Construction
Designed to move
A construction site is a temporary enterprise. It needs connectivity, security, devices and support before permanent infrastructure exists, and then all of it has to move, scale or disappear as the build changes. Ericom designs that operating environment, deploys it anywhere in Australia, and runs it from mobilisation to handover.
Right in month one, wrong by month eight
The first people arrive before the fibre does. The workforce grows through several contractors, coverage changes as concrete and steel go up, temporary offices move, and the areas carrying the most risk are often the last places a normal network reaches.
That makes a particular kind of problem. A perfectly good design for the first month can be wrong by the eighth, and none of it failed. The site changed.
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The site office has signal
The basement, the core and the plant room do not. A booster is not an internet service and a 5G router does not fix a dead zone inside a structure. Which one is failing decides the design, so it gets measured before anything is specified.
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The contractor left
The device did not, and it still holds project information. Access built around a person rather than around a role, an employer and a project is access nobody can withdraw cleanly.
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Practical completion, still billing
Services nobody cancelled, devices nobody recovered and equipment nobody redeployed. Demobilisation runs on a register or it runs on memory, and memory leaves with the project team.
Construction technology has to be designed for movement rather than merely installed outdoors.
From mobilisation to handover
The technology plan follows the job. Each stage asks something different of the same environment, which is why designing for one of them produces something that fails at the next.
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Mobilise
The project has to work before permanent services exist. Connectivity, secure network equipment, access and managed devices are staged before they reach site, so the first office opens as an operating environment rather than a pallet of boxes.
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Build
Coverage and demand change with the structure. Equipment moves or is added where required, and compounds, gates and work zones stay connected without redesigning everything each time the floor plan changes.
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Commission
Temporary and permanent infrastructure start to overlap. Coverage, networks, security and building systems are validated against how the finished facility will actually operate, with documentation and ownership prepared for handover.
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Demobilise
Services cancelled, devices recovered, data removed, equipment redeployed and the asset register reconciled. The project stops paying for what has left the site, and the next one does not start by buying it again.
What we bring to a site
Existing Ericom solutions, pointed at construction work. Each keeps its own page, because a builder buying one of these should read the same description as anybody else buying it. What makes them work together on a site is not a shared dashboard. It is one organisation accountable for all of them.
- Distributed Antenna Systems Carrier-approved coverage for the basements, cores and completed structures where a phone stops working and a duress call stops arriving. Some of it is temporary, some moves, and the final system is validated against the closed structure rather than the frame.
- Business Mobile The fleet across employees, contractors and project partners, with every service and plan on a register rather than accumulating quietly until somebody audits the bill.
- Managed IT The devices, identities, Microsoft 365 and support underneath all of it, including joiner, mover and leaver workflows built around role, employer and project rather than around a person.
- Intelligent Video Analytics The cameras a site already has, reading after-hours movement, perimeter entry and vehicle activity as they happen rather than being opened after a theft. The project sets the purpose, the areas and the retention, and we build to that.
- Essential Eight Where a client, insurer or government procurement asks for the Essential Eight, the work starts with an assessment against the ASD maturity model rather than a list of tools already owned. There is no certificate, and we do not imply one.
- Secure Device Disposal Demobilisation with a chain of custody: devices recovered, data destroyed and every asset accounted for, so the end of a project is a reconciliation rather than a gap.
Not every component. The joins.
The value is not that one supplier can sell every part of this. It is that one party stays accountable for how the parts work together.
Carrier, network, cloud, device, camera and sensor faults do not arrive pre-labelled. The underlying service levels still belong to whoever owns them, but the diagnosis and the coordination sit in one place, rather than with a project team trying to prove where the fault lives while the job waits.
Questions project teams ask
Can we start before fibre is available?
Usually, where a usable carrier service or another temporary pathway exists. We assess what is actually available, stage the edge equipment, and design how the site moves onto permanent services later. Where the surrounding coverage is poor the honest answer may be a different carrier, an external antenna, another carriage method, or a combination of them.
Do we have to replace Procore, Aconex or the platform we already run?
No. The collaboration and device layer should connect people to the systems already chosen for the project. Any integration is scoped against that platform and the actual workflow rather than assumed from a logo list.
Can mobile coverage go in before the building is finished?
Yes, provided the design accepts that the radio environment changes as the structure closes. Some equipment is temporary, some moves, and the final in-building system is validated against the completed structure rather than the one it was designed in.
Does environmental monitoring make us compliant?
No. It provides readings, alerts, records and reporting against the thresholds configured for the project. Compliance also depends on the environmental plan, the controls, and the decisions and actions taken by the people accountable for the work. Obligations differ by state, approval and activity.
Is the Essential Eight mandatory for every construction company?
No. It is mandatory in specific Commonwealth contexts and is increasingly named in procurement, insurance and client requirements. The useful question is who is asking, what maturity level they want, and which systems or contracts are in scope. There is no Essential Eight certification.
Can any of this move to the next project?
Much of it can. Edge equipment, managed devices, cameras and sensors may be redeployed where the next design allows it. Services and licences are reconciled during demobilisation, so the next site starts from a known asset and cost position rather than from zero.
Who supports it when the carrier, the hardware vendor and the application vendor disagree?
We do. The underlying service levels still belong to the relevant vendor or carrier, but diagnosis and coordination sit with one support path rather than with the project team.
Start with the next site
The useful first conversation is not about buying all of it. It is about the next project: when the first team arrives, what infrastructure exists, what the contract requires, and which failure would cost time first.
Scope the next site