Construction company leans on trusted IT partner during good cyber times – and bad

This paid piece is courtesy of SiouxFalls.Business.

At Beck & Hofer Construction, the team spent much of 2024 completing several notable projects.

There was a multisite expansion for Five Star Storage, a multi-floor fit-up for First Bank & Trust, a new office for Holmes Murphy at The Steel District in downtown Sioux Falls, expansion of the ClubHouse Hotel & Suites and a new switchgear building for T&R Electric.

“2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for Beck & Hofer,” said Tyler Morris, who became owner and president in 2018.

“We’re building on the momentum from 2024 and focusing on expanding our portfolio with several large projects currently underway and in the pipeline.”

Behind the scenes, though, Beck & Hofer also found itself the target of a sophisticated “spear phishing attempt,” in which a scammer monitored a high-level employee’s email account over time, observing how the person communicated.

“When the opportunity presented itself, the scammer intercepted the active email thread, posing as our employee, and provided a fraudulent routing and account number in an attempt to redirect a large payment,” Morris said.

“Luckily, the routing number drew a red flag as a non-local bank, and the payment didn’t get processed — this is when Workplace IT stepped in and took over to scrub the email addresses involved and thoroughly confirm there was no ongoing threat.”

Beck & Hofer had worked with Sioux Falls-based Workplace IT Management as its managed IT provider for about two years.

“We had chosen to work with Workplace because they offered a comprehensive approach that aligned well with our needs,” Morris said.

“Their proactive monitoring, strong focus on cybersecurity and their team’s clear communication gave us confidence they were the right choice.”

Direct Company’s Workplace I.T. Management supports Beck & Hofer with everything from cybersecurity to end user and PC support, licensing and Office 365 purchasing.

“We’re a full-scale provider for them,” said Joe Henderson, director of IT for Workplace IT Management.

“It’s a very good relationship, and they’re very open with us. We’ve had great communication with Tyler and his leadership team. They follow our processes really well, and we communicate regularly.”

When it came to dealing with the cyberattack, “Workplace’s team swiftly traced the scammer and scrubbed the affected emails, ensuring the threat was fully resolved and our operations remained secure,” Morris said.

Beyond that urgent situation, “Workplace IT has gone above and beyond by offering help and support to solve challenges on custom projects outside their typical IT scope — a level of service that’s rare to find,” he continued.

“Their quick response times are invaluable in times of need, and their oversight and guidance in IT asset management ensures our equipment remains up to date and secure.”

Beck & Hofer has grown by 40 percent under Morris’ leadership, illustrating how Workplace IT Management is able to work with businesses from startup to scale-up on their IT needs.

“We’ve seen a lot of people moving out of their home office and starting up, a number of small offices with a couple of workers. We have been able to design a small-business technology plan from the ground up to get them to where their technology works successfully and is budget-friendly. We then continue to support technology long term,” Henderson said.

“It’s  great to see a new startup business take off, whether it’s a construction firm, a law firm, an accounting firm; it’s great to be able to be there and support their needs at all stages of growth.”

To learn more about how Workplace IT Management can support your business’s IT needs, click here.