Office Move or Refurbishment? Planning Temporary IT Equipment
How to keep staff productive during an office move, refurbishment or temporary workspace period with a clear plan for laptops and workstation equipment.
Office moves create temporary states: part of the team may be remote, the new space may not be fully ready and existing desk equipment may be in transit. The IT plan should cover those transition weeks and months explicitly.
Map the transition stages
List who will work where before, during and after the move. Different groups may need different equipment at each stage.
Protect the laptop layer first
Employees need a working endpoint regardless of location. Confirm the laptop and power requirements before worrying about every desk accessory.
Identify temporary desk requirements
If a team will work from a temporary office for several months, renting monitors and workstation equipment may be more practical than buying equipment for an interim location.
Avoid duplicate permanent purchasing
Before buying extra monitors or docks, decide whether those items will have a useful place in the final office. Temporary rental can fill genuine gaps.
Schedule recovery after the move
Temporary equipment needs a clear return date and owner. Include it in the office-move project plan rather than leaving it as an IT loose end.
Treat IT as a workstream in the move plan
The office project should include a named IT equipment owner, key dates, employee locations and temporary requirements. Do not leave laptops and monitors until the furniture and network plan is finished. Equipment affects whether people can work during every transition stage.
Label temporary equipment clearly
If rented devices or monitors are being used during a move, label them separately from the company’s permanent assets. That makes the final reconciliation easier and reduces the risk that rented kit gets installed permanently in the new office and forgotten.
Map equipment needs to the move schedule
Office moves rarely happen in a single clean moment. Teams may work from temporary space, split across two locations or move in stages while furniture and connectivity are completed. Build an equipment schedule alongside the property schedule: who is moving, when they need to remain productive and which desk equipment will already be available at each location.
Temporary rental can be useful where buying duplicate equipment for a transition would create surplus as soon as the move is finished. It can also give the project team a defined route to remove the temporary hardware afterwards rather than allowing it to become untracked stock.
Office transition checklist
- Dates each team leaves and enters each location.
- Number of temporary desks required by phase.
- Laptop, monitor, dock and peripheral requirements.
- Delivery and collection access at each site.
- Named owner for equipment at the end of the move.
Test the temporary setup before the first move day. Confirm power, network access, docking compatibility and display connections at the temporary location with a small number of users first. Finding a missing adapter or unsuitable desk connection during a pilot is much easier than discovering the same problem when an entire department arrives.
When rental may not be the right answer
If the role is permanent, the same equipment will be used for several years and the business already has a mature device-management process, buying may be the more economical and straightforward route. Rental should solve a real flexibility or lifecycle problem rather than simply move a purchase into a monthly payment.
What to include in a rental quote request
A useful enquiry should include the number of users, the type of work they will do, whether they need laptop-only or a full workstation, the required delivery date, postcode and expected rental length. Mention any specialist performance, display or connectivity requirements up front so the quote can be based on the actual job rather than a generic laptop.
Questions businesses often ask
Does DeskStack rent office furniture?
No. DeskStack focuses on employee technology such as laptops, monitors and workstation accessories.
Can equipment be rented for a temporary office?
Yes, where the requirement fits the minimum term and stock and delivery can be confirmed.
How DeskStack fits
DeskStack rents business laptops and complete workstation packages to UK companies. Laptop-only packages start from £29 per month plus VAT, with a three-month minimum term and monthly continuation under the agreement. Exact equipment, availability, delivery and final terms are confirmed before a rental is accepted.