The Challenge: Refresh and Upgrade Legacy Relationship and Server
Turner & Jacobs Construction has been building out the interiors of Dallas-Fort Worth’s commercial spaces since 1996, with clients like First Industrial Realty Trust, Prologis, and White Cap Construction Supply. It’s a tight-knit team—just four to five people juggling estimating, project management, and back-office tasks—all while keeping jobs running smoothly across the field.
"We're constantly using Microsoft, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Excel, etc.," said Drake Ditmer, who purchased the company in 2023 from founders Cindy Jacobs and Ray Turner. “Mr. Ray is still here. Ms. Cindy is kind of mostly retired but still comes in occasionally just to check on things and help me out with some small stuff.”
Ditmer’s team relies on phones and iPads to stay connected on job sites, but behind the scenes, their tech setup was struggling to keep pace. "Honestly, we don't have much IT or tech. We're pretty basic when it comes to that type of stuff," he said. From onboarding new employees to solving email issues, “having someone to bounce things off of and someone that knows things is definitely helpful.”
That someone is Sagiss. The company had already been supporting T&J before Ditmer took over, but under new leadership, it was time to re-evaluate. With a dated in-house server and a growing reliance on cloud-based collaboration, Sagiss became not just an IT vendor—but a vital extension of the team.
"We're a small company,” Ditmer explained, “so it's easier and more cost-effective for us to go out to a third-party IT vendor like Sagiss.”
The Solution: Cloud-based System and Renewed Tech Support
The company's transition from its outdated in-house server to a cloud-based system was a test of trust and responsiveness. "Having a cloud server kind of scared me at first," Ditmer said, "But I know we're covered with Microsoft, and we would be okay if anything happened."
T&J agreed to switch to Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), the comprehensive cloud-based desktop and app virtualization service running on the Microsoft Azure platform. Ultimately, this would give the business the ability to manage flexible and scalable remote work, without the need for an on-premise Remote Desktop Server (RDS).
As with any significant change, there was a period of adjustment. Just as T&J helps clients through the growing pains of construction projects, Sagiss supported T&J through the natural challenges of adopting new systems.
“It was a little bit of a learning curve at first, but it does good for us,” Ditmer noted. “It’s easy to use, and while it felt a little slow at first, that was addressed quickly—probably user error on our part, honestly.”
The Result: A Strong Support Relationship and Upgraded Infrastructure
The move to AVD puts T&J Construction's IT system on a platform that is more agile and better suited to its current needs without investing in on-site hardware that will eventually need replacing. The primary goal of the transition was to improve the company's IT resources without causing unnecessary strain or disruption to the business.
And the business still gets the tech support it needs when it needs it from Sagiss: "Anything to do with the computer, they do for us. Emails that aren't coming through the firewall: they'll release those for us. Getting us set up on our printers, et cetera."
Now fully transitioned to AVD and secure in their tech support relationship, Ditmer rates T&J's experience with Sagiss "a nine out of 10" as he leads his company towards its next 30 years of success. "They're a great IT partner. I can make a phone call and get help right away. We can submit a ticket and get help right away. So those guys are great to work with and we wouldn't want to work with anybody else."
Sagiss, LLC
