Manufacturing

Manufacturing and industrial

When the front counter PC, the label printer or the phones stop, orders stop with them. We keep the office, the plant and every branch running on one set of systems, and we've done that work for fastener, concrete and coach building businesses.

Talk to us about your business

What gets in the way

Every site has to answer. Branches, plants and the head office each need calls answered and routed properly, and a phone setup that grew one site at a time rarely does that well.
Plant equipment on the office network. Batching software, label printers and production PCs often share one flat network with email and the accounts machine, so one compromised device can reach everything.
Downtime counted in orders. A failing laptop at a plant or a front counter PC that keeps restarting holds up dispatch and sales, not just one person’s morning.
Machines nobody planned for. Computers bought one at a time end up with different builds and warranty details in someone’s inbox, until a key machine fails with no replacement ready.

How we help

Business Telephony: One hosted phone system across every site, with each location keeping its own menu, queues, hours and after-hours voicemail.
Network & Connectivity: Segmented networks that keep plant equipment, cameras and guest access away from business systems, behind monitored firewalls with a second internet path.
Hardware & Procurement: Computers built and configured before they reach site, installed in one visit and tracked for warranty and replacement dates.
Microsoft 365 & Identity: Email in Microsoft 365 with multi-factor on every account, and shared mailboxes and distribution lists so orders don’t depend on one person’s inbox.
Backup & Recovery: Backups for servers, desktops and Microsoft 365, with failures raised the day they happen and restores tested on a schedule.
Bastion Managed Services: One owner per ticket and a named technical lead who knows which PC at which plant the phones depend on.

Obligations worth knowing

ASD’s principles for operational technology advise separating OT networks from the internet and from IT networks, because the corporate network is usually at higher risk of compromise through its internet connection. Source
Suppliers in the Defence supply chain who hold Defence Industry Security Program membership must now achieve and maintain the full Essential Eight at Maturity Level 2. Source

One phone system, every site still its own front desk

Manufacturers and suppliers often grow a site at a time, and the phones grow with them. When a fastener distributor with offices in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast moved onto one hosted phone system, each office kept its own menu, queue, hours and after-hours voicemail. Our business telephony runs over a network and internet service we also manage, so a dropped call is one conversation rather than three suppliers pointing at each other.

Plant sites and the office network

Plant IT tends to hide its problems until someone asks for something small. A concrete plant asked us for a new mailbox, and the request uncovered a failing laptop, a shared licence and phones relying on a PC that didn’t stay on. We sorted all of it in one job, including a new laptop with its batching software.

Production equipment deserves its own space on the network. ASD’s principles of operational technology cyber security advise separating OT networks from the internet and from IT networks. Our network management applies the same thinking at your scale, with cameras, guest access and plant gear kept apart from the accounts machine, and firewalls patched and monitored.

Computers and email that arrive ready

For an industrial supplier, we built four desktops and two laptops first, then installed them on site so the office wasn’t out of action for a day of set-up. That’s how hardware and procurement works for every client: one build standard and an asset register that tracks warranty before it lapses.

Email gets the same treatment. A Brisbane coach builder had staff mail in small web hosting mailboxes while it already paid for Microsoft 365. Eight staff mailboxes and five shared mailboxes now run in Microsoft 365, with the old mail imported. Behind every site sits backup and recovery with restores tested on a schedule, so the business system can come back when it matters.