Data centers are a mission-critical, capital-intensive commercial construction market that’s powering the economy. 

“The amount of money being poured into data centers right now is unlike anything we've seen. Even bigger than the dot-com boom in the early 2000s,” said Matt Koenig, General Manager with Haynes Mechanical Systems, during a recent BuildOp’s webinar on the data center boom. 

For commercial and field service contractors of all sizes, the opportunity for growth is immense, with 50% of electricians surveyed reporting growing demand from data centers, according to BuildOp’s The Pivot Point.  

“Some of the smaller clients are winning these bigger opportunities, work on these data centers, and they're getting these contracts that are allowing them to expand to a new bucket that they haven't seen before," said Grant Spiegel, Enterprise Commercial Success Manager at BuildOps, during a webinar on BuildOp’s The Pivot Point.

But capitalizing on data centers is no easy feat. The operational strain from data center construction is huge, especially for contractors that lean on legacy construction workflows. Contractors relying on traditional systems and workflows will struggle to keep up with the demand of data centers and the standards owners have for their construction partners. 

“It's a different animal," Matt said. "Response times are tighter, and expectations are higher—but that's also why they're willing to pay more.”

To bid competitively on these complex projects, contractors are investing in their workflows to gain efficiencies and improve accuracy. Here are four reasons contractors need to level-up their construction processes to compete in the booming–and profitable–data center market. 

1. Existing Workflows Can’t Scale to Data Center Complexity

Data centers combine massive scale with mission-critical mechanical, electrical, and environmental systems that must be functional and reliable every minute of every day. 

These systems are engineered ecosystems with redundant power feeds, megawatt-scale electrical distribution, precision cooling, and complex life-safety systems. They must all work continuously with zero risk for slip-ups.

Traditional contractor workflows make a few assumptions. 

• Work is linear, starting with design, moving to building, and then facility maintenance.
• Handoffs among the office, field, and client happen occasionally throughout the process.
• Documentation is useful but not mission-critical.

Data centers disrupt these assumptions. With dozens of interdependent systems and continuous uptime requirements, every task during a data center construction project is high-stakes. Traditional checklists, informal notes, and email coordination simply don’t hold up under this complexity. And they don’t scale as project size and technical density grow.

2. Coordination and Handoffs Fail Under Tight Compliance and Documentation Demands

Coordination is contractual in data center construction. Owners require detailed reporting on environmental conditions, electrical readings, safety verifications, and certification compliance. Failure to deliver consistent documentation can jeopardize site access, void warranties, or trigger penalties.

Traditional workflows rely on patchwork coordination mechanisms that include spreadsheets, siloed dispatch lists, and informal handoffs among departments. Against a data center’s rigorous requirements, these systems quickly collapse.

• Dispatch lists that don’t check certifications send unqualified techs to secure sites.
• Manual documentation leads to incomplete records and rework.
• Untracked handoffs leave critical context behind, creating costly consequences when service windows are tight.

Data centers expose weak links. They demand workflows that enforce compliance at dispatch, capture proof of work in real time, and ensure every stakeholder sees the same up-to-date information. Without that level of coordination, jobs stall and costs spike.

3. Speed and Precision Stress Legacy Processes

Data centers compress two traditionally opposing priorities: speed and precision.

In legacy commercial work, speed often means building quickly, at the expense of precision, which is addressed later in the process through punch lists and rework cycles. 

Legacy processes like linear planning, delayed record keeping, and reactive problem-solving are too slow and too loose for data center construction. 

Contractors unable to pair speed and precision can’t keep up in the data center market. 

• Speed is non-negotiable: Many data center clients expect response times measured in hours, not days.
• Precision is mission-critical: A slight electrical or mechanical error can cascade into outages or safety risks.

Data centers demand connected construction workflows that anticipate task dependencies, enforce standards before work begins, and capture process evidence as it happens. Without integrated workflows, teams chase accuracy after the fact, creating bottlenecks and costly last-minute fixes.

Improved Processes Support Data Center Construction

The demands of data center construction push traditional construction processes beyond their limits. What worked when delays or missing documentation were inconveniences won’t suffice when uptime is the performance metric and every mis-coordination costs real dollars.

Working at the level of construction required by data centers fundamentally changes how contractors must operate. Technology can help them keep up. Nearly 60% of contractors surveyed in The Pivot Point are investing in tools for high-stakes projects like data centers. 

Technology investments can help contractors make a few core shifts to improve processes, streamline the workflow and keep up in the busy data center market.

Certified, Skill-Driven Dispatching

Only techs with the right certifications and clearances should be eligible for data center projects. Make sure techs with manufacturer-specific training and certifications in equipment are dispatched to these jobs. Techs also should have OSHA 10 certification before stepping onto a data center jobsite. 

Smart dispatch technology simplifies ensuring the right techs are dispatched to these complex jobs. It matches the required training and certifications to the job requirements, guaranteeing the job is done quickly, efficiently, and to a high standard. 

Real-Time Proof of Work

Documentation is part of the contract and must be taken seriously. Smart reporting keeps documentation in one place and allows technicians to upload information instantly in the field. 

Technicians can upload photos of work as it’s completed. To remove guesswork, they can access the full service and inspection history for each asset that includes photos. They can upload notes with measurements and work progress, and complete all required forms in the field. These tasks become even more important as multiple techs work on the same job.

Meeting validation standards is streamlined with timestamps, and leadership can generate job reports that pull documentation together for easy exports or closeouts.

Integrated Coordination Across Teams

When the entire team operates from a shared, synchronized system, instead of disparate spreadsheets or separate tools, field crews, schedulers, and office staff are up to speed on project progress and requirements. All team members see the same job details, history, and priorities in real time, so nothing gets lost in handoffs or buried in inboxes. 

With one system, documentation flows naturally from the field to the office, schedules adjust without guesswork, and decisions get made faster because the information is easily available and updated as work happens. Deadlines are met, work continues as planned, and mistakes are identified immediately to prevent costly rework. 

When every part of the operation runs on the same platform, teams stop working in fragments and start moving in sync, bringing more control, fewer mistakes, and better outcomes on complex, high-stakes data center work.

Evolve Workflows for Success in Data Center Construction

Data centers are reshaping the commercial contracting landscape in scale and complexity, as well as workflow expectations. Legacy approaches break under the demands of precision, speed, documentation, and compliance. 

For commercial contractors and field service providers, the decision isn’t whether to break into the data center market, it’s putting the systems in place to be a successful competitor. They must adapt workflows so response times, coordination, and execution are engineered at the same level of rigor as the facilities themselves.

In the data center environment, connected, workflow-centric systems are the operational backbone that turns opportunity into reliable, repeatable success.