GUY Engineering Services is woman owned, Native-American-owned and HUBZone-certified civil engineering consulting firm based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. For decades, they’ve provided engineering, surveying and planning services to federal, tribal, state, county, city and private entities.

Paving the Way for a Better IT Infrastructure

As a civil engineering firm, GUY Engineering is always considering whether there’s a better way to build something, and their IT infrastructure is no different. Around 2017, they decided that it was time to upgrade that infrastructure and perhaps their IT managed services provider along with it. Looking for a quality partner to deliver best-in-breed technology, they turned to InterWorks.

For their first engagement, InterWorks helped GUY Engineering replace their old server, networking and firewall hardware. InterWorks also helped implement a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop environment for workers in their growing Oklahoma City office. This alleviated previous issues with their file server configuration and enabled greater access and productivity for those outside their Tulsa HQ.

Shortly after the IT hardware refresh, GUY Engineering made the decision to move their HQ to a new location in Tulsa. InterWorks assisted with the relocation and setup of GUY Engineering’s entire IT infrastructure. InterWorks helped them outfit an entirely new server room and ran/terminated all network cabling throughout their new office building. Since their HQ move, GUY Engineering has also made substantial changes to their OKC office location, with InterWorks helping them to set up new networking components there, as well.

“The biggest advantage of working with InterWorks is that they keep us at the forefront of IT, which is a real competitive advantage in our field. They’re also the voice of reason when it comes to thinking through solutions. They’re able to tell me whether something might be overkill or whether there are options that might be a better fit for our needs.”

– Becky Pitts, Engineering Technician/IT, GUY Engineering

Current Setup & Remote Capability

Fast-forward to 2023, and GUY has advanced their IT infrastructure significantly. They still utilize Dell EMC servers, and thanks to better networking via Ruckus Unleashed Access Points and upgraded machines, they can now connect to their centralized file server without the need for VDI. They primarily access things like CAD drawings, which can be sizeable, but their infrastructure handles it easily whether their employees are accessing them from Tulsa, OKC or remote locations.

All of this was put to the test during the COVID-19 pandemic, and GUY Engineering was able to adapt to most of their workforce working from home without difficulty. InterWorks was also able to help GUY Engineering roll out things like Zoom and Microsoft Teams to make remote collaboration even smoother among GUY Engineering employees.

Ask anyone at our company how did the transition to remote work during COVID went, and they’ll say it was shockingly smooth. The government made an announcement on Wednesday, and that next week, we were working effectively from home. A lot of credit goes to Becky for that, but the work InterWorks did with our IT infrastructure helped make it possible.”

– Michael Twyman, VP of Finance and HR, GUY Engineering

The Focus on CMMC

A big emphasis for GUY engineering the past two years has been becoming CMMC compliant. CMMC stands for Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification and is a designation created by the U.S. Department of Defense to assess an organization’s security posture. This is important to GUY Engineering because they often work with federal entities and see CMMC as a distinct competitive advantage in their field. The certification process takes a lot of time, and there are several requirements involved, most of which pertain to IT infrastructure and security practices.

InterWorks’ Marshall Roy provided an initial security assessment for GUY Engineering but quickly realized that bringing in a third-party subject matter expert on CMMC would be wise. So, GUY Engineering and InterWorks reached out to Guernsey to help them identify over 110 items to meet in order to become fully compliant. GUY Engineering and InterWorks could then work together to complete those requirements. They included things like FIPS-enabled encrypted file sharing, data redundancy and server monitoring with Datto RMM, a SOPHOS XGS firewall, improved ESET antivirus, DUO for multi-factor authentication (MFA), implementation of Active Directory policies and even smaller items like access controls for removeable media.

Technology as a Competitive Advantage

Today, GUY Engineering is well-positioned both in the work they do and the IT infrastructure that supports their business. Even before pursuing CMMC, they knew the value of investing in sound technology to help improve their work. But now, they’ve pursued a fully modern IT stack that helps both in their day-to-day operations and serves as a competitive advantage in pursuing the types of work they want to do. InterWorkers like Marshall Roy, Warren Sinor and Andy Shahan help support them in that endeavor. For InterWorks’ part, we love working with clients like GUY Engineering, as well as third-party partners like Guernsey, who work exceedingly well together towards a common goal.

“It’s a great relationship with InterWorks. Marshall, Warren and Andy are all good personalities who are always willing to teach me and show me something new. I genuinely enjoy getting talk to people at InterWorks.”

– Becky Pitts, Engineering Technician/IT, GUY Engineering