Field note / IT projects

A move date does not care whether the network is ready. Qualify the project before you promise the date.

Projects, migrations, procurement, and hardware are explicitly excluded from the two published CAD reference bands. That is not an oversight - recurring monthly pricing cannot honestly absorb a one-time office move, a new-site cutover, or a technology rollout. Project work gets its own scope and its own price.

Why projects sit outside the bands

Essential and Plus price a repeating month, not a one-time outcome.

A monthly reference band works because the same category of request repeats in a predictable pattern. An office move, a new-site network build, or a platform rollout is the opposite: a defined start, a defined finish, and a result that either happened correctly or did not. Pricing that inside a per-user monthly figure would either overcharge every ordinary month to cover an occasional move, or silently underfund the move itself.

Review the two reference bands and what they exclude →

Project type

Office move or relocation

Network, workstations, and phones need to land in a new space on a fixed date.

Included pattern: Sequencing network, workstation, and connectivity cutover around a physical move date.
Required inputs: The move date, new-site floor plan or cabling status, and what must be live on day one.
Explicit exclusions: Cabling, construction, or landlord-side work outside a qualified IT scope.

Project type

New-site setup

A new location needs a network, endpoints, and access built from nothing.

Included pattern: Standing up a new location's network, endpoints, and access from a defined starting point.
Required inputs: Headcount at the site, required systems, and connectivity already ordered or in place.
Explicit exclusions: Sourcing the physical connectivity circuit itself, which stays a separate vendor relationship.

Project type

Technology rollout

A platform migration, a new line-of-business system, or a fleet refresh needs to land on a schedule.

Included pattern: A defined change delivered against an agreed plan, for a named group of users.
Required inputs: What is changing, for whom, and by when.
Explicit exclusions: Open-ended "modernize everything" scope with no named endpoint.

Project type

Hardware and procurement-adjacent work

A refresh or new-site equipment list needs specifying and coordinating.

Included pattern: Specifying and coordinating a hardware refresh or new-site equipment list.
Required inputs: A budget range and any existing vendor relationships.
Explicit exclusions: The partner's own commercial terms with a hardware vendor, which stay with the partner.

See who buys, who advises, and who stays out, in general →

Boundary table

How a project differs from a recurring lane.

Question	Why the recurring bands cannot answer it	Where it gets answered
What does the project cost?	Price depends on scope, timeline pressure, and site conditions a monthly reference band cannot anticipate.	A separate project quote, after scope is walked through.
How long will it take?	Timeline depends on site readiness, vendor dependencies, and how much can happen outside business hours.	Set in the project plan, not assumed from a reference band.
Does this affect the recurring lane's price?	A one-time project does not change a monthly reference band unless the environment itself changes afterward.	Reviewed once the project closes and the new environment is documented.
Who owns a delay caused by a vendor or landlord?	Dependencies outside the qualified project scope are not delivery's to guarantee.	Named in the project plan before work starts.

What not to promise yet

Keep the offer honest until scope is walked through.

A fixed price before a scope walkthrough
A guaranteed completion date before site conditions are confirmed
Onsite coverage or travel commitments not yet agreed
Ownership of a vendor or landlord dependency
A recurring-band discount for taking on project work

A well-scoped project is a straightforward, sellable engagement. An open-ended one usually costs delivery more hours than anyone quoted, and costs the partner a client's confidence.

See the recurring delivery catalogue for comparison →

Related decision

A cloud migration is a specific kind of project.

Server virtualization and cloud-migration work follows the same project logic, with its own environment-specific qualification questions.

Review cloud and virtualization scope

Bring the date and the outcome, not a fixed number.

Name what has to be true by which date. That is enough to start scoping a project quote.

Discuss a project scope