Streamlining project management and putting people first

The Challenge

Brasfield & Gorrie, a general contractor located in Alabama, needed to replace their outdated, disparate systems with one cohesive solution that could support its $5 billion business. For that, Brasfield & Gorrie needed a partner that could transform its tech and improve decision-making and efficiency while supporting its rich company culture.

The Solution

Brasfield & Gorrie debated whether to build or buy when it came to comprehensive construction management software that would support efficiency, standards and $5 billion of revenue. The company spent significant time searching for a partner with compatible values and a commitment to building community until it found Procore. As trusted allies, Procore now helps Brasfield & Gorrie serve their communities with streamlined project management, efficient decision-making and a people-first culture of construction excellence.

The Results

• Established comprehensive safety protocols with Procore, fostering a culture of zero incidents and protecting the workforce
• Gained real-time supply chain visibility through Procore, enabling early recognition of delays and improved material management
• Enhanced project management efficiency with Procore, allowing teams to make informed decisions and reduce mistakes on every project

Partnering for Success

Brasfield & Gorrie has firmly established itself as a leading general contractor for nearly six decades. With vast expertise that spans diverse industries, ranging from commercial to federal civil and infrastructure construction, the firm excels at constructing structures that directly impact communities.

“Construction’s always been meaningful to me for how it affects the surrounding community,” says Chris Kramer, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Information Officer at Brasfield & Gorrie, who has been with the company for 26 years. “We’ve been able to serve our communities for 60 years because that’s a core principle.”

As Brasfield & Gorrie started scaling up dramatically, it worried it might lose some of this critical culture in the process. As the general contractor started exploring a partnership with Procore, those worries evaporated.

“I haven’t met anybody at Procore who I haven’t enjoyed spending time with. Procore has a great spirit and a culture of people who look out for their customers and try to make a difference in this industry,” Kramer says. “Building great people is the most important part of what we do, and we’ve seen the same thing in them. They have the same great cultural values, and those parallels made it easy to move in Procore’s direction.”

With a powerful new partner, Brasfield & Gorrie's unwavering commitment to its culture and community impact fosters an environment of excellence in project delivery and people development. With Procore, Brasfield & Gorrie got more than a product — it gained a long-term strategic partner.

Build vs. Buy

Whether to build or buy the construction management software it needed was a big consideration for Brasfield & Gorrie. “I’ve been a CIO for eight years now and have had about 18 years of operational experience,” says Kramer. “Coming from the ops side, I believed we should always self-perform.”

Brasfield & Gorrie even designed its own custom safety app before looking into the market. “We’d built a custom application that had been very successful, but it needed to grow and improve,” says Kramer. Brasfield & Gorrie needed customizable apps and all-seeing dashboards, among other things, which take time to develop. Procore’s uniquely configurable platform made light work of the decision.

“Looking at Procore, it was an easy decision for us. We thought about what we wanted to build, and because of the custom aspects of the dashboard itself, we knew Procore could do that for us,” says Kramer. “Why build something if you can buy it and it’ll work even better?”

Procore immediately offered the company essential support with precisely the features it required, including verification of quality and regulation, real-time communications and more insight into supplies and risks onsite. “A better, more cohesive platform allowed us to be a little nimbler in our actions,” says Kramer.

Procore’s construction site quality and safety management solution now allows Brasfield & Gorrie to identify and predict problems — and correct them before high costs ensue. “Having a product like Procore can help us shore up the foundation of what we do so we can focus on solving other challenges,” says Kramer.

Build Your Way with Procore

Procore’s ease of adoption and strong people-first culture initially attracted Brasfield & Gorrie, but its usability and configurability were crucial in the decision-making. “A platform is something to stand on,” says Kramer. “It’s something that we can use to build onto, add modules to and decide how we best want that platform to grow and evolve.”

The new partnership now allows the company to streamline processes and communication, saving Brasfield & Gorrie lots of confusion, countless work hours and even money on parts and labor.

“Previously, we had data scattered across a number of different systems,” explains Kramer. “But migrating all that into Procore makes it a lot easier. Having all the data in the same place matters because it reduces the time to get answers and keeps problems from occurring.”

Brasfield & Gorrie saw immediate effects after adoption. Workers could now access and analyze job-critical information quickly without jumping through hoops, scrolling through endless order forms or communicating complex information to stakeholders on the fly. “The fact that it’s all right there within Procore now, that the analytics module can consume and report at the project level and across projects, is really powerful. It allows our leaders to know what’s going on quickly without having to use a bunch of customized applications and analysts,” explains Kramer. “We’re all seeing the same information in real time, at the same time.”

Though migration to new tech is usually a headache, implementation with Procore was one of the easiest roll-outs Brasfield & Gorrie has ever had. “From a professional services team standpoint, they made our job easy. It’s been a very painless roll-out,” says Kramer.

After adoption, Procore's professional services team took care of Brasfield & Gorrie through every step of the process. “The Procore professional services team is a pleasure and a joy to work with,” says Kramer. “Any implementation that doesn't require my direct involvement on a regular basis is excellent, and I attribute that largely to them. Procore's ability to ensure that we are consistent and safe in our practices and processes makes it much easier from a leadership team standpoint. It ensures that our policies and procedures are consistent across the organization.”

Executives and Field Teams Have Everything They Need

With Procore, Brasfield & Gorrie can make construction work easy for the people it cares most about: its employees, vendors and clients. Between document centralization, real-time communication and comprehensive views that eliminate order or labor discrepancies, workers and leaders have everything they need at their fingertips for every job.

Besides the partnership’s other benefits, Procore’s intuitive, user-friendly tools and support team have encouraged high adoption and enthusiasm. “Procore is helping us with that on the project sites, to know how we build projects from an institutional standpoint,” Kramer says. “It’s easy to use, intuitive and people like to engage with it. Folks are eager to use it every morning and come to work ready to work.” 

Procore is ready to use "out of the box," which makes it an attractive option for new talent, further aiding recruitment and retention to combat a decreasing workforce.

“Our partnership with Procore helps improve quality, it helps improve safety, and it gives us a good feeling we’re building things the way the world wants them built,” says Kramer. Now that workers have the supplies and data they need and don’t have to wait around while approval trickles down. Instead, they can spend less time on the tedious tasks and more on what matters –– impacting the people and communities around them.

Through its strategic partnership with Procore, Brasfield & Gorrie has scaled to handle $5 billion in sales and is providing better efficiency and service to its customers. By committing to solid values and finding a partner who fully appreciates and delivers on those values, Brasfield & Gorrie continues to build excellence in its community today.