Design technology into building from start of planning process

A building's telecommunications and technology design is taking its rightful place among the other building systems that should be planned from the very beginning. The location of the server room is no less important a consideration than the location of the air handling units or the electrical outlets.

How technology and telecommunications differ from other basic office needs such as power and water is in the wide array of choices that a building owner or tenant has when deciding the type of system to install.

As telecommunications technology evolves, that array is only getting wider, and building owners and tenants can improve productivity, efficiency and market share by keeping on top of the latest choices for office networking.

Plug and play
The commercial real estate industry is witnessing the advent of the office in which data networking and telephone system equipment and services are installed and ready to use immediately: The "plug-and-play" office.

The plug-and-play office is pre-wired for telephone and Internet access to support day-one operation for tenants, and the infrastructure is maintained by the building owner.

Design typically includes wiring, network electronics, telephone system and wireless infrastructure to support a variety of needs, such as local and long-distance telephone, Internet access, local area network, wireless network and connection to remote offices via a wide area network. Fundamental to this concept is a flexible infrastructure that accommodates a wide variety of tenants.

For businesses that need to be operating in new office space quickly, plug-and-play offices offer immediate connectivity. For companies that don't want to bear the burden of infrastructure deployment, the plug-and-play office comes with infrastructure and around-the-clock dedicated support staff in place.

Building owners benefit by being able to create very attractive lease environments. In selected markets, the plug-and-play office can represent a distinct competitive advantage in commercial real estate, where competition for the leaseholder is fierce.

Voice over internet protocol
Companies looking to reduce the need for cabling may choose to integrate the new technology of Voice over Internet Protocol.

By definition, VoIP is voice signals transmitted over the data network or Internet as data packets.

As such, VoIP will allow building owners to combine voice and data network systems into a single infrastructure, reducing the need for dedicated voice cabling.

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