Start Your Location Search With IT

Searching for a new office or business space almost always starts with the same questions. Where do we want to be located? How many square meters do we need? How many workstations? What can it cost? How many parking spaces are there? Only much later does someone raise the question of how things actually stand with IT.

That order is unfortunate. An attractive location, a good lease agreement and a well-finished interior deliver little once, after signing, it turns out that the digital infrastructure does not match what the organization needs. By then the renovation is already underway, and changes become complicated and costly.

What we propose is to reverse the order. First examine what an organization needs digitally, then examine what a building can digitally support, and only after that design, fit out and furnish.

The IT question starts before the viewing

An organization that is relocating usually knows fairly precisely how much space it needs. Much harder to answer is the question of what is needed digitally. That starts with an honest inventory of the organization's own usage before a single building has even been viewed.

• How much internet capacity is actually needed?
• How much data traffic occurs simultaneously?
• Is redundancy necessary for business operations?
• How many access points are needed for adequate coverage?
• Which cloud applications are business-critical?
• What requirements do AI and future data consumption bring?
• Are specific server, security or IoT provisions needed?

These are not questions for after the lease has been signed. They can determine which building is suitable at all. Answering them in advance turns the search from a gamble into a targeted selection.

"Fiber available" does not say enough

A lease brochure today regularly states that fiber is available. Pleasant to read, but the statement by itself says little. Does the fiber actually enter the leased space, or does it stop at the property line? Which provider supplies it, and with what capacity? Can a second provider deliver, so that genuine redundancy becomes possible?

Underneath that lie questions that nobody puts in a brochure. What backbone is in place, what data cabling is present, what does the patch or server room look like, and who is responsible for which part? A postcode check gives no answer to that. The fact that fiber runs through the street still does not tell you whether the building is digitally suitable for your organization.

Choosing a building based on the promise "fiber available" is like buying a car because there is a gas station nearby.

Look under the digital hood first

That is why IT-Label offers a pre-inspection of the digital delivery level. During such a pre-inspection, a broad assessment is made of what is digitally present: the connection, the cabling, the technical rooms, the WiFi and the building systems. The result is an indicative picture of the digital delivery level and any points of attention.

Think of it as the test drive before you buy the car, or as the digital inspection before you decide to lease the building. The point is not to label a building good or bad, but to make visible what is actually there, so the decision rests on facts rather than assumptions.

The outcome can be translated into the IT-Label classification methodology, ranging from IT5 SHELL to IT1+ PREMIUM. This way an organization not only knows that something is present, but also what that level means for its own use.

Why before the fit-out?

It is precisely during the fit-out phase that things regularly go wrong in practice. The lease has been signed, the architect begins, the layout is determined, walls are drawn in, ceilings are closed and the furniture is ordered. Only then does IT come to the table.

It then turns out that extra cabling is needed, that access points need to be positioned elsewhere, that the server room lacks sufficient cooling, or that a second fiber route is not possible. Cable trays, ceilings and walls have to be opened up again. That costs money, but above all it costs time and causes frustration for everyone involved in the project.

IT-Label therefore prefers to see digital infrastructure as input for the design rather than as a correction afterward. This idea is now also being applied in collaborations with fit-out and project parties: digital insight first, then final design and construction. This approach aligns with what we call sensible capex planning, in which investments are made at the right moment.

The logical order

Tomorrow's property journey looks different in our view. Square meters are not at the front, but the usage and the resulting digital need are.

1. Examine the organization. How does the company work today and tomorrow, and how many people, devices and digital processes are involved?
2. Determine digital needs. What capacity, connectivity, redundancy, WiFi, security and infrastructure are necessary?
3. Search for locations. Select only buildings that can fit structurally, financially and digitally.
4. Carry out a pre-inspection. Look under the digital hood before the final decision.
5. Determine lease terms and demarcation. Establish what the landlord delivers and what the tenant realizes itself.
6. Design and fit-out. Only once the digital requirements are known can the space be properly designed.
7. Furnishing and occupation. The IT infrastructure is part of the overall concept rather than a last-minute project.

The demarcation between landlord and tenant deserves particular attention in this order. Who delivers which part of the infrastructure is rarely self-evident and belongs in the lease agreement, not in a conversation afterward.

IT is no longer an afterthought

This calls for a different way of thinking within real estate. Before closing a deal, after all, we already establish whether the square meters are sufficient, whether the parking need fits, whether the floor load is suitable, whether the power capacity is adequate and whether the zoning is correct. Digital capacity belongs in that same list.

For a growing number of organizations, internet is no longer a convenience but a business-critical utility. Without connectivity, cloud software, telephony, payments, access control, video meetings and a growing number of AI applications simply do not function. Examining that capacity after the decision has been made is therefore a risk nobody needs to take.

Research first, then search

There is a natural connection with RE-SEARCH. RE-SEARCH guides organizations in finding commercial real estate and starts from the user's needs. Not only location, rent and square meters, but increasingly also the question of what digital infrastructure an organization needs. The approach can be summarized as: first examine what the user needs, and only then search for suitable locations.

This creates a logical division of tasks. Where RE-SEARCH examines what an organization needs, IT-Label can then make visible what a building has to offer digitally. This collaboration makes the digital question part of the search instead of a separate topic.

Take the first step

The best workplace is not only well designed, it also has to function. Today, but also in five or ten years. That is why the first question about a new location should no longer be only how many square meters you need, but also what your organization needs digitally and whether this building can actually deliver that.

If you want to take that question seriously, start with an IT-Label pre-inspection before making a final location decision. And if you first want to understand how the methodology works and what the classification means for your situation, read how the IT-Label works. Digital research first, then design, fit-out and furnishing: this is how we make visible what is still invisible today.