IT that moves with the project
A construction firm opens a new site with every project: a site office, a connection, people working there temporarily and equipment that has to take dust and rain. At the end it all goes away again. That is not an office question but a rollout repeating every quarter, and that is what we are talking about.
Every site is a location with an end date
The IT has to be there on day one and gone by handover, twenty times a year.
At an office little changes in a year. In construction the opposite holds: a location is added, another drops off, people move between projects, and subcontractors work along for a few months and then not any more. Whoever arranges that each time arranges it differently each time, and then the site office on project four is set up in a way nobody can account for.
What we do is reduce that to one package: a fixed setup for the site office with connectivity, Wi-Fi, a printer and the access that goes with it, rolled out at project start and collected at handover. That is the same discipline as a rollout across sites, only with a shorter term and more repetition.
Connectivity is the first problem here
A new site has no fibre and no meter cupboard. For the first months everything runs over mobile internet, and that is workable as long as it has been checked in advance: what coverage genuinely exists at that address, how many people hang off it, and what happens to the camera footage that has to travel over it too. A site office without a connection on day one costs a day with every subcontractor standing around, and that is the most expensive day of the project.
Where a project runs long enough to justify a fixed line, we arrange that alongside and keep the mobile part as fallback. That is not a luxury: an excavator and a freshly laid cable are not a good combination.
Access that closes again
Subcontractors, consultants and inspectors need access during a project to drawings, schedules and sometimes to the project file. At the end they no longer need it, and that is exactly the step left undone everywhere. We attach access to the project rather than to the person, with an end date that follows handover, so closing it is not an action somebody has to remember.
What we take on in construction
You choose what you need. It all falls under one contract, one report and one point of contact.
- Connectivity in the site officeChecked at the address in advance, mobile or fixed, with enough capacity for the people and for the camera footage travelling over it.
- Equipment that takes the siteTablets and phones that handle dust, rain and gloves, with a battery that lasts a day and a replacement device ready rather than on order.
- A standard site-office packageThe same setup on every project: connectivity, Wi-Fi, printer and access. Rolled out at the start and collected at handover, with a list of what was there.
- Access per project, with an end dateSubcontractors and consultants get access that lapses at handover, so closing it is not an action somebody has to remember.
- Camera surveillance on siteCameras against theft of plant, on the same connection and with the retention period and signage the GDPR requires. Watching the feed is the work of a security company.
- Cover for the hours work happensEarly starts come with the trade. The response time should sit on those hours and not on an office schedule by which the crew has been working for three hours.
How we take over a construction environment
In this order, because here the first day of a project is the moment it goes wrong or does not.
Walk a running project
In the site office and on site. In an hour you see the workarounds people invented when something did not work, and those workarounds are the real design.
Fix the site-office package
One setup that fits every project, with the deviations named for the locations where it cannot. That is the step that makes the repetition cheap.
Set up access and project data
Who may reach which drawings, how a subcontractor gets in and when that lapses. With an end date on it, tied to the schedule.
Adjust on what we see
The reporting shows faults and turnaround times per project and per location. After two projects you see where the package needs adjusting.
The services that come up most here
These building blocks come up most in a construction environment.
Looking further
Recognise the picture but work in another industry? Then look at the other sectors.
Questions we get about this
The ones that come up most, answered briefly.
Can you connect a site office at a new location?
Yes, and it starts with establishing what coverage genuinely exists at that address before the first crew arrives. The first months usually run over mobile internet; where the project lasts long enough we arrange a fixed line alongside and keep mobile as fallback.
How do you handle access for subcontractors?
Per project rather than per person, with an end date that follows handover. That is the step left undone everywhere: granting access everyone remembers, closing it again nobody does.
Do you handle site security as well?
We supply and manage the cameras and the access control, including the retention period and the signage the GDPR requires. Watching the footage, responding to alarms and sending somebody to site is the work of a licensed security company.
One package that fits every site office
Tell us how many projects run per year and how long they last. We build the site-office package, the connectivity and the access around that, with the clear-up step in it.