The opening does not move
An office move can run over a weekend. A store opening cannot: that date sits in a lease, in a staff rota and in an advertising campaign already bought. Everything on the IT side therefore has to be counted back from that day, and one component has a lead time of weeks. This page says what there is to do, in what order, and where our work stops and the building contractor’s begins.
Why this is not an office move
Four things that are no problem in an office and decide everything on a shop floor.
- The date is fixedIn an office a weekend can be added. For a shop the opening day sits in the lease, the staff are rostered and a campaign is running. A delay costs more than the entire IT budget, so the plan is counted backwards and not forwards.
- You are one of eight partiesThe flooring, the lighting, the refrigeration, the painting and the fit-out all want the same week in the same building. You cannot pull cable until the walls are up and you have to be finished before the stock goes in. That window is narrow and it shifts.
- In a refit the shop stays openA refit is not an opening: the shop keeps trading and takings must not suffer. That means working after closing time, in sections, with the old tills running until the new ones work. That is a different project with the same equipment.
- The connection is the long poleA fixed line has a lead time of weeks to months, while the rest can be done in days. If it is not delivered in time you open on 4G or 5G and we switch over later. That is a good fallback and a poor plan A, because the tills and the payment traffic hang off it.
Five steps, counted back from opening day
The first step happens months before the last, and that is exactly where it usually goes wrong.
Order the connection
This is step one and not step five. As soon as the address is known the line is ordered and we check what is already there. If it will not arrive in time you know that now and not in the week of the opening, and we arrange 4G or 5G as the first connection.
Cabling before the walls close
Data to the tills, the kiosks, the screens, the cameras and the access points, plus the cabinet where it all comes together. This has to happen in the window between the walls going up and the plastering. Adding it afterwards means breaking things open.
One setup, prepared in advance
The equipment is configured, connected, tested and shipped labelled per store at our end, in the same composition for every branch. That makes the installation day a day of building and not a day of working things out, and it means a fault can be fixed remotely later.
The installation day
Network up, tills and kiosks placed, Wi-Fi measured in the fitted-out shop and not in the empty space, screens mounted and the payment terminal connected. Measuring an empty shop gives a result that no longer holds once the fixtures are in.
Handover
The busiest support day is day one, with staff using the equipment for the first time. The shop therefore moves across to the service desk before it opens, with the setup documented, so the first question does not land with the project manager.
From the cable to the day after, and what we do not cover
This is the same equipment and the same rollout job as the rest of the store IT on this site.
- The network and the cablingPulling data, fitting out the cabinet, placing access points and measuring the Wi-Fi. Across several branches that becomes one design that is the same everywhere, so a fault in store eleven is the same as a fault in store three.
- The setup per storeTills, scanners, receipt printers, cash drawers, self-service kiosks, screens and the mounting around them. One composition for the whole chain, because that is what makes spares and instructions possible.
- The rollout across several storesTwelve openings in a year is a schedule and not twelve rounds of improvisation. In the Netherlands and Belgium our own people do that on site; beyond that we work with established local parties.
- Where our boundary sitsWe are not a building contractor and we do not run the fit-out. The flooring, the walls, the circuits in the consumer unit and the refrigeration are building work for your contractor; we pull data cable and mount equipment, and we connect to what they deliver. The payment terminal comes from your payment provider; we mount it.
What goes with this
A shop opens with everything at once, so this touches the rest of the site.
Questions we get about this
The ones that come up most, answered briefly.
When do you need to be involved?
As soon as the address is known, so before a contractor is on site. The internet connection has a lead time of weeks to months and the data cable has to go in before the walls close. Those are the two things you cannot catch up on later; the rest can be done in days.
Can the shop open if the fixed line is not there yet?
Yes, on 4G or 5G, and we arrange that as soon as it looks like the line will not make it. It is a good fallback and a poor plan A: the tills and the payment traffic hang off it. Once the fixed line arrives we switch over without closing the shop.
Do you carry out the fit-out yourselves?
No. We are not a building contractor: the flooring, the walls, the circuits in the consumer unit and the refrigeration are building work for your contractor. We pull the data cable, fit out the cabinet, place the equipment and connect to what they deliver. In a refit of a trading shop we work after closing time.
Give us the date, we count back
Give the opening day and the address, and we know when the connection has to be ordered and when the cable has to go in. Those are the two things you cannot catch up on.
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