Put IT cutover on the operating plan for the move

Start with the activities people must carry out at each site during the overlap. Identify the authorised user, necessary information and consequence if the service is unavailable.

A practical enquiry to the provider could cover:

• Receiving a customer enquiry and reaching the person who can answer it.
• Retrieving the current authorised job instruction.
• Recording an order's accepted location and status.
• Obtaining and retaining the required inspection decision.
• Producing the agreed despatch information.
• Accessing the records needed to invoice and answer a later query.

Add the actual applications, devices and specialist interfaces through the relevant system owners. Describe any current workarounds honestly. A person carrying information between offices may be providing a service that never appears on an application inventory.

The drawing-version guide covers one important distinction: making documents available and making the correct authorised version identifiable.

Use an authorised test record or a safely chosen example agreed with the relevant system owners. Avoid entering a dummy customer order into live production without the controls those owners require.

Ask staff at the intended locations to follow the example through the ordinary route. Can the enquiry reach the right person? Can the order owner obtain the instruction? Can the quality decision be recorded? Can the fulfilment team retrieve the accepted information? Can the administration team find what it needs afterwards?

Record where the journey stops and whether the problem concerns access, information, a process decision or a technical service. Give it to the appropriate owner. A successful demonstration by an administrator with exceptional access does not necessarily show the normal user's experience.

Agree the required evidence and acceptance with the provider and business leads before the planned change. Include the appropriate recovery and data-protection arrangements through the responsible specialists, without assuming that a copy or backup has been tested merely because it exists.

The new-site readiness sheet should include these business results where they affect the transferred work. Keep enquiry routing working through the change so customers can obtain an answer even while internal locations shift.

When a technical delay changes equipment availability, update the UK Auction Group enquiry with the business consequence. Share the revised release condition rather than internal access details, credentials or customer records. The surplus discussion needs an accurate operating position, not the technical recovery plan.

More coordination guides are in Phased moves and continuity.