Background
A construction company with about forty people ran a mostly remote workforce. Users were spread across the country—not in one office where IT could show up at a desk.
Every person worked from a laptop. Keeping those machines consistent had fallen through the cracks.
Business Challenge
A few small IT providers had touched the fleet over time, but there was no standard antivirus, no helpdesk, and no real backup strategy beyond what Google offered by default. Users called someone when something broke—or tried to fix it themselves.
Nobody was overseeing IT in any meaningful way. Security was effectively non-existent. Some users had been hacked. Others lost files. Filing systems were a mess. The laptops were slow, disorganized, and easy targets.
When something broke, resolution often stretched into days. The customer consolidated those providers with Dataforge.
Solution
Dataforge took the fleet laptop by laptop. Schedules and locations differed across the country, so we worked through a few machines each day rather than forcing a single cutover.
Google Docs backup went on first so files were protected right away. Then came Dataforge Remote Management and Sophos Complete with Managed Detection and Response on each machine—inventory, patching, remote support, and 24/7 endpoint coverage with a managed security team.
Microsoft Entra and MFA came after that, centralizing sign-in to the devices. Along the way we cleaned up filing systems and straightened out machines that had accumulated years of clutter.
Implementation
Backup was the immediate priority on every laptop we touched. Once that was in place, we installed the RMM agent and Sophos Complete, then joined the device to Entra and turned on MFA.
Many laptops needed cleanup after our tools went on—old software, messy folders, performance drag from years of neglect. Those machines generally run much better now.
Today a user with a problem calls or emails the Dataforge helpdesk and we look at it right away. RMM puts us on the machine in about a minute. We check patch and security status across the fleet daily. Most repairs finish in fifteen to thirty minutes. Lost files we can find or restore from backup. Slow machines we can diagnose through hardware and performance stats without waiting for someone to ship a laptop back to the office.
Project Considerations
A remote construction workforce cannot depend on someone walking over to a desk. Every part of the stack had to work from wherever the user was that week.
Order mattered. Backup first—then visibility and security on the endpoint, then identity. Doing it laptop by laptop matched how the company actually operates.
The old setup left gaps between providers. Dataforge owns the full picture: how these users work, how they store data, and what each machine is running.
Environment Comparison
| Previous Environment | Current Environment |
|---|---|
| No standard AV, helpdesk, or backups beyond Google defaults | Sophos Complete MDR, Dataforge helpdesk, and managed Google Docs backup |
| Users self-fixing or waiting days for fragmented provider support | Phone or email helpdesk; on the machine in ~1 minute via RMM; repairs often 15–30 minutes |
| Some users hacked; others lost files; messy, slow laptops | Daily patch and security checks; file restore from backup; machines cleaned up after rollout |
| No one overseeing IT; filing systems disorganized | One Dataforge team knows how they work and how they store data |
| A few small providers; reactive break-fix only | Consolidated managed fleet: backup, RMM, MDR, Entra, and MFA |
Key Outcomes
- 15–30 minute repairs — helpdesk response and RMM remote access replaced multi-day break-fix waits
- Backup before everything else — Google Docs protected on day one of each laptop rollout
- One team that knows the account — users ask how to use technology productively—not how to survive disorganization
- Fleet under daily care — patching, Sophos MDR, and inventory so staff focus on construction work
Long-Term Track Record
Hacker-related incidents are no longer something the customer has to worry about. Files are backed up. Patches go out daily. The fleet is inventoried and monitored.
The bigger change is relational. They have one team to call that knows the account—not a rotation of small vendors who only show up when something is already broken. Users come to Dataforge with questions about how to use technology to help their work, instead of constant frustration from disorganization.
Management and staff can focus on construction work rather than IT emergencies.