Expanding functionality, enabling better work-life balance

The Challenge

Bauen Studios lacked the systems in place to compete professionally with larger general contractors. After attempting to cobble together a solution from disparate tools, Chad found that he was creating more problems than he was solving.

The Solution

Chad tried out a number of construction technology solutions but found that none offered the breadth of functionality he was looking for––until he heard about Procore, "Then I started digging into it. And when I saw the capacity of it, it was very clear to me that this is what we wanted to do."

Building Relationships to Build a Legacy

For Chad Green, improvisation has never been an issue. After spending his 20s finding work as a musician and part-time carpenter, he decided it was time to settle down and focus full time on construction. In 2015, he founded Bauen Studios—and although he didn’t doubt his ability to deliver great work, he began to consider how his systems and processes were perceived by clients.

"I looked at a lot of the larger companies and thought they must be doing things correctly because they’re large and they’re successful. What if I’m not doing those things in the same manner, or the same fashion, same format that they are?"

But Chad’s confidence came from his determination to do great work and his belief that communicating and building great relationships are the cornerstones of a successful business. "If you can communicate with someone and you can give them access to information that’s accurate and true—it’s up to date—then you’re doing good things to build relationships."

With that emphasis on communication, Bauen’s success—from a values perspective—is rooted in their ability to deliver that experience to clients. And despite Chad’s attempts to build a technology solution by cobbling together several cloud services, he found that he would have to look elsewhere to provide the best client experience possible.

Solving for Scale

"Before Procore we were embarrassingly archaic in the way we did things. I tried two different low-level, inexpensive cloud-based project management services and right away, with both of them, I thought, ‘This is not going to provide us with what we need in order to be successful at the level that I want us to be successful at.’"

Chad knew he had to solve these inefficiencies in order to scale, but the turning point was a conversation he had with a client, "They were one of the larger Owner/Managers in the City of Denver. And one of them said to me on a phone call, ‘Chad, your invoicing process is fairly unprofessional compared to a lot of the larger GCs that we’re accustomed to working with. And I’ve heard some talk in the office about whether or not your company is capable of taking on some of the larger projects.’ It was within one or two days that I was calling Procore and asking for a demo because I knew at that point that we had to take the step forward."

But before calling Procore, Chad researched other solutions he hoped could help him bring Bauen to the next level, "I had looked at other platforms and they just barely scraped the surface of what existed in my creative mind. And then I’d heard about Procore. I started digging into it. And when I saw the capacity of it, it was very clear to me that this is what we wanted to do."

Partnering for the Future

Chad pulls no punches in expressing the importance of construction technology, "I genuinely feel that the opportunity to be successful in our industry without it will soon cease to exist."

Chad says his company is more efficient and his processes have improved across the board, but that isn’t what gets him excited most about working with Procore, "This is not just about profit margins. Obviously, that is a component and one for which I am grateful, but there are so many more layers to it. I look at it much deeper than just a technology tool. I look at it as something that gives me and those connected to me an opportunity to live a more balanced life and to stay focused on what’s important to them.

I’ve referred to it as a partnership on a number of occasions. And even in some conversations I’ve had, I’ve talked about how it brings a lot of security to us. Like, knowing that Procore has our back is literally the phrase that I’ve used. And I think that in order to create that type of partnership, it has to come from a very genuine place."