The five IT support challenges every UK construction firm is wrestling with

Every new site is a new postcode, often without a fixed line, and the project is supposed to start mobilising while the connection gets ordered. Six weeks for a fibre install is normal; six weeks of waiting before a site can work is not acceptable. So construction firms run on a mix of 4G, 5G, bonded connections and Starlink, with the cabin Wi-Fi pieced together by whoever was there first.

The firms that do this well have a mobilisation pack. A pre-configured 4G or 5G router, a small switch, a known-good access point, and a checklist that any site manager can follow. The IT support partner ships and supports the pack as a unit, monitors it from day one, and replaces it on site rather than asking the foreman to courier it back.

If the wrong version of a drawing reaches a subcontractor, someone pays for the rework. If an RFI response sits in a personal mailbox instead of the CDE, it isn't part of the project record. Document control isn't a niche concern in construction; it's the spine of how the business protects itself commercially.

SharePoint at default settings doesn't model this well. It's a great file store, but it isn't a CDE on its own. Either the firm wraps SharePoint in a proper structure with naming conventions, retention and access groups that match the project, or it uses a dedicated CDE like Procore, Asite or Aconex and uses Microsoft 365 around it. Either way works, but only if it's governed rather than just licensed.

Revit and Navisworks files don't behave like Word documents. They are big, they get heavier as a project develops, and they are usually shared with external designers and subconsultants. A copy in the cabin, a copy in the head office, and a copy at the architect's, all gradually drifting apart, is the worst of all worlds.

Practical fixes are usually unglamorous: a proper model hosting arrangement, sensible bandwidth at head office, and a deliberate choice about whether external collaborators come into your environment or you go into theirs. Once that decision is made, it stops being a constant source of friction.

Site managers and engineers spend their day on phones and tablets. The laptop in the cabin is for the surveyor or the document controller; it isn't the main interface to the business. That changes what IT support is for. Helpdesk hours that suit office workers don't suit a foreman whose day starts at 6:30am.

It also changes the security posture. Intune-managed devices, conditional access that knows when a phone is on a site versus on holiday in Spain, and a clean offboarding flow when a subcontractor's contract ends are not optional. The number of lost-or-broken devices in construction is high, and the cost of one of them reaching the wrong hands is higher than most firms have stopped to calculate.

Tier-one contractors are increasingly making Cyber Essentials Plus evidence a condition of doing work with them. So are public sector clients and a growing share of insurers. 'We'll get to it' is no longer an answer; firms have lost work because their evidence wasn't current by the date a tender closed.

The certification itself isn't onerous. The work to keep it current is real, and it is the work most firms park. A partner who has done it before will hold the evidence as part of the support contract, not as a separate panic in the run-up to the renewal date.

A construction-aware partner shows up with a mobilisation pack, has an opinion on the CDE, helps tidy up SharePoint so document control is liveable, and keeps the Cyber Essentials evidence current. The biggest quick wins are usually around the cabin and the phone: reliable site connectivity, properly managed mobile devices, and a document control rhythm people actually follow.

Tell us how many sites, how many phones and which CDE you use. We will introduce you to a UK partner that already supports construction firms and has done the unglamorous work before.