Industries
IT for HVAC contractors
Two networks, kept apart.
IT for HVAC contractors covers two networks, not one. There is the office side, maintenance contracts, recurring service schedules, dispatch and accounting, and the equipment side, where your technicians connect to building automation systems that belong to your customers. happier IT manages both for heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractors in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, and keeps them properly separated.
Who it's for
The part most providers miss: the controls network.
Building automation systems
A BAS (building automation system, the controllers and software running a building's heating and cooling) often runs old, unsupported software because the manufacturer never shipped an update. The answer is segmentation: its own network, with tightly controlled routes in and out.
Remote access into customer sites
Manufacturer tools, jump servers and VPN (virtual private network, an encrypted tunnel into a remote network) accounts spread across technicians' laptops, sometimes shared.
Maintenance contracts and recurring scheduling
Your recurring revenue base. Renewal dates, planned maintenance visits and scope commonly live in three places: the service software, a spreadsheet, and somebody's memory.
Commissioning and refrigerant records
Commissioning reports, balancing documents and refrigerant logs. Refrigerant handling is regulated in Canada, with record-keeping requirements under federal halocarbon regulations and provincial rules on top.
What's included
What we do for an HVAC business.
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Separation between office and controls
Service laptops, the office network and any controls equipment you host get separated, with the routes between them defined and monitored.
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An inventory of every remote-access path
Every manufacturer tool, VPN account and jump server used to reach a customer site, listed with an owner. Dull, and the most useful document you can have.
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Maintenance contract data in one system
Renewal dates, planned maintenance schedules and scope consolidated, so a renewal is a calendar event rather than a discovery.
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Commissioning and refrigerant records retained on purpose
A defined place, structure and retention period for reports, balancing documents and refrigerant logs, backed up, and still there when someone asks years later.
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Monitoring, and patching where patching is possible
Office systems get patched on a schedule. Controls equipment that cannot be patched gets watched instead, with alerting on anything unexpected.
How it works
The order we do it in.
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We inventory the connections
Every path from your business into a customer site, and every path back.
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We separate the networks
Office, service laptops and hosted controls onto their own segments.
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We consolidate the contract data
Renewals, planned maintenance visits and scope in one system, with reminders that reach a person. This is the step that usually pays for the rest.
What it costs
What this costs.
The controls side is project work, priced separately: the connection inventory, the segmentation design, the implementation. It has an end date rather than an ongoing fee, and what moves it is how many customer sites you hold remote access into.
When the customer owns the equipment
Responsibility for a customer's building automation system is contractual, not technical. We can secure your side of the connection; who is accountable for theirs belongs in your service agreement.
Why us for this
What we can show you, and what we cannot yet.
happier IT works with mechanical and building services contractors within a broader construction and trades practice.
Verifiable today: Microsoft, Cisco and CompTIA certifications, and a security operations centre staffed by our own employees in Canada, which matters here, because segmenting a controls network is half the job if nobody watches it.
Go deeper
- IT for construction and trades The parent page: jobsite connectivity, Procore and Sage, multi-site monitoring.
- Vulnerability management How equipment that cannot be patched still gets tracked.
Questions
What people ask before they sign anything.
Our building automation software is no longer updated by the manufacturer. What should we do?
Segment it and monitor it rather than trying to patch it: its own network segment, only the connections it needs, multi-factor authentication (a second check before a login is accepted) on remote access, and alerting on anything unusual.
Should technician laptops be on the same network as the controls?
No, and this is the most common thing we change for an HVAC contractor. A service laptop browses the web and travels between buildings; controls equipment is fixed-purpose and fragile, so separation keeps a problem on one side from becoming one on the other.
Can you help us stop missing maintenance contract renewals?
Yes, usually by consolidating data rather than buying software: renewals get missed because dates live in one system, scope in a spreadsheet, and the relationship with someone who has left. We put both in one place with reminders that reach a named person in time to act.
Who is responsible if a customer site is reached through our technician network?
Contractually that depends on your service agreement, which is a question for your lawyer and insurer. Technically, we make your side defensible: known connections, individual accounts rather than shared ones, multi-factor authentication on remote access, and a log of who connected to what.
How long do we need to keep commissioning and refrigerant records?
That depends on federal halocarbon regulations, provincial rules and your own contracts, and your compliance advisor should set the period rather than your IT provider. We then make it real: defined location, tested backups, and rules that stop early deletion.
Related
Where to go next.
Want to know what this would look like for you?
A 30-minute call. No slides, no audit fee, no obligation. We ask what is breaking and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit.