eircom's relocation to 1HSQ entailed the largest technology refresh in the company's history. It put a significant requirement on our IT department to design and deliver, on time and on budget, the ICT systems and support to bring our "New World of Work" vision to life. Around 1300 staff were brought from a number of separate premises into one new building, where the ICT infrastructure was designed from scratch to promote greater collaboration, higher productivity and improved enterprise flexibility.

Thanks to extensive preparation, and the expert assistance of our partners, the move was effected in autumn 2008 without any downtime for staff, who uniformly commented that they found the transition to 1HSQ hassle-free. For any company undertaking a relocation or refresh of this scale, there are five guiding principles that we believe can help deliver a successful project outcome:

1. Plan and fully staff the project to protect timelines
For an IT project of this size, an effective governance structure is vital. The ICT design and delivery task for 1HSQ was divided into 15 work streams, each with a design leader, a project management leader, and a technical services manager from eircom's IT department. This three-way organisation delivered a sharp focus on what was needed at every stage. Freeing up workstream leaders from their daytime responsibilities, and backfilling where necessary with contractors, was essential to protect project timelines. The ability to cope with change, including the need for key staff to leave the project, was also critical.

2. Focus on the user experience, not just the technology
Paul Dervan explains that his greatest hope for the move was that staff would arrive, be able to work with their systems right away, and feel the transition team had done an excellent job. "You don't get that by focusing on the cables and nothing else," he notes. "You have to think about the process of moving people and imagine yourself in their shoes." So the IT department took hand-holding measures: offering a desk checklist for moving-out day, appointing point relocation representatives in each business area, and having floor walkers and technical specialists available at 1HSQ on every moving-in day. "We also did exhaustive component testing, and recognised details like the fact that eircom's top executives and their personal assistants need to collaborate in exceptional ways, for example with shared diaries," he says. "We were keen for the new space to reflect and support the way people actually work, and I think we achieved that."

A 1HSQ SharePoint portal was also created that attracted 60,000 hits in the first month alone; it both informed staff about the move and vividly illustrated what SharePoint, part of the new UC toolset, can do. "I'd advise anyone to take the time to build the vision of what the end product is going to look like, and explain it to the users," said Stephen Mulligan, project leader on the New World of Work. "Often users are kept in the dark, and that makes them resistant and unsure. By painting the vision and selling it to them, they relax, and this eases the transition."

Reaching out to users about technology was only one aspect of a much wider, organisation-wide drive to engage with and excite users about 1HSQ. Staff toured and had input into the workspace design when it was still under construction, and multi-disciplinary teams (senior directors, HR, Communications and Facilities managers) connected in from the beginning, helping drive positive engagement. The first wave of move-in staff also acted as champions for subsequent waves. At every stage efforts were made to engage with staff as valued collaborators and customers, a strategy which significantly smoothed the introduction of 1HSQ's new workspace, new technologies and new work methods.

5. Rigorous checks and tests improve the user experience
Application testing, stress testing, and routine preliminary checks prior to each staff move were essential. For example, all deskphones are IP phones, connected via the PC to the phone line. A routine check a few days before one staff move revealed that the cables connecting phones to PCs were missing. The advance-check policy meant that the problem was spotted in plenty of time, so IT staff were not struggling to source cables over the weekend before staff arrived on Monday.