Managed IT Services For Construction Firms

The construction industry has improved by leaps and bounds over the years, thanks to technology. It will be counterproductive to say your business can live without IT. But how exactly can a managed services provider make the lives of construction firms better?

Technology is great. There’s no denying that. If our ancestors 50 years ago saw us now, they would all be in awe to see how easy things are for us. With technological tools, we can easily transform a tedious manual process into an automated one. Technology helps businesses reach record efficiency while trimming costs – which is the goal in any business.

This holds for a lot of businesses, even for construction firms. Historically, the construction industry spends the least on IT – less than 1% of their annual revenue. This results in more than 52% of contractors still relying on pen and paper for just about everything from project management, estimates, and bids. IT solutions exist for construction firms who are looking for a way to take their business to the next level.

But getting an in-house IT team might do more harm than good to the organization. That’s why the best solution is to get a managed service provider to help them with all the IT needs. It has everything an in-house IT can offer without having to worry about training a whole new team.

How Can Managed IT Services Help My Construction Firm?

It’s always good form to always look for the benefits of a new addition to your organization. Just because it works for others does not mean it will work for you. This cautious nature is what separates good decision-makers from the rest.

So how exactly can a managed service provider make the life of a construction firm better? Well, let’s count them down. I oblige you to check if it applies to your current needs.

Setting Up the Basics

Many businesses are guilty of not setting up their “business basics” and just operating on the fly. The basics include phone systems, email, and other office productivity tools. It’s not rare to hear construction firms say, “we’ve been using this for the longest time, and it works, so we don’t really see a reason to change it,” which is a perfect representation of the industry’s focus on getting the work done instead of targeting efficiency. With managed IT services and a good managed services provider, your construction firm can enjoy convenient, easy to use, and accessible tools that they can use whether they are in the field or inside your office.

With a proper VoIP phone system in place or project management setup in place, not only will you have something that works but also something that works efficiently.

Going for Automation

Having issues with people forgetting their tasks? Maybe missed a meeting because you didn’t get a call from your secretary? Automation can do all these things from schedule to task management without the need for human intervention. As a result, everything is faster, and errors are reduced because there’s no human involved in the process – and your computer will never forget your meeting at 3.

Sadly, automation is a hard sell for construction firms mostly because it sounds very foreign to them. Coupled with the fact that employees and decision-makers are too busy working. As such, there’s no real workflow created, and things operate on a “we’ve always done it this way” method. With a good IT team to help you out, they can map out the workflow and find processes that can be automated. They can also create a recommendation on different tools and gadgets that can fit your business’s needs. This way, your current process can easily be integrated into the tech infrastructure with less interruption as possible.

Finding the Right Tools

Suppose there’s an industry that knows how the right tools can make everything easier. It would be the construction industry. While construction firms can easily point out the best tools to use in leveling, hammering, and drilling, an IT team can help them find the right tools to accelerate their work. New technology, such as BIM or building information modeling, is gaining popularity nowadays. Without the right tools, it will be hard for a construction firm to maximize BIM for their projects.

There are also seemingly small IT concerns that have plagued the construction industry since the beginning of time, including collaboration. With documents containing the plans and models reaching file sizes that become hard to share through email, collaborating on a project across distances has been a pain for construction firms. Also, firms are looking for ways to turn an employee’s phone into more than just a contact device. Basically transforming it into a field instrument for various core applications.

With the fast pace of technological advancements in the construction field, adapting to the changes has become necessary and not just a choice. If you want to survive this wave of changes, you need a trusted IT team to be at the helm.

Fostering A Support Structure

Like in any tool you have in the construction industry, your company’s IT aspect needs special attention as well. You need to update your hardware as well as do scheduled maintenance regularly. Upgrades and patches are also needed to ensure the software is up-to-date. You also need to ensure your system is ready for scaling if you need to hire new employees. With the proper system in place, you can set everything up from payroll to email accounts and even access restrictions within a few hours. Lastly, the data you create as a firm needs to be placed in secure and well-maintained storage, so you don’t get compromised.

A managed IT team can help set up the “IT support structure” for your firm to ensure everything is in order. By doing regular maintenance, software checks, and issue troubleshooting, you can rest assured that the IT team is on top of everything to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible.

Security and Safety

Whenever people talk about IT, they often focus on the many advantages, but one must remember that it has its own set of risks. The risks range from loss of data, downtime, crashes, and cyber threats. It’s easy to assume that you are the last organization that should be bothered by IT problems, right? However, once you realize the consequences of suffering from these IT concerns, you will realize that your construction firm is fair game. Just imagine losing your plans and models because of a malware attack. How can you possibly solve that without proper backups and security measures?

An IT team’s goal is not just to provide you with the right tools or to set up your network. It is also their job to ensure the IT infrastructure you have is safe and secure. To do this, they will need to employ several strategies that will ensure, whatever happens, your organization won’t suffer as much. Lost your data due to a power outage? Recover your data from the hourly backups the IT team makes. Getting attacked by cybercriminals? Your IT team can put into action several methods to ensure they don’t get into your network. With a managed IT team, not only will you have a good IT infrastructure, but you will also have something safe and secure.

Looking for a managed IT service provider may be challenging as they are a dime a dozen nowadays. The best bet is to always go for a name that is trusted by businesses for years. Atlantic-IT is one of those companies. A trusted name in providing managed IT services to businesses in North Carolina, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. With a team of seasoned IT specialists and engineers, you will be provided a customized IT solution for your construction firm. So if you are looking for an IT partner, call Atlantic-IT today and ask how they can help your business rise above the competition.