Guide
New office IT setup in India: the checklist, in the order things must happen
By Samuel Marndi · Updated
The short answer
The expensive mistakes in a new office fit-out are almost always about order, not money. Cabling has to go in before the false ceiling closes, the internet leased line has to be ordered four to eight weeks before anyone needs it, and the electrical layout has to know where the rack and the access points are going. Get those three sequenced right and the rest is procurement.
Plan on a 10–12 week runway from signed lease to a working office for a typical 30–60 seat fit-out in an Indian city. The single longest lead item is the primary internet connection; the single most common cause of paying twice is cabling a floor after the interiors are finished.
The sequence, week by week
Timelines compress if you push, but the dependencies do not change. Anything in the 'must precede' column is a hard constraint — ignoring it means undoing finished work.
| Week | Action | Must precede |
|---|---|---|
| 1 – 2 | Order the primary internet leased line and the broadband failover | Everything — this is the longest lead item |
| 1 – 2 | Agree seat count, growth allowance and floor plan | Cabling design, AP count, switch sizing |
| 2 – 3 | Network and CCTV design: point count, rack location, AP positions, camera positions | Electrical layout and civil work |
| 3 – 4 | Share rack and AP positions with the electrical contractor | Power drops, earthing, ceiling openings |
| 4 – 6 | Structured cabling pulled and terminated | False ceiling closing — non-negotiable |
| 5 – 7 | CCTV and access control cabling, in the same ceiling window | Ceiling closing |
| 6 – 8 | Rack build, switches, firewall, UPS, Wi-Fi commissioning | Leased line handover |
| 7 – 9 | Servers or cloud tenancy, email, file storage, backup | User accounts |
| 8 – 10 | Endpoints imaged, accounts created, MFA enforced, printers configured | Move-in |
| 9 – 10 | Certified test results, labelling, as-built documentation, credential handover | Sign-off |
| 10 – 12 | Move-in, floor-walking support, snag list | Going live |
The five decisions to make before anyone quotes
- Headcount at year three, not at move-in. Cabling and switch capacity are cheap to add during the fit-out and expensive to add afterwards. Cable for the seats you expect to have, not the ones you are hiring this quarter.
- Server room or cloud. Most new Indian SMB offices are better on cloud — no room to air-condition, no UPS to maintain, remote work works by default. Keep on-premise equipment where a specific application, a large media library or a genuine compliance requirement demands it.
- Who owns the internet contract. Leased lines are commonly signed by whoever moves fastest, which is sometimes the interior contractor. It should be your company, in your name, with the account credentials with you.
- The rack's location and power. It needs ventilation or cooling, a dedicated earthed circuit, UPS backing, physical lock and no water pipes above it. Deciding this in week three costs nothing; deciding it in week eight means moving power.
- Who supports it from day one. The fit-out vendor disappears at handover. Decide before move-in whether support sits with an AMC, with managed support or with an in-house hire — the gap between handover and that decision is when undocumented environments are born.
What to insist on at handover
Handover is the only moment you have real leverage, because payment is still outstanding. Everything below is normal to ask for and cheap to produce at the time — and all of it becomes an expensive archaeology exercise six months later.
- Certified test report for every cable link, with the port map it matches
- As-built drawing showing points, camera positions, AP positions and cable routes
- Photographs of the rack, front and rear, before the doors close
- Every admin credential — switches, firewall, Wi-Fi controller, NVR, UPS — in your company's name
- Warranty documents with model and serial numbers, matched to an asset register you keep
- A written snag list with dates, signed by both sides
- Confirmation that default passwords have been changed on every device, in writing
The mistakes that cost the most to undo
Four failures account for most of the remedial work I get called into on new offices, and every one of them is a decision made in the first month.
Cabling after the ceiling closed, which multiplies the labour. Undersized PoE, so access points and cameras reboot under load. No documentation, so the second vendor charges to rediscover the first vendor's work. And an internet link ordered in week six for a move-in in week ten, which is how offices open running on someone's mobile hotspot.
None of these are technical problems. They are sequencing problems, which is why the checklist above is ordered rather than grouped by category.
FAQ
Related questions
How long does IT setup take for a new office in India?
Plan 10–12 weeks from signed lease to working office for a 30–60 seat fit-out. The critical path is the primary internet leased line, which commonly takes four to eight weeks from order to handover, and the cabling window, which must fall before the false ceiling closes.
What should we order first for a new office?
The internet connection, before anything else — it has the longest lead time and everything else waits on it. Immediately after that, agree the seat count and floor plan so that cabling, access point positions and rack location can be designed and handed to the electrical contractor before civil work starts.
Do we need a server room in a new office?
Usually not. Most new Indian SMB offices run better on cloud services with a well-specified network and no on-premise server at all — no room to cool, no UPS to maintain, and remote work supported by default. Keep on-premise where a specific application, large local media, or a genuine compliance requirement makes it necessary.
When should CCTV be planned for a new office?
At the same time as network cabling, in the same ceiling window. Camera positions affect cable routes and power, and installing them after the ceiling closes costs several times more. It is also the point at which retention requirements should be agreed, because they determine the recorder and disk sizing.
What is the biggest avoidable cost in an office fit-out?
Cabling a floor after the interiors are finished. Labour dominates cabling cost, and working above installed ceilings, through partitions and around occupied desks can multiply it several times over compared with the same points pulled into a bare shell.
Who should hold the internet and equipment accounts?
Your company, always. Leased lines, firewall licences, Wi-Fi controllers and recorder logins registered in a contractor's name are a routine and entirely avoidable problem — it surfaces the first time you change vendors and cannot get into your own equipment.