The Importance of Keeping Cables Tidy in Your Office

By Derek Rogers Platinum Quality Author

With the array of technology and ever changing electronics that come and go during the lifetime of an office, you've probably had to move, swap and rotate various items in that time. After a while though, cabling can become a knotted mess. This is especially true with systems that have had to replace certain components and many times; particularly as it is often tempting to take the equipment out of the box and start using it, kicking the cabling to the side.

There are numerous health and safety issues at play whenever you have trailing cables, tangling in and out of desks and along corridors; but human danger is equally replicated with the computers, networks and other devices themselves.

Untidy cabling can lead to trip and fall accidents or equipment being pulled off a desk and broken. The more complicated the network becomes the more crucial it is to keep cables tidy, wrapped up and marked. This might be easier said than done as the system has probably developed over a period of time and you are afraid to disconnect certain cabling for fear you won't get the network back up. This is where a network support company can help you because it can save service call time later, when you have to figure out what cable goes to what, when it is coming through several hubs or routers.

When you consider that many network support company calls end up being for bad cable ends, either because they have been pulled too tightly or they have been pulled out of their connection port, you can see the importance of keeping cables tidy to save on your computer network service calls; particularly when you factor in the associated costs. Keeping your cables tidy makes it easy to change out bad routers and hubs or a printer that has multiple users. Because many of the small and medium sized companies may have networks that contain a rack system with a switch, hub, routers and more, you can see how important it is to have cables that aren't tangled and clearly marked.

While the process might take a little bit of time, it is so much easier to troubleshoot cables that have come loose, or ports that have gone bad. You have to consider tidy cabling as an investment that will pay off in later frustration and service call time. Of course, the easiest thing is to wrap and mark cabling as you add it to your system. This just takes a few seconds more but can save a lot of time later, so it is definitely worthwhile. Each time you add new printers, monitors, or workstations, tidying the cables should be part of the installation.

As we get more electronics in our offices, the importance of keeping tidy cables in your office will become more evident. There are many mishaps that have happened when somebody accidentally trips over a cable or gets one wrapped around the wheel of a rolling office chair. Tidy cables can protect your equipment, your employees and save time, particularly when it comes to troubleshooting a network problem. The importance of keeping cable tidy in your office includes savings on service calls, broken equipment, and trip and fall accidents.

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who writes for a number of UK businesses. For information on Structured Cabling, he recommends Network 24.