Coverage
Downtown, and the buildings around it.
The central business district first, because that is where the density is and where getting into the building is half the job. No trip charge anywhere on this list.
Primary — downtown and city
- The Loop
- West Loop
- River North
- Fulton Market
- Near North
- Streeterville
- Gold Coast
- South Loop
- Old Town
- Lincoln Park
- Wicker Park
- Bucktown
- Logan Square
- Pilsen
- Lakeview
- Ravenswood
Also covered — near suburbs
- Oak Park
- Evanston
- Cicero
- Berwyn
- Skokie
- Oak Brook
- Des Plaines
- Oak Lawn
Not on the list?
Ring anyway. Remote work has no boundary at all, and a good share of what gets done never needs anyone in the building. For on-site work further out you will get an honest answer rather than a quote for a drive nobody wants to make.
COI already on file
Most downtown buildings will not let a vendor past the desk without a current certificate of insurance naming the management company. Ours stays current and goes ahead of the visit, so access is never the thing holding up a fix.
Scheduled around the building
Freight lifts and loading docks are rationed and often restricted to certain hours. Work that needs them is planned around those windows rather than discovering them on the day.
No first line
A senior engineer on every visit, and a small enough team that both of us know your topology. You never re-explain your setup to somebody new, and nobody junior is learning on your network.
Downtown work has its own friction
Suburban IT is a drive. Downtown IT is a building. The technical work is the same; what delays a fix in a Loop or West Loop tower is everything wrapped around it, and a provider dispatching in from the collar counties learns that expensively.
Certificates of insurance. Nearly every managed building requires a current COI naming the management company as additional insured before a vendor gets past the desk. Getting one issued mid-incident costs a day.
Freight elevators and dock windows. Anything larger than a laptop bag goes up the freight lift, which is booked, often hour-restricted, and in some buildings unavailable on a Friday afternoon. A switch or server replacement is scheduled around that, not derailed by it.
Riser and building infrastructure. In a multi-tenant tower the pathway between your suite and the carrier is frequently building-controlled, sometimes with a designated riser manager who must do the work. Knowing that before you promise a cutover date matters more than any piece of hardware.
Union labour. Some downtown buildings require union electricians for anything in the walls or above the ceiling. You will be told when a cabling job falls under that rather than quoted a number that cannot be honoured.
What does not need anyone in the building
More than people expect. Virus and malware removal, Windows problems, email and Microsoft 365, printer and driver issues, software installs, performance troubleshooting, server administration, firewall changes and most network configuration are remote work. It is faster for you and cheaper — $145/hour rather than $185.
What genuinely needs someone in the suite: hardware failures, cabling, access-point placement, anything involving a screwdriver, and the first visit to a business we have not met — a walk of the floor tells you things a remote session never will, particularly about the riser and the comms closet.
Tell us the building.
Thirty seconds on the phone and you will know whether this is a fit, including if the answer is no.