“We bought Procore six months ago, but my team isn’t using it.” Sound familiar?
You’re not alone. We hear this from construction companies every week – organizations that invested heavily in Procore only to find themselves frustrated with adoption, confused about implementation, or questioning their ROI.
There Is No “Easy Button”
In our latest mini-episode of Construction Hot Takes, our team tackles the question that plagues many construction executives:
“I bought Procore. Now what?”
In this 7 minute mini-episode, you’ll discover:
Why software alone doesn’t solve problems – and what you need to focus on instead
The implementation roadmap that successful contractors follow (hint: start with the basics)
Common pitfalls that derail Procore adoption and how to avoid them
Training strategies that won’t bore your team to death but will get them using the system
When and how to integrate Procore with your ERP system
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Full Episode Transcript:
Adam Cooper:
We’ve helped hundreds of clients build better construction companies.
Greg Gorman:
We love this business. We love the people. And we’ve seen what running a successful, profitable business takes.
Adam:
And we’re sharing it all with you here, on Construction Hot Takes.
Jeff Robertson:
So, you bought Procore. Now, now what?
Adam:
Oh, great. Holy s***. I have an orange easy button, right? I’m just going to press that Procore easy button.
Greg:
Yep. And everything will be fixed.
Adam:
I mean, there’s a lot of questions to ask. For that I think the first thing is what modules did you buy at Procore outside of project management? We just had a core.
So, and then if you bought financials, are you going to connect it to your ERP and then what other technology do you have? Other software do you have? Do you want to integrate and API them?
But I think the first thing you would want to do is go through a standup implementation to start assigning rules and permissions, giving people access to the system and making sure they’ve got the right access.
Adam:
I’m going to back you up a step. The bigger question is what are you using it for? Which is to imply which is to go toward which modules did you buy? Are you going to connect it to your ERP?
Sure. But the question is really why did you buy it? What did you think this was going to fix for you? What was the thing? What pure f****** magic was going to happen when you bought this that is going to suddenly happen when you turn it on?
Adam:
Hopefully before you spent five or six or gosh 10 seven figures every spent, you know, 10,000, hundred,000 or a million dollars on Procore, what size you are, you already kind of figured out how you’re going to use it at a 30,000 foot view. Now, you have to actually start using it.
Jeff:
Agreed.
Adam:
So, typically what you want to do is start identifying who are going to be your champions, your administrators of the system, and then start defining roles and permissions and giving people access. And then you’re going to pick a couple of projects to load in there. And you’re going to start with the core stuff, drawings, specifications, D reports, photos. And then you’re going to got to start setting the job up and letting people start using the system.
Okay, hey, we got the drawings in there. Let’s start walking around. Let’s start taking some pictures and start doing daily reports. Let’s get the basics now. The blocking and tackling of protocol, the basics of project management, the documentation side, RFIs could go in there.
And you start using it for that. Now, if you’re going to connect it to your credential system, that’s a whole side project because you got to get cost code systems and you got to figure out how you’re going to use private contracts and what tier of change orders are you going to use and who’s going to have what permissions in that and how are the budgets working? Do you need custom budget GIs? Do you have reports you need?
So that’s a whole rabbit hole we could go down but I think you know so you bought Procore, now what? I mean you got to get basics going, you got it’s just like any other system you got to get the basics and your team trained on how to use it by the basics.
Greg:
We talked about this maybe once before. I can’t remember if we talked it here or if it was maybe a blog we did. But so you mentioned the easy button thing. So many people I’m going to approach this from that. So you got it now. So what? Okay. Well, here’s how not to do it: It’s you buy it and just kind of hand it off to somebody from an executive level. Just hand it off and then never talk about it again and expect them to understand why you why you have it in the first place.
Adam:
Shameless plug. What Procore? Now what? Call Ascent Consulting up.
Greg:
Well, that I was just going to say both you guys are I think you’re kind of saying the same thing. So, you bought Procore now what the blocking and tackling, but you have to ask: are your people trained in using the system and not just the blocking and tackling. Are they trained in do they know how to turn it on? Do they know how to log in? Do they know how to enter data? Do they know how to set up a new project?
It’s not necessarily… It doesn’t come with the easy button. We know that. We’re joking about it. But you have to be able to say “Hey, well my people can even use it much less use it well and use it right.”
Jeff:
Well, we… we hear training programs that be built.
Greg:
My point on that was that we hear all the time. We get calls all the time that says “I got Procore 3 months, 6 months, year ago, whatever, and it doesn’t work” is the first thing you hear. “Or my people aren’t using it. I’m thinking about getting rid of it. Can we can we turn this boat around? What you know, can you fix it?”
Adam:
We’re not getting… we’re using a… you were only using a small bit of Dropbox. We got…
Greg:
I guess my point on that is “it doesn’t work.” I disagree. It’s probably working the way it was designed. You just didn’t understand how it was designed to work and you’re trying to make it do something it doesn’t want to do.
Not saying we can’t help you, but there’s a misalignment of expectations or “my people aren’t using it,” which probably means there was absolutely no thought of rolling it out. Training like you mentioned.
Adam:
Yeah, you have to roll it out and explain the why. Why did we do this in the first place? What’s the goal? You know the other thing so answer the question “now what?” I would also say now invest in some continuing education for yourselves. Go online there are the training certification courses that you can do as self-guided thing they’re they’re pretty basic and they’re very general. They don’t teach you how to customize or how to adapt it into your organization. They do teach you what the buttons do, how the buttons work.
Jeff:
What it’s supposed to work.
Adam:
How it’s supposed to work and they give you some examples. And they do keep that stuff pretty fresh and updated as they update the program.
Jeff:
I think that’s a mindset though. You know, who wants to spend 20 hours going through certification programs, you want to just start playing with it. We’re in construction. Just give me the tool. I’ll figure out.
Adam:
Well, I’ll try to give you the instructions anyway.
Jeff:
Give me the new saw. I’ll figure it out. I didn’t cut my lane off. I promise.
And that’s all we have for this episode of Construction Hot Takes. Thanks for listening. And if you enjoyed the episode, don’t forget that you can follow us on Spotify or Apple podcasts at Construction Hot Takes. And while you’re at it, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, too, at Ascent Consulting. If you want to drop a thumbs up or comments on your favorite video, that’ll go a long way in helping our channel. And lastly, if you want to schedule a call directly with Adam, Greg, or Jeff to talk about problems or challenges facing your own construction companies, you can schedule free consultation calls directly with them on our website, www.ascentconsults.com. Again, thanks for listening and we’ll catch you next time.
