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Construction

IT for construction and trades

Construction IT has a problem no other sector has: the office moves. A site exists for eight months, needs document control and working devices from day one, and then disappears.

Most IT advice assumes a building you own, a line you installed and staff who sit in one place. Construction has none of those.

What helps is practical. Document storage where the current drawing is obvious. A written rule about verifying bank details, because the sector is a standing target for payment fraud and no product fixes that on its own. Devices that work properly on a mobile connection, because that is what a site runs on.

And devices that can be wiped, because a tablet will go missing from a cabin eventually.

On the invoice fraud specifically: the payment chain in construction is long and the sums are large, which is exactly what the scam is built for. Here is how it works and what stops it.

What we see

What this sector is up against

  • Sites with no line and no notice

    A new site is usually running on a mobile connection, and will not be there long enough to justify anything else. Drawings, photographs and timesheets still have to get back to the office over it.

  • Payment redirection on large invoices

    Construction invoices are big and the payment chain is long, which makes the sector a standing target for emails saying bank details have changed. One success pays for a lot of attempts.

  • Drawing versions that do not match

    The cost of somebody building to superseded drawings dwarfs anything IT usually gets blamed for. Version control is a document problem that becomes a very expensive site problem.

  • Devices that live in a van

    Dust, drops, theft and weather. Site devices have a harder life than office ones, and a stolen tablet with site access on it is a security problem as well as a replacement cost.

What we do about it

In the order it usually matters

  1. 1

    Make the kit work on whatever connection the site has

    We do not supply site broadband, and we will say so rather than quote for something we do not do. What we do is make sure your devices, accounts and files work properly on a mobile connection, which is usually what a site is running on.

  2. 2

    A rule that stops payment fraud

    Any change of bank details is verified by phone on a number you already held. We help you write it down and train people on it, because no product stops this on its own.

  3. 3

    One place for drawings, with history

    Document storage where the current version is obvious and the old ones are still there. Usually SharePoint, set up properly rather than as a folder called New Folder that everybody can write to.

  4. 4

    Site devices that can be wiped

    Encrypted, enrolled and remotely wipeable, so a tablet stolen from a cabin is an insurance claim rather than an access problem.

Construction: common questions

We need internet on a new site next week. Can you sort that?

Not the connection itself, no. We do not supply site broadband and we would rather tell you that than take the job and subcontract it. What we will do is make sure everything you need works over whatever connection you end up with, which for a short life site is usually mobile.

How do we stop a fake change of bank details getting paid?

With a rule rather than a product. Any change to payment details is confirmed by phone, on a number you already had, never a number from the email. Multi-factor authentication on email stops most of the mailbox access that makes these convincing in the first place.

Everybody works off different versions of the drawings. Can IT fix that?

Partly. The right storage makes the current version obvious and keeps the history, which removes most accidental use of superseded drawings. The rest is a process decision about who issues and who approves, and we will be straight about where the technology stops.

Do you work with our construction software?

We support the IT around it: the devices, the accounts, the connectivity and the backups. We are not the supplier of your estimating or project software, but we are usually the ones making it work on a site with one bar of signal.

Start somewhere

Find out where you stand

Want a straight answer about your IT?

Tell us what is not working. We will tell you what we would do about it, with no sales pitch and no obligation.

Book a free IT review Call 01482 586 550