365 Technologies Delivers The Sophisticated IT Expert Akman Construction Requires

Akman Construction is a 110-year-old Manitoba construction firm. Over the course of its more than a century in business, the firm has been run by four generations of the Akman family.

Akman Construction builds for various institutions, post-secondary education facilities, multi-family residential homes, high-rise apartments, national clients like CN Rail, and governmental projects including provincial prisons and an ongoing 10-year heritage restoration of the Manitoba Legislature Building.

Akman Construction has been working with 365 Technologies for over a decade now. They originally chose us for our expert advice and recommendations, and in the time since have come to know us as an infinitely reliable and capable partner in all things IT.

We are proud to have been with Akman Construction on each and every step of their technology journey, which began with their need for more advanced IT services…

Download The Complete IT Success Story With Akman Construction

Akman Construction Was In Need Of More Sophisticated Manitoba IT Support

Prior to working with 365 Technologies, Akman Construction had an internal IT staff member looking after their technology. While this arrangement had met their needs for some time, it was quickly becoming clear that Akman Construction’s growth would outpace this staff member’s capabilities.

“We had an individual looking after IT, but they weren’t cutting it in terms of where I wanted to take the company,” says Jared Akman.

Business growth is a double-edged sword. Yes, success is great; more clients, more sales, more profits. That’s the goal, after all, right?

But with growth comes growing pains. As a firm takes on new clients, it needs more staff to be able to service them. They need more resources for those staff members. They draw more greatly on the support services they use every day.

One of the key components that are most likely to be affected during a period of growth is IT. Every single part of the organization depends on available, functioning IT—as it grows, its demand on IT does as well.

“The business was growing and we needed a more sophisticated IT team,” says Jared.

That’s When Akman Construction Met 365 Technologies

Recognizing Akman Construction’s need for a more expert and capable IT company in Manitoba, Jared reached out to the companies in the area to find out what they offered and what their rates were. In the course of that search, he found 365 Technologies.

“We did some interviews,” says Jared. “365 Technologies really blew the others out of the water.”

365 Technologies offered everything Jared and Akman Construction were looking for. We had established a great reputation as a reliable and skilled IT partner, we offered a reasonable rate and demonstrated our ability to confidently solve IT problems for our clients.

However, what was most important to Jared was to find a partner that would be committed to developing a lasting business relationship. This was how Jared’s father and grandfather had built Akman Construction into what it is today, and he expected no less from the IT company he intended to hire.

“I could tell that we weren’t just going to be a number,” says Jared. “That’s why we went with 365 Technologies, and we haven’t looked back since.”

365 Technologies Has Been Akman Construction’s IT Department For More Than A Decade

“They’re full IT support for our office and staff,” says Jared. “They provide services for both office and field.”

A big part of Akman Construction’s requirements is coordinating information sharing between head office, job sites, and partners. Any business operating in multiple locations needs to be able to communicate and collaborate effectively.

Every moving part of a business needs to stay connected and in sync in order to meet the expectations of clients. This is especially true of construction firms that operate multiple job sites and field offices.

It’s no secret; technology is the driving force behind effective collaboration for businesses, especially those in the construction industry. Aligning information technology solutions with the firm’s projects and plans will be transformational in terms of returns and success, helping to enhance communication and collaboration.

The construction industry faces a range of ongoing challenges to its conventional operations. Whether it’s a strict deadline, harsh industry regulations or aggressive competition, the construction industry will always offer its share of difficulties.

Communication between sites is still a major concern in the construction industry with organizations lacking control of and collaboration on projects in real-time. It is still a very expensive time-wasting issue, especially when decisions have to be made quickly.

That’s one key reason why Akman Construction relies on 365 Technologies. Our team provides consistent and effective support to both their main office and the many job sites at which their staff members work every day.

We manage their IT from end to end, whether that means maintaining their physical and virtual servers, supporting their PCs with critical and timely updates, troubleshooting occasional problems for their staff members, overseeing licensing management, procuring hardware, and more.

“I’d much rather have IT outsourced to a staff like 365 Technologies—to have someone on staff wouldn’t make sense,” says Jared. “I’ve been working on projects at 1 AM when we needed support, and 365 Technologies was there.”

365 Technologies Seamlessly Manages Akman Construction’s Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is the initiative to use technology for better business outcomes. According to Reports and Data, the global digital transformation market was already worth $261.94 billion in 2018. By 2026, it is estimated to be worth as much as $1051.12 billion.

Many firms find it difficult to keep up with the latest advances in technology. It takes time and knowledge that staff members may not have to keep up to date with recent IT advancements and to understand how to harness them.

Too many construction firms jump from one system or application to another and never realize the full benefit of their technology. Without a technology plan that’s aligned with their goals, they make poor buying decisions and waste money on ineffective tools.

Those firms that excel know that a technology plan will help them achieve their goals and gain a competitive advantage. The right solutions help them save money, improve processes and exceed their clients’ expectations.

“They assist with special projects,” says Jared. “We find that they’re the best to navigate some of these complex solutions that we need.”

Aligning a firm’s IT solutions with its business plan will be transformational in terms of returns and success:

• Drive productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness.
• Save money in wasted time and effort.
• Enhance collaboration and communication.
• Keep staff on track to achieve goals.
• Determine opportunities to further optimize business processes.
• Identify and mitigate cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

This is yet another way in which 365 Technologies helps Akman Construction do what they do even more effectively. Recently, Akman Construction began adopting new technologies like Sage Paperless, and AutoDesk’s ‘Build’ platform.

365 Technologies works with these vendors and partners on Akman’s behalf to ensure

implementation goes smoothly, and acts as a support liaison on any ongoing service requirements.

“We have to jump in with this new software, and we wouldn’t be able to do that without 365 Technologies,” says Jared.

With 365 Technologies’ help, Akman Construction’s modernization doesn’t have to be a massive restructuring of the way they do business. Step by step we help them affect these critical changes, ensuring they’re not a chore or a challenge.

“We have regular meetings with the 365 Technologies team,” says Jared. “We’ll talk through our software and some of the challenges and they’re there to fully support us. They encourage us and make it an exciting task rather than an outright challenge.”

365 Technologies Connects Akman Construction’s Job Sites Through The Cloud

One of the many projects we’ve executed for Akman Construction over our time working together was their migration to Microsoft 365.

Between their main office and their ever-changing network of job sites, Akman Construction oversees a complicated network of work locations. 365 Technologies works to set up secure remote access and provide timely support to their project managers, site supervisors and administrative staff.

Microsoft 365 is the perfect solution to unite Akman Construction’s job sites. As the leading name in cloud business productivity software, Microsoft 365 offers a range of services and features designed to help employees do more each day.

365 Technologies offers expert Microsoft 365 support in Manitoba, geared to address the needs of today’s businesses like Akman Construction. Our Microsoft 365 solutions are based on a tailored approach to workflow—ensuring that our clients have the correct version, setup, and integration of Microsoft 365.

Migration Management

We manage the process of scaling up, adding users, or changing licenses for the firm.

Comprehensive Support

We offer remote support to help them resolve any sort of configuration problems and/or troubleshooting issues right away.

Employee Training

A vital component of the success strategy of any software offering is the ability for a business’s employees to understand it well enough to utilize it to its fullest potential. We’re here to walk this client’s staff through any new features or applications.

Cybersecurity

As their Microsoft partner, 365 Technologies helps the firm identify risks and enhance security within their Microsoft 365 environment.

We can oversee and manage a range of key cybersecurity best practices, such as log review, MFA maintenance, and Exchange connector monitoring.

Microsoft 365 and the cloud allow Akman Construction to connect and view job sites remotely from a single cloud platform. This regularly saves them hours every day in travel time, allowing them instead to check in on sites from the comfort of their office. Akman Construction could not have managed projects like this without 365 Technologies.

“We’re in construction, we’re not IT people,” says Jared. “I’m finding that as the construction world becomes more digitized, we need 365 Technologies to help us implement all these solutions that will give us a competitive advantage.”

365 Technologies Keeps Akman Construction Up and Running

As an active and growing construction firm, Akman Construction needs to be able to rely on its lines of communication at all times. Email is a key tool in their round-the-clock operations, and so, they can never be without it.

This degree of uptime can be difficult to guarantee long term. Usually, during infrastructure projects, there will be some amount of downtime.

This was a potential risk of a server upgrade project that 365 Technologies once executed for Akman Construction. We needed to replace their server, but due to Akman Construction’s reliance on their email systems, we had to ensure they didn’t encounter any undue downtime during business hours.

“We couldn’t let email go down, and because of 365 Technologies, we never did,” says Jared.

In order to mitigate any potential disruption to Akman Construction’s processes, our team worked only during non-business hours. We carefully planned and scheduled the project so that everything would be completed by the time their staff came into work the next day.

“They did the work in off-hours and made sure our email never went down,” says Jared. “We’ve had plenty of situations like that where they really go above and beyond.”

365 Technologies Has Delivered The Business Relationship Akman Construction Was Looking For

“They’re in our court and they’re in our corner,” says Jared. “They’re going to work for us—it’s a great relationship.”

Akman construction is well-positioned for its next 100 years in business, leveraging cloud solutions and best-in-class support. We look forward to working with them every step of the way, proactively overcoming their tech-based challenges and helping them to harness the full extent of new technologies.

“We’ve had a lot of success with 365 Technologies,” says Jared.