Industries · Construction & trades
IT for contractors, trades and field crews
Your crews are spread across sites from Vancouver to Chilliwack and the office behind them is holding the estimates, the draws and the paperwork together. We keep both halves connected — including the sites where nothing has been hooked up yet.
IT priorities
- A connectivity plan for each new site, sorted before the trailer lands
- Multi-factor authentication on email, accounting and project management
- Managed, remotely wipeable phones and tablets, with spares on the shelf
- A phone-callback rule before any supplier or subcontractor banking change is actioned
- Photos and drawings stored centrally, backed up, and searchable by job
- Offboarding that closes seasonal and subcontract accounts the week the crew leaves
Overview
Technology for construction and trades businesses
A contractor's technology splits in two. In the office there is estimating and takeoff, project management carrying daily logs, RFIs and change orders, and accounting and payroll running job costing and holdbacks. In the field there are phones and tablets in trucks, a scheduling and dispatch board, the current plan set, and a growing pile of site photos. Both halves have to be looking at the same job, and that is where most of the trouble starts.
The field half is the harder one. Sites move, and the good ones are a concrete shell with no circuit ordered yet, so connectivity has to be built before the trailer lands. Devices get dropped, rained on and left in a cab overnight. Crews scale up in spring and turn over between subcontracts, so accounts appear quickly and rarely get removed. Meanwhile the money moves in large, scheduled amounts — progress draws and supplier invoices — which is exactly what payment redirection fraud is built around. And a single job can generate revision after revision of the drawing set plus thousands of photos that nobody has decided where to keep.
We support construction and trades businesses remotely first, which is how most field problems get solved without waiting for a visit, and on site across Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley when equipment needs hands. The work is practical: connectivity that exists before the crew arrives, devices that can be replaced without losing a day, storage that can actually hold years of photos and drawings, and sign-in security around the accounts that approve payments.
Scope
What we look after
What we keep running
- Estimating and takeoff software, and the plan sets it reads
- Project management, daily logs, RFIs and change orders
- Accounting and payroll with job costing and holdback tracking
- Scheduling and dispatch boards the field actually looks at
- Phones, tablets and laptops in trucks, trailers and site offices
Connectivity on site
- Cellular and fixed wireless for sites with no circuit ordered yet
- Trailer and container site offices built to move to the next job
- Wi-Fi that reaches through concrete and steel as the floor plan changes
- Secure remote access to office files and the accounting system from site
- A failover path so one dead link doesn't stop the day
Devices and access in the field
- Managed phones and tablets that can be wiped remotely when one goes missing
- A documented replacement path for devices that break or go missing
- Multi-factor authentication on email, accounting and project management
- Photo and drawing storage that isn't a full phone or a personal account
- Access that ends when a seasonal hire or a subcontract crew leaves
Pressures
What makes IT different for construction and trades businesses
Connectivity arrives after the crew
A circuit in a new building can take months to order and install. Cellular or fixed wireless has to carry the site office, the tablets and the cameras in the meantime, and that is a design decision rather than a hotspot someone buys on the way in.
Devices live a hard life
Tablets get dropped, soaked and left in a cab overnight. The question is not whether one dies this quarter; it is whether the crew loses a day when it does. Spares and a configuration that restores itself matter more than specifications.
Nobody is at a desk
Support that assumes a keyboard and a quiet room doesn't work for a foreman on a roof. Help has to work by phone, on a small screen, and with the understanding that the work stops while the conversation happens.
Seasonal and subcontract turnover
Crews grow in the spring and change between jobs. Accounts and project access get created in minutes and removed months late, and every stale login is an open door on a business that moves large payments.
The money is the target
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre describes payment redirection fraud that starts with a compromised or spoofed mailbox, studies the payment patterns, then emails a supplier's updated banking details at the right moment. Progress draws and payables fit that pattern exactly.
Records outlive the job
Photos, drawings, daily logs and safety paperwork are the evidence when a deficiency, a lien or a claim surfaces later. Left on personal phones and accounts, none of it is backed up, and none of it is findable three years on.
Priorities
Where we start
- A connectivity plan for each new site, sorted before the trailer lands
- Multi-factor authentication on email, accounting and project management
- Managed, remotely wipeable phones and tablets, with spares on the shelf
- A phone-callback rule before any supplier or subcontractor banking change is actioned
- Photos and drawings stored centrally, backed up, and searchable by job
- Offboarding that closes seasonal and subcontract accounts the week the crew leaves
Other sectors
We also support
Every sector is supported across Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
FAQ
IT for construction and trades businesses: questions
Can you get us online at a site with no internet service yet?
Usually. Until a circuit can be ordered and installed we use cellular or fixed wireless, sized for what the site actually does — two tablets and a printer is a different build than a trailer office running the accounting system and cameras. We set it up so the same equipment moves to the next job. See networks and servers.
Our crews aren't at computers. Does managed IT still make sense?
More, not less. The support load simply moves from desktops to phones, tablets, accounts and connectivity, and the cost of a bad morning is a crew standing around rather than one person waiting. We support you remotely first and come on site across the region when equipment needs hands. Our managed IT vs break-fix guide compares the two models.
How do we stop a fraudulent change to supplier banking details?
Two layers, and you need both. Technically: multi-factor authentication on every mailbox, email filtering and domain authentication, and an alert when someone creates a forwarding rule. Procedurally: no banking change is actioned without a call to a number you already had on file, and that rule applies to the owner as much as to accounts payable. Our cybersecurity checklist covers the technical half.
How long do we need to keep job photos, drawings and safety records?
Longer than the job. Under BC's Builders Lien Act a claim of lien can be filed as late as 45 days after a certificate of completion is issued, or after the work is completed or abandoned where there is no certificate. WorkSafeBC requires first aid records to be kept at least three years and kept confidential. Your contracts and insurer will add their own periods — then storage and backup have to match.
Can AI do anything useful in a construction business?
On the office side, often. Drafting scopes and letters from rough notes, pulling numbers out of a document, summarizing daily logs, sorting and captioning site photos, and answering which invoice a cost landed on. It works when the files are already organized, which is usually the first job. See AI consulting and our guide to what to automate first.
Services
Services for construction and trades businesses
Managed IT Services
Help desk, device and Microsoft 365 management, security and backups — your outsourced IT department under one agreement.
Learn more->Networks & Servers
Wi-Fi, firewalls, switches, cabling, VPNs and servers — designed, installed, documented and supported.
Learn more->Cybersecurity
Security assessments, MFA, endpoint protection, email security, backups and staff training — the controls that stop common attacks.
Learn more->
Guides
Guides for business owners
[IT strategy]
Business Network Setup: A Checklist for New Offices
What to plan before you sign a lease: internet, cabling, Wi-Fi, firewall and network segmentation, plus a move-day checklist for a new office.
[IT strategy]
Managed IT Services vs. Break-Fix IT Support: Which Fits Your Business?
Managed IT services vs. break-fix IT support: plain definitions, how each is priced, pros and cons, hybrid options and the questions to ask before you sign.
[Security]
Cybersecurity Checklist for Small Businesses in BC
A cybersecurity checklist for BC small businesses built on the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security’s baseline controls, plus what to do after a breach.
Get in touch
Talk to us about IT for your construction & trade
Tell us about your business and what you need from technology. We reply within one business day.
Tell us what's going on
Send the form or call. A rough idea of your team size and current setup helps us come prepared.
A 30-minute conversation
We ask about your people, systems and goals, and flag anything urgent we notice along the way.
A written proposal
Clear scope, a plain-English plan and pricing laid out line by line. Nothing starts until you approve it.