Voice, IT, and security for Connecticut manufacturers.

What manufacturers typically need from us

Voice for shop floor + office

Office phones with full features (cloud or on-premise — we design hybrid for many plants). Shop-floor phones that handle dust, noise, and rough handling — often paired with strobe lights and louder ringers because no one hears a desktop phone over a press. Paging integrations so calls can be announced facility-wide.

Plant-wide paging

Multi-zone overhead paging with weatherproof horn speakers for high-bay and exterior areas. Pages from any phone. Emergency-tone capability for evacuations and lockdowns. Often the most-used feature in a manufacturing voice install.

OT/IT segmentation

Operational technology (the PLCs, HMIs, and SCADA running production) must be isolated from the regular office network. We segment by VLAN, firewall the boundary, and lock down what's allowed to cross. Ransomware on the office network shouldn't be able to touch the shop floor.

Cameras on the shop floor

Safety incident review, theft deterrence, productivity insight (where allowed by your employee policies and labor agreements), training material. Digital Watchdog cameras with appropriate environmental rating for the floor conditions.

Dock-door and entry access control

Employee entries, dock doors, restricted production areas. Schedule-based unlock for shift starts, lockdown for after-hours. Integration with time-and-attendance where it adds value. Auditable for ISO and customer-required compliance.

Reliable internet with failover

EDI, customer portals, MRP/ERP, video conferencing with customers and suppliers — a manufacturing plant going offline costs real money. BigLeaf SD-WAN bonds multiple internet connections; an outage on one carrier doesn't stop shipments.

Cabling for hostile environments

Manufacturing cabling isn't conference-room cabling. Plenum-rated where required, but also armored cable in production areas, conduit through fire-rated walls, weatherproof outdoor runs to outbuildings and gatehouses. Structured cabling →

What we know about manufacturing IT

• Downtime is measurable. Most plants can quote you the per-hour cost of a production stoppage. Resilience investments pay for themselves in a single avoided outage.
• Cybersecurity matters more than ever. Manufacturers are increasingly targeted by ransomware because the cost of downtime is so high — they're more likely to pay. Layered defense is mandatory.
• Customer security questionnaires. Large customers increasingly require their vendors to attest to specific security controls. We help respond to these honestly.
• CMMC and NIST 800-171. Defense suppliers face CMMC certification. We implement the technical controls; you work with a CMMC consultant for the program side.

Common manufacturing customers we serve

• Aerospace and defense suppliers
• Precision manufacturing and machining
• Food and beverage producers
• Plastics and packaging
• Metals and metalworking
• Pharmaceuticals and life sciences manufacturing
• Distribution and 3PL operations