Tech for architecture practices

Yes, and this is where generic IT providers cost you money. BIM software is specific about graphics, memory and how fast it can read a file, so we spec against the software and model sizes you actually work with rather than a standard office build. If architects are waiting on the machine, the expensive thing you're wasting is their time, not the hardware budget.

It depends on model size and how your team collaborates, and we'll tell you which of the honest answers fits rather than sell one. Sometimes it's a proper collaboration platform doing the syncing. Sometimes it's a remote desktop where the model never leaves the office and only the screen travels. What we won't do is tell you a synced folder over a home connection is fine for a heavy model, because you'll find out it isn't at the worst possible time.

By giving access rather than sending copies. A consultant gets into the project area they need, for the period they need it, and that access ends when the project does. It's better than emailing files around, where you lose track of who holds what version and there's no way to take it back. It also solves the version problem as a side effect, because there's one current set rather than six inboxes' worth.

Yes, and it's usually the most valuable thing we build for a practice. Run over your own drawings, details and specifications, it turns twenty years of work into something answerable, so a question about how the practice detailed something previously gets an answer with the source attached instead of a search. It runs inside your own tenancy on your own files and doesn't train anyone else's model. An architect still makes every design decision.

The realistic risk isn't a targeted theft of your drawings, it's the ordinary one: an account gets compromised, or someone leaves and takes a copy of everything they worked on because nothing stopped them. Both are preventable with controls that don't get in anyone's way. It's worth being deliberate about, because unlike most businesses your core asset fits on a USB stick.

Managed IT is a fixed monthly fee per person covering helpdesk, monitoring, maintenance, backups and the security baseline. Workstations and storage are quoted separately because BIM specs vary so much. Automation is quoted per build against a fixed scope. Any number on a website would be made up, so the review costs nothing and you'll have real pricing before you decide.