Five common IT pitfalls in growing AEC practices

Many AEC practices don’t “design” their IT – it just grows alongside projects and headcount. That’s understandable, but over time it leads to friction, risk and wasted spend that nobody really owns. In this post, we’ll look at five of the most common pitfalls I see in small and mid‑sized businesses.

1. Treating IT as a series of one‑off purchases

A new project comes in, a new team member joins, a client asks for BIM coordination – and a new tool or licence is bought to solve that specific need. Over a few years, this can leave you with:

• Multiple tools doing similar jobs (file sharing, mark‑ups, approvals).
• Different teams using different combinations of software.
• No clear view of what’s essential and what’s “historic baggage”.

How to avoid it: once a year, step back and review your core “stack”: what’s used daily to deliver projects, what’s used occasionally, and what nobody can quite remember why you’re paying for. Aim to simplify before you add anything new.

2. Under‑using Microsoft 365 while buying extra tools

Most AEC practices already have a powerful set of capabilities bundled into Microsoft 365: identity, email, storage, collaboration, basic security and more. But it’s incredibly common to see firms:

• Paying for third‑party file sharing when SharePoint/OneDrive would be sufficient.
• Using Teams only for chat, not for structured project collaboration.
• Buying security add‑ons while MFA and basic policies are not consistently applied.

How to avoid it: start from the question “What can we sensibly do with what we already own in Microsoft 365?” before looking elsewhere. This doesn’t mean forcing everything into one platform, but it does mean being deliberate when adding standalone tools.

3. Inconsistent project structures and naming

When each team, or even each project lead, invents their own way of organising folders, models and drawings, you end up with:

• Time wasted hunting for information or checking which version is current.
• New starters struggling to understand “how we do things here”.
• Higher risk of sending the wrong file or incomplete package.

How to avoid it: agree a small set of standard project structures, naming conventions and transmittal rules. They don’t need to be perfect or aligned to every clause of a standard – they just need to be consistent and realistic for your teams.

4. Relying on a single “IT‑minded” person

Many growing practices have one person – often not formally in IT – who “just knows” how everything fits together. They handle licences, approvals, workarounds and vendor conversations. That works until:

• They get too busy with their actual job.
• They move on, leaving no documentation behind.
• The practice reaches a scale where informal knowledge just isn’t enough.

How to avoid it: capture key decisions and processes in lightweight documentation, and make sure responsibility for IT and digital operations is recognised in someone’s role – even if it’s fractional or supported by an external partner.

5. Taking security seriously only when a client forces the issue

Security work often starts when a major client sends a questionnaire or insists on particular controls. That’s a perfectly valid trigger – but if you only ever react to external demands, you risk:

• Implementing point solutions that don’t fit together.
• Spending money to pass one audit while leaving other gaps untouched.
• Creating policies that look good on paper but don’t match daily reality.

How to avoid it: define a simple, practice‑level view of what “good enough” security looks like for you – covering access, devices, backups, monitoring and incident response. Then map client requirements onto that, rather than starting from a blank page every time.

Turning pitfalls into a practical roadmap

The good news is that none of these pitfalls require a complete rebuild of your IT. Most improvements come from:

• Clarifying how you want projects to be delivered and supported digitally.
• Making better use of tools you already pay for, especially Microsoft 365.
• Standardising a few key patterns so people aren’t reinventing them on every job.
• Planning changes over 6–18 months rather than reacting case‑by‑case.

If some of these issues sound familiar, a structured review – like the free IT assessment offered by IT Synergies – can be a useful starting point. It gives you a clear picture of where you are today, and a prioritised list of actions that make sense for your size of practice.