CLIENT
Design Phase is a South Carolina technology systems design firm with more than 25 years of experience. It designs the low-voltage, audiovisual, networking, and security systems for school construction and renovation projects, then sees each one through to completion.
CHALLENGE
Design Phase had a proven way of running projects, but most of it lived with its principal, who also handled quality checks in the field. The company owned Procore but had never set it up and leadership wanted a documented process the business could hire around.
RESULTS
Through an operational design engagement with Procore configuration and training, Ascent mapped the full project lifecycle, defined six roles, and set Procore up as the company’s system of record. To facilitate this, Ascent delivered an interactive operations manual that turns the process into a day-to-day reference and an onboarding tool for new hires. At the final on-site session, the team set up a live project in Procore by following the new process step by step.
Turn institutional knowledge into a system your entire team can follow
The Ascent Difference
We helped Design Phase take a process that lived in one person’s head, document it, build it into Procore, and hand the team an interactive manual they can work from every day.
Expertise that lived with one person
For more than 25 years, Design Phase has helped school districts get technology right on new schools, additions, and renovations. The firm is known for careful planning and hands-on oversight, staying involved with each project from the first design meeting until the school opens.
That work follows a detailed sequence from design through closeout and the principal knew it thoroughly. Much of it hadn’t been documented yet, so quality checks and project decisions still ran through him. The Procore account the company had purchased was still waiting to be configured.
Where Ascent went to work
The Ascent team started with on-site discovery in Charleston, then mapped the process with leadership through several rounds of review. Once the process was agreed, Procore was configured to match it:
- On-Site Discovery and Procore Audit
- Process Maps From Design Through Closeout
- Roles and Responsibilities for Six Positions
- Procore Configuration Built Around the Process
- Procore Standard Operating Procedures
- On-Site and Virtual Procore Training
- Final Stand-Up and Validation Session
Final Deliverable: An Interactive Operations Manual With Process Maps, Checklists, and Role-Based Views
What the documented process gives Design Phase
Design Phase now has a documented, repeatable process for every project from start to finish, with a clear owner for each step, decision, and client approval. Procore is the single source of truth, configured so every project is set up, shared, and closed out the same way.
The setup fits how the team works in the field. Conduit surveys stay in Bluebeam and only the items that need follow-up are logged in Procore.
The interactive operations manual puts it all in one place: process maps, checklists, links into Procore, and views filtered by role, so a new hire can pull up only the steps they own.
The real payoff is a business that can grow beyond one person: the onboarding and quality-control tools now exist, so their team and the next hire can learn the work without the owner on every site visit.
Why deep expertise can be hard to hand off
Some specialty firms are built on one or two people who know the work better than anyone. That expertise builds the business, but it can make growth harder when the process lives in conversations instead of documents. Documenting the process, assigning owners, and building it into the systems the team already uses is often how firms capture tribal knowledge before it limits growth.
Expertise builds a business, but process is what lets you grow
The knowledge that built your company is worth protecting. Ascent turns it into a documented process your team can follow, so the business can grow beyond the people who started it.