How Able Electrical Fixed Job-Site File Access for Its Crews

Able Electrical LTD is an electrical contractor based in Surrey with crews working on sites across the Lower Mainland. As they took on more work, their IT didn't keep up. Company files were spread across personal devices, there was no central storage and no backup, and the crew had no secure way to open office files from a job site.

We came in to fix that, and we still look after Able's IT. The summary is in the Able Electrical managed IT case study. We also rebuilt their website, which was a separate project.

Where things stood before

Able's setup looked like a lot of growing trades companies:

Business files lived on devices that people owned personally
There was no single place both the office and the crew trusted to have the current file
Nothing was backed up, so a failed or lost device meant lost files
From a job site, there was no secure way to open anything stored at the office

None of that is unusual. It shows up as delays on site, bids built on the wrong revision, and a scramble whenever the only copy of something is on a device that's gone. They're the same gaps we describe on our page about managed IT for electrical contractors.

What we put in place

We planned the setup around the office team and the crews out on job sites.

Storage they own, at their office

We built a custom 1U rack server running TrueNAS Community Edition, with three WD Red Pro 6TB drives in a RAIDZ1 array. That gives them roughly 12TB of usable space, and the array keeps running if one drive fails. The hardware is theirs and sits at their office, so there's no monthly cloud storage bill for that part of the setup.

On top of that we set up MinIO, which provides S3-compatible object storage. Project data, documents, job photos and business files are stored at their office instead of on a third-party cloud.

Shared drives for the office

The office team got SMB file shares organized by project, department and access level. Staff open them from their Windows computers like any other drive, and permissions control who can view, edit or delete. No more emailing files back and forth or relying on personal Dropbox accounts.

Secure access from job sites

Technicians and project managers need files while they're out on sites across the Lower Mainland. We set up Tailscale, a mesh VPN, so authorized people can connect to the office network from any device, iOS and Android phones included, without the server being exposed to the internet.

In practice, the files stay at the shop and the crew can still reach them from site.

Microsoft 365 and company devices

We moved the team to Microsoft 365 Business Standard for company email, Teams and SharePoint, and enrolled their company devices in Microsoft Intune. Lost devices can be wiped, and settings and software can be pushed out from one place.

Ongoing support

We're still Able's managed IT provider. That covers a help desk the office and the crew can call, updates and patching for the systems and devices we set up, and monitoring of the network and the storage server.

Where they are now

Able's files are in one place, backed up and reachable by the right people. The office works from shared drives, field staff connect securely from their sites, and the team runs on company email and Teams with their devices under management.

What other electrical contractors can take from this

You don't need the same rack server to use the same thinking.

Stop using personal phones as the company's filing system. If the latest panel schedule only exists in someone's camera roll, the office is stuck whenever that person is busy.
Put files in one place, then back that place up. For Able that was on-site storage with redundancy and clear shared folders. One trusted location plus a real backup matters more than which product you pick.
Give the crew a private way in from site. Emailing PDFs to yourself, or opening up the shop network "just for today," is slow and risky. A VPN like Tailscale keeps the server off the internet while still letting authorized people in.
Tie files to email, chat and device management. With Microsoft 365 and Intune, accounts, collaboration and the ability to wipe a lost device all stay with the company.
Plan for ongoing support. A setup like this needs updates and monitoring after it's installed. It isn't a one-weekend project.

Plenty of shops keep everything in SharePoint instead of an on-site server, and that works well too. The right choice depends on file sizes, how many people need access and what you'd rather pay for each month.

Does your crew have the same problem?

Ask one of your leads to pull up the current drawings for their job from site, without calling the office. If they can't, or the copy they open is sitting on their own phone, you're about where Able was when we started.

We can help you work out whether a setup like Able's or one built on SharePoint fits your crew better. Book a free IT assessment or call 778-895-6072.

FAQ

How can field crews access office files securely from a job site?

The usual options are a VPN that connects authorized devices to the office network, like Tailscale, or keeping files in SharePoint and OneDrive so they're available anywhere through a Microsoft 365 sign-in. Either way, the office server shouldn't be exposed directly to the internet.

What does Able Electrical use for file storage?

A TrueNAS server at their office with three 6TB drives in RAIDZ1, MinIO object storage, and SMB shares for the office team. Field staff reach it through Tailscale.

Is an on-site server better than cloud storage for a trades company?

Not always. An on-site server means no monthly storage fees and full control, but it needs backup, updates and monitoring. Cloud storage like SharePoint is easier to reach from anywhere. We help clients choose based on how they work.