Lease
- Audit current space utilization, how many people are coming in and on which days
- Identify peak days and underused areas
- Define your target desk ratio for the new space
- Decide on your seating model (assigned, open/hoteling, hybrid neighborhoods)
During Planning
- Select workplace technology before the floor plan is finalized
- Confirm desk booking and reservation system
- Plan for wayfinding, how will employees find available desks and teammates
- Set up visitor management process for the new location
- Identify who owns the workplace tech implementation
Before Move-In
- Test all systems before employees arrive
- Confirm reporting and analytics are configured
- Brief employees on how to book desks and navigate the new space
- Set up any neighborhood or team zoning in your system
- Validate that day-one access and permissions are in place
After Move-In
- Monitor utilization data in the first 30–60 days
- Identify any friction points employees are experiencing
- Adjust space configuration based on actual usage patterns
- Use data to validate (or revisit) your desk ratio and layout decisions
