Most people – including those in the Construction industry – aren’t grounded in technology, so IT is often an afterthought.

This is all fine until a situation arrives where this happens:

“Wait, did the server just go down? Why can’t I access the estimating software?”

“Oh no, the tender deadline is just a few hours away and, if things don’t get back up soon, I’m going to miss the submission deadline.”

This is an all-too-common story, unfortunately, and one that is so easily avoidable.

The solution is simple.

You either need to have a proactive approach to technology or you need look for a local technology provider that does.

The truth is though, while any company you go with will promise great support, finding a company that does anything more than react to an issue is no small feat.

Sure, you could say that makes sense: “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. But the problem with that thinking is, when it breaks, it not only costs more than a pro-active approach, it also creates a tonne of stress and can lead to expensive missed deadlines.

Andrew is a great example of this. Andrew is one of our original clients and the reason why we no longer take a reactive approach to technology. When Andrew first came to us, we were relatively green, and he told us that all he wanted us to do was the bare minimum when it came to technology.

We begrudgingly agreed while highlighting the risks associated with that.

Late at night, Andrew was working on a last-minute tender. It was due the next morning and his estimating software was not working on the server.

Understandably stressed out by the situation, he contacted our helpdesk asking for urgent assistance. Luckily enough, we have a great resource that is available to all our clients for after hour emergencies and he was able to fix the issue within 2 hours. Andrew submitted the tender by the skin of his teeth and eventually won the tender, worth millions of dollars.

Of course, this is a story of us coming to the rescue and is an absolute compliment to the service we provided (which I hope most technology companies would do). However, the fact that we had to come to the rescue outlined a dire issue, with not just us, but the entire industry on IT Managed Service Providers that all take a reactive response. We have decided that since then that we will only take a proactive response to make sure that technology doesn’t fail in the first place because the savings outweigh the costs and avoid a tonne of stress.

I therefore recommend, regardless of whether you use us or anyone else, that you make sure whoever you engage offers a proactive rather than reactive service. The most common proactive service with an IT Provider is called a Managed Service Agreement.

If they offer a “block hour” service or don’t offer a proactive managed service agreement, run for the hills. In the short term, this may seem like a good idea, because these sorts of packages are less than paying for a full managed service agreement. However, in the long term you will be forking out much more for emergency fixes and lost productivity. Over the next 10 years, you would only need one emergency like Andrew experienced to potentially lose business worth millions of dollars.

By Cameron Rule

Cam – the true IT Downtime Assassin – has been in the IT industry since 2002 but has taken a special interest in construction businesses. As the owner of a multi award winning IT business, he’s seen and done it all when it comes to the Construction IT game. He has helped some of the biggest players in Australia to not only solve issues, but forward-plan so that there is less downtime in the business. He is a highly qualified professional (B Sc Computer Science & Psych, Diploma of Modern languages, Microsoft Certified Professional, Commvault Certified Admin), but his best qualification is that he puts his heart and soul into what he does. Cam now helps construction businesses to improve their workflow through technology and find the right IT support partner for their needs using his Intensive. Find out more: https://downtimeassassin.com.au/