In one of the largest office transactions in Chicago's history, Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP will be moving into 500,000 square feet, and serve as principal tenant of the 820,000 square foot office tower at One South Dearborn.  Construction for the new office building started in late 2003, and the firm will be moving into the new space this month.

Moving a firm the size of Sidley takes many months of planning, and the need to effectively track and place over 1,400 people, thousands of computers and servers, endless amounts of furniture and other items is essential.  After initial meetings and discussions, the decision was made to create a database to track information for the move.  The database, known as the "Master Move Database," was created in ASP.NET with a SQL server backend.  It tracks people, facilities and assets for the office move;  it pulls specific human resource information from PeopleSoft, new floor plan information from Aperture and asset information from Remedy;  it allows manual data entry for such things as new secretarial assignments, phone numbers and preference for the placement of computers, monitors and telephones. 

The combined data is displayed in a simple Web interface on the firm's intranet, and it also features the ability to track issues related to the move.  Data tracking decisions were made by Information Services and the Project Management Office and approved by Director of Administration for the Chicago office.

The technology of the database is not the only important aspect of this endeavor - the business and workflow processes behind the database are equally critical.  The move is classified into three distinct phases:  before, during and after.  Several key tasks were identified to work with the data during these time periods, and our Project Management Office was tasked with identifying the workflow.

The key to the first phase was to identify all employees, facilities and items in a "Pre-Move Checklist."  To accomplish this task, over 60 move coordinators were assigned to interview people and survey common areas.  A custom survey was created from the Master Move Database in which computer assets, personal furniture, art and other items were recorded and verified.  Once the surveys were returned, the data was updated in the database for reporting and tracking.

The night before the move, each move coordinator will reverify this information in an "Exit Checklist," and any new information will be collected and entered into the system.  In addition, each person will be packing his or her belongings in crates, and the total number of crates will be tracked in the Exit Checklist and entered back into the database.  With this information, the designated "Move Team" will be able to determine if a crate is missing after the move, as they will be visiting every office, cubicle and facility location to verify this information.

During the move itself, a "Post-Move Checklist" for every person and public facility will be printed from the Master Move Database and taped to each door or cubicle.  This final checklist contains the following information:

• user information;
• total number of packed crates, computer asset information, personal art and personal furniture;
• signature areas for the Technical Reconnect Teams and Quality Assurance Teams; and
• layout maps of where computers, phones and personal items should be placed.

"Reconnect Teams" will place computer equipment according to the layout map, "Quality Assurance Teams" will make sure computer equipment is functioning properly, and "Facility Teams" will verify everything is working as designed.  Each team will sign the Post-Move Checklist confirming their work is complete.

In addition, during the move, any problems with an office, cubicle or facility area will be triaged at "Mission Control," staffed by Information Services and Facilities personnel.  Outstanding issues will be entered into the Master Move Database and routed to the appropriate individuals for resolution.  Hourly reports will be run around the clock until all issues are resolved.

After the move, a final sign-off from the Move Team will be conducted, and each new office, cubicle or facility area will be marked in the database as "Complete" or "Incomplete" depending on the resolution status.  Up-to-date reports from the database will indicate the progress of the move and indicate the areas that still need to be completed.  The team will continue to work on unresolved issues as the week progresses.  Once all issues have been resolved, the database will be decommissioned but will be used again for future firm moves.

Although the move is a huge logistical undertaking, the efforts and thought that have gone into the Master Move Database should by all accounts contribute to a relatively organized approach for the relocation.  We are all confident that with continued planning and cooperation, we will make the move as smooth and successful as possible.

About our author . . .

Nick Maviano is a Senior Project Manager in the Project Management Office at Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP.  He is responsible for many different technology and business related projects.  Nick has been with Sidley since 1999 and can be reached at nmaviano@sidley.com.