Transforming project oversight and communication for success

The Challenge

With so many agencies and programs to monitor at any given time, the Construction Inspection and Management Branch (CIMB) for the State of CA's Department of General Services struggled with persistent challenges around communication and data accessibility. Driven in large part by manual data entry across disconnected systems, even routine tasks like daily logs were a complex, multi-step process. These types of inefficiencies created delays in communication and impacted the accuracy of project data. For CIMB this made oversight a time-consuming and painstaking process.

The Solution

CIMB brought on Procore to help streamline their processes, minimize delays, and dramatically improve communication across stakeholders. After successfully implementing Procore in 2018, the agency hit the ground running, quickly gaining adoption across teams and stakeholders. This gave Brenning increased visibility and accountability across state agencies and allowed him to effectively manage and monitor multiple teams and projects across the state.

The Results

• Achieved significant time savings by eliminating redundant manual processes, leading to an immediate return on investment
• Enhanced issue resolution by streamlining communication, enabling teams to quickly identify and address potential challenges
• Increased project oversight with real-time data access, empowering executives to ensure high-quality delivery from anywhere in the state

CIMB struggled to find project information which led to delays

Efficiency is a challenge when project data is scattered among various spreadsheets, emails, and file cabinets. When something goes wrong, getting answers can grind progress to a halt.

“Before Procore, it was not not unusual where an issue would get escalated, and it would take me a day or day and a half to try and find the information,” says Brenning.

By routing everything through Procore, CIMB now has a single source of truth across projects, increased visibility into the health of their projects, and more confidence in the quality of their data.

With Procore, CIMB finds the the right tools for the job

Completing the inspection process is one of the most critical elements of CIMB’s work. For this essential task, CIMB uses Procore’s Quality and Safety module which allows Brenning to address issues in real time and help mitigate risks that could impact his schedule and budget.

“That one Procore module has transformed my whole organization. Now I can triage a project remotely. We had a roofing project where the contractor lost control in terms of rain events and leaking, and it was really drastic. I was immediately able to see in the Photos tool what was happening and what it was like before, see the daily logs, and really get a real quick grasp on what was happening with that project.”

This would not be possible without Procore’s mobile app which allows his team to easily document field information and supports all activities that need to be done on the job or remotely, including the ability to create punch list items, view and mark-up drawings, download documents, take photos, and more.

“With Procore’s mobile tools, our observations and inspections are documented better. Teams can verbally transcribe their comments in the mobile tool, and we aren’t losing information.

Not only is the data available to my staff, it's available to the other users in the projects, as well.”

This makes it easier for Brenning to remotely oversee projects across the state and across multiple sites. “If I need to find something going on with a project, I can go to the mobile app tool and see what's happening. More importantly, our customers really like it, and they have access to information. It's transparent and it's visible to them. They can see what's going on in real- time. It doesn't require you to be on a jobsite,” says Brenning.

Offline capabilities ensure data is captured even without connectivity, helping reduce delayed, duplicative data entry and offering field teams even greater flexibility. “My staff are often working in locations where there isn't any communication, and that doesn't inhibit the mobile tool at all. They're able to do all of their work, and then as soon as they get in communication range, it updates it automatically.”

Los Angeles County saves countless hours (and a lot of paper)

Procore’s flexibility and ability to unify project data came in particularly handy during a unique request from Los Angeles County. During the pandemic, the state leased 32 hotel properties to provide housing for homeless people. As they were phasing occupants to other living arrangements, CIMB was tasked with assisting LA County in returning the property to the owner in pre-pandemic condition.

The project involved thousands of surveys to determine the extent of the damage in each and every room, which typically would involve countless hours of manual entry and a nightmarish mess of paper documents.

Instead, CIMB proposed they use their Inspections tool in Procore. They created a checklist that emulated the county’s survey document that allowed them to quickly indicate the level of damage. After assisting with a couple of the properties, CIMB trained LA County staff to use the tool themselves so they no longer had to be involved, ultimately completing over 2,100 surveys. The Procore mobile app allowed the surveyors to conduct the surveys with their smartphones, and once saved or completed the data was uploaded to the project in the Procore web application.

“It was phenomenal for LA County. It saved them an immense number of hours and gave them immediate access to data they could analyze to determine what they have to do to restore those properties,” said Brenning.

Fast adoption for internal and external teams means quicker time to value

Brenning was able to get everyone up to speed quickly by taking advantage of the Procore Training Center.

“Every user has a different access level and need for information. We were able to customize our use of Procore’s Training Center for each user role and make it specific to what they need to know so they didn’t get lost in tutorials and manuals and all of these kinds of things, and it works very well,” said Brenning.

Brenning says that Procore’s unlimited user model helps them establish an environment that fosters an even greater degree of involvement and accountability up and down the value chain.

“I believe that we've got a user environment that just encourages everyone on a project, including external collaborators and stakeholders, to be involved, and that is really very key. The access to information, transparency, and communication is readily there for all of my stakeholders.”

CIMB finds a true partner in Procore

Partnerships are built on reciprocity and trust, which includes the way a product is developed and supported. For Brenning, Procore's customer-centered approach has been a gamechanger and truly instrumental in the success of his organization.

“Procore’s innovative team continues to provide new capabilities and features beyond initial implementation. They respond to customer and user feedback, and look to other ways they can make the experience better or bring more value to us. The return on investment has increased exponentially for myself and my organization, without asking or expecting it. Bottom line, it’s one of the best decisions I have made in my career,” says Brenning.