What IT should a new construction site office have on day one?

Why does day one go wrong so often?

Because the site is ready before the IT is. The cabin is craned in, the welfare unit is plumbed, and the site manager arrives on Monday to an empty desk and no internet. For the first few weeks, the job runs on a personal phone hotspot and a laptop that nobody in the office set up.

The cause is nearly always timing. Nobody told IT the job had been won, or the cabin supplier was told "it'll need internet" and nobody followed up. Our page on construction site set-up covers what Indigo does to mobilise a site. This article is about the planning on your side: what to decide, and when.

What's the day-one list?

Use this as a checklist when a job is won. The lead times are the ones that catch people out.

Internet decides the rest. Scotland has the lowest 4G geographic coverage of any UK nation (Ofcom, Connected Nations 2025), so don't assume one network works on your site because it works in the nearest town. A provider that isn't tied to a single network can test EE, O2 and Vodafone at the site address and pick the best. Where none of them works, satellite is now a practical option for a cabin.

Order the fixed line on day one, not month three. On a job lasting more than six months, a fixed line is usually faster and steadier than mobile. Because leased lines typically take 30–90 working days to install, order at mobilisation and run on 4G or 5G until it arrives. Our article on leased lines versus business broadband explains which you need.

How should site WiFi be set up?

A site cabin network looks small, but it carries very different users. Separate them.

• Staff network. Company laptops, tablets and the printer. Only devices you manage.
• Subcontractor and guest network. Internet only, with no route to your printers, files or cameras. Change the password at the end of each package or quarterly, whichever comes first.
• Cameras and site security. CCTV, access control and gate systems on their own network, so a compromised phone on the guest WiFi can't reach them.

Change every default password on the router, access points and cameras on the day they're installed. Cyber Essentials requires it, and a site cabin router with its factory password is an easy way into your company network. If the site office links back to head office, use a secure connection such as SD-WAN (secure, managed connections between sites) rather than leaving remote access ports open.

How do you get devices ready before the site manager arrives?

Pre-configure them. With Microsoft Intune and Windows Autopilot, a new laptop can be shipped straight to site: the site manager signs in with their own account, and the laptop installs company apps, security settings and email automatically. Nobody from IT needs to travel.

Set up the project's SharePoint site or Team before the start date, with the drawing register, RAMS and site forms in place. When subcontractors start, invite them as guests to that project only, with an expiry date. Our article on onboarding and offboarding site staff and subcontractors covers licences and access, and our article on stopping drawings and RAMS going out of date on site covers how to keep the latest revision in front of the people who need it.

Shared tablets in the cabin should run in Intune shared device mode, so each person signs in with their own account rather than a shared login.

Worked example: a 14-month housing job

Example (an illustration, not a real client): a contractor wins a 14-month, 60-home development on the edge of a town in West Lothian, starting in eight weeks.

Week 0 (job won). The project manager sends the site address, start date, cabin layout and number of users to IT. IT checks mobile coverage and fixed-line availability for the address.

Week 1. Coverage is good on one network, weak on the others. A leased line is ordered for the site office, with an expected install of around 12 weeks. A 4G router with an external antenna is booked for the week before start. Four laptops and two tablets are ordered.

Week 6. Laptops are enrolled in Intune. The project SharePoint site is built from the company template, with RAMS and drawings loaded.

Week 7. The cabin is delivered. The router, WiFi, UPS and printer are installed and tested, and the site office number is set up on the cloud phone system.

Week 8 (start). The site manager signs in to a working laptop on a working network. When the leased line arrives in month three, it becomes the main connection, and 4G stays as automatic backup.

Nothing in this timeline is difficult. It just starts on the day the job is won.

How Indigo does this. Indigo Unified Communications supports 15+ construction businesses from our Glasgow office. We usually have a site cabin online within 2–3 working days over 4G or 5G, supply Starlink or Eutelsat OneWeb satellite where mobile signal is poor, and confirm fixed-line availability and price within 2 working days of getting the site address. For a Central Scotland building firm of about 160 staff with no reliable way to get cabins online, we connected sites with Starlink and linked them to head office with Cato Networks SD-WAN, and rolled out Microsoft Intune across its devices. The firm has since achieved Cyber Essentials Plus. We ask for two weeks' notice before a site starts, and our standard site cabin kit (router, antenna, access points and a UPS) can be ordered as a package. Construction site set-up →

What to do next

1. Add "tell IT" to your job-won checklist, with the site address, start date, cabin layout and user numbers.
2. Decide the connection in week one: mobile, satellite or fixed line, and order any fixed line straight away.
3. Create a project SharePoint template so every new site starts with the same folders, forms and permissions.
4. Plan separate WiFi networks for staff, subcontractors and cameras, and change default passwords on day one.
5. Read our construction guide chapter on site connectivity or ask us to plan your next site.