Manufacturing IT support in Tulsa that keeps the floor running and the quotes going out
When the ERP hangs, the whole building feels it: the front office can’t quote, shipping can’t print labels, the floor can’t pull the next job. And half the machines out there are run by a PC nobody is allowed to touch. You are in the business of making things and shipping them on time — not babysitting servers.
What running your business looks like — and what gets in the way
Your day runs on a chain of systems that all have to work at once: the ERP takes the order, engineering releases the drawing, the traveler hits the floor, the machine runs the program, shipping prints the label, the invoice goes out. One weak link — a server that crawls, a workstation that dies mid-program, a network drop between the office and the shop — and jobs slip, and late jobs in a job shop are lost customers. Meanwhile the machines keep running on PCs that came with them: old Windows versions the machine-tool vendor won’t certify an update for, sitting on the same network as email. Reactive IT shows up after the line stops. It has never walked your floor.
NSN Management works with Tulsa-metro manufacturers as the IT team for the whole building — front office and shop floor. We keep the ERP, CAD/CAM seats, file server, and network fast and monitored; inventory the machine and controller PCs and put them on their own segment so a phishing click in the office can’t reach the floor; test the backups so a bad day is a short one; and coordinate the ERP vendor, the machine-tool vendor, and the internet carrier so your ops manager is not the one holding three support tickets. You make the parts; the systems stay handled.
What’s different about IT in a manufacturing business
General-purpose IT treats a shop like an office with extra rooms. The floor has its own rules.
- Downtime is measured in late jobs — An office can limp through a slow afternoon; a shop cannot. When the ERP or the network is down, machines wait, labor burns, and promised dates slip. Systems have to be sized for the load, watched so problems are caught early, and backed by a plan for the day something truly breaks.
- The shop floor is full of computers nobody owns — CNC controllers, machine-side PCs, DNC file transfer, scales, label printers, time clocks, barcode scanners — many tied to a specific machine and a specific old Windows version the equipment vendor supports. They can’t just be patched like office PCs; they have to be inventoried, isolated, and planned around.
- Manufacturing is a top ransomware target — Attackers know a shop with jobs on the floor will pay to get its ERP and files back, and manufacturing consistently ranks among the most-attacked industries. Multi-factor authentication, endpoint detection and response, email security, segmentation, and tested offline backups are the difference between a bad morning and a bad month.
- Your drawings are the business — Customer prints, your own designs, quotes, and pricing live in CAD files and the ERP. That is intellectual property — yours and your customers’ — and some customers now audit their suppliers’ security before awarding work. Defense-related work adds formal requirements on top.
- Everything talks to everything — ERP to accounting, engineering to the floor, barcode to inventory, EDI to your biggest customer. Each vendor supports its piece and blames the network for the rest. Someone has to own the whole chain and sit on the call until the order flows again.
The systems you run — and what we do with them
You keep the ERP and the machines you’ve invested in. We keep the servers, workstations, network, identity, and backups underneath them fast, secure, and documented.
ERP, engineering & the front office
- ERP and MRP platforms used by small manufacturers — hosted or on premises — with server and workstation support, vendor coordination, and upgrade planning
- CAD/CAM workstations — SolidWorks, AutoCAD, Mastercam, Fusion 360 — specified, maintained, and backed up, with license servers that behave
- Quoting, accounting, EDI, and the integrations between them — owned end to end when an order stops moving
- Microsoft 365 for the front office: email, shared files, identity, and multi-factor authentication
Shop floor & network
- An inventory of every machine PC, controller, and device on the floor — and a network segment that keeps them working but walled off from office traffic and the internet
- DNC/file transfer to machines, barcode and label printing, time clocks, and scales — supported, not just tolerated
- Business-grade Wi-Fi and cabling that reach the floor, the yard, and the mezzanine — built for metal buildings that eat consumer Wi-Fi
- Legacy Windows machines that can’t be upgraded: isolated, documented, and planned around instead of ignored
Security, continuity & compliance
- Endpoint detection and response, email security, patching, and multi-factor authentication — the controls cyber-insurance carriers now ask about by name
- Backups with tested restores and recovery targets agreed in advance — ERP, file server, and Microsoft 365 — so ransomware is a short, documented interruption
- Help meeting customer security questionnaires and supplier audits, and a path to formal frameworks when defense or aerospace work requires them — see our IT compliance services
- Documentation of the whole environment, so the shop’s IT knowledge doesn’t live in one person’s head
Three steps to IT you don’t have to think about
Book a Discovery Call
A focused conversation about your environment, risks, and priorities — no obligation, no hard sell.
Get a clear plan
You leave with practical next steps and timeline options for your environment — in plain language.
Work with a team that answers
Your people stay working, IT stays handled, and you hear from us before you have to ask.
What this looks like in practice
A representative engagement — details generalized to protect the client.
The situation
A Tulsa-area fabricator was quoting and scheduling out of an ERP on a server no one had touched in years, with machine PCs on the same flat network as email and a backup drive that had not been checked since it was installed. The owner’s worry list started with “what happens if that server dies on a Monday.”
What we did
We replaced and sized the server for the ERP the shop actually runs, moved backups to a monitored setup with tested restores and agreed recovery targets, segmented the machine and controller PCs onto their own network, rolled out multi-factor authentication and endpoint detection and response in the office, documented every device on the floor, and took over coordination with the ERP and machine-tool vendors.
What changed
The ERP stopped being the slowest thing in the building, the floor kept running through an office phishing attempt that went nowhere, and the owner’s Monday-morning worry became a documented recovery plan with restore tests to show for it.
What changes for you
- The floor keeps running — ERP, network, and shop-floor systems sized, monitored, and segmented so office problems stay in the office.
- Recovery you have seen work — Backups tested on a schedule, with recovery targets agreed in advance — before the Monday you need them.
- Answers for your customers — Security controls you can show when a customer audits its suppliers — and a path to formal compliance when work requires it.
- One team owns the chain — ERP vendor, machine-tool vendor, carrier — we coordinate them all so orders keep moving and your people stay on the floor.
What reactive IT costs you
- A ransomware event that encrypts the ERP and shared drawings with no tested backup — the shop quoting from memory for weeks
- A machine PC on the office network becoming the way in — or the way an office infection reaches the floor
- An ERP server sized years ago quietly slowing every quote, traveler, and shipment
- A customer security questionnaire — or a defense-work requirement — the shop can’t answer
- The one person who knows the systems leaving, with nothing written down
Timely response
Issues get handled before they stall your team.
Truly local
Tulsa-owned and Tulsa-run since 2012; the people who answer your call live and work here, and they show up in person when it counts.
Regular communication
Regular meetings and monthly reporting — you always know where things stand.
- 4.8★ Google · 31 reviews
- Kaseya/Datto MSP of the Year 2025
- Inc. 5000 2026
- Tulsa-owned since 2012
The services that matter most for your firm
Most clients get all of this inside one managed IT relationship. These are the pieces that carry the most weight for a business like yours.
Managed IT services
Help desk, monitoring, patching, and planning for the office and the floor
Managed IT services →Cybersecurity services
MFA, endpoint detection and response, email security, and segmentation for a top-targeted industry
Cybersecurity services →Backup & disaster recovery
Tested restores and recovery targets for ERP, files, and Microsoft 365
Backup & disaster recovery →IT compliance services
Customer questionnaires, supplier audits, and formal frameworks when work requires them
IT compliance services →Business VoIP phone systems
Phones that reach the office, the floor, and the road
Business VoIP phone systems →Microsoft 365 management
Identity, MFA, and email security for the front office
Microsoft 365 management →Truly local: NSN Management is Tulsa-owned and Tulsa-run since 2012, with on-site support across the metro — see IT support in Tulsa and managed IT services in Tulsa, or how we work in Protect · Empower · Support.
Your questions, answered
Do you support our ERP system?
We support the servers, workstations, network, and backups your ERP runs on, and we coordinate directly with the software vendor when a problem is on their side — sitting on the call so your ops manager doesn’t have to. Tulsa-area shops run a wide range of ERP and MRP platforms, hosted and on premises, and we work with what you have chosen rather than pushing a change.
Can you work on the machines themselves?
We stay in our lane: the machine tools and their controls belong to your machine-tool vendor and your own people. What we own is everything those machines depend on — the machine-side PCs, DNC and file transfer, the network segment they sit on, and the isolation that keeps an office infection off the floor. When a problem sits between our side and the vendor’s, we get on the call and stay on it.
Our machines run old versions of Windows the vendor won’t let us upgrade. What then?
That is normal in a shop, and the answer is not to ignore them. We inventory them, take them off the office network onto their own segment, block what they don’t need to reach, and document the plan for each one. An un-upgradeable machine PC that is isolated and known is a managed risk; the same PC sitting quietly on the office network is how shops get encrypted.
Why would attackers care about a small shop?
Because downtime forces payment and defenses are usually thin. Manufacturing consistently ranks among the most-attacked industries precisely because a shop with jobs on the floor and no tested backup has little choice on a Monday morning. Multi-factor authentication, endpoint detection and response, email security, segmentation, and restore-tested backups take away most of that leverage — and they are what cyber-insurance carriers now require anyway.
A customer sent us a security questionnaire. Can you help?
Yes. More manufacturers see security questionnaires and supplier audits from their larger customers every year, and the questions map to controls we implement as part of managed IT — MFA, endpoint protection, backups, access control, patching. We help you answer honestly, close the gaps that matter, and — if you take on defense or aerospace work with formal requirements — build toward them deliberately through our IT compliance services rather than the week before an audit.
Do you support both the office and the shop floor?
Yes — that split is exactly why manufacturers hire us. The front office looks like any business: Microsoft 365, ERP clients, accounting, phones. The floor is its own world of machine PCs, DNC, barcode, and devices that must keep working but should never see office traffic. We support both and — just as important — keep them properly separated.
Do you support manufacturers outside Tulsa?
Yes. NSN Management supports manufacturers across the Tulsa metro, including Broken Arrow, Jenks, Bixby, Sand Springs, Sapulpa, and Owasso — remotely for speed, and on-site when a server room, a switch closet, or something on the floor needs hands in the building.
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Read the guide →Ready for IT that keeps the floor running?
Start with a Discovery Call — a focused conversation about your ERP, your network, your machine PCs, and what happens the day a server dies. Or call 918-770-9150.
Also serving AEC firms, CPA & financial firms, HVAC, plumbing & electrical contractors, Professional services, Healthcare practices, and Oil & gas companies — see everyone we serve.