Case Study
Educating owners on the advantages of an integrated system
GSE Construction boosts efficiency and owner satisfaction by adopting Procore's cloud-based project management platform
The Challenge
GSE's Southern California division needed to move away from a complicated project management solution–poor workflows were hindering their growth and didn't work well with their company's independent work culture.
The Solution
Procore's cloud-based, real time collaboration tools are now allowing GSE's teams to expand while maintaining high productivity. All team members are quickly adopting Procore's easy-to-use solution, and are moving towards full efficiency.
Growing Out of Stale Workflows
Prior to using Procore, the GSE team was using a server-based software whose field tools weren't allowing their teams to efficiently manage projects while scaling with the company growth.
Richard Harte, GSE's Southern California Division Manager explains, "We were mainly using our project management software as a template generation tool to track submittals and RFIs. But it wasn't very user-friendly in terms of project management."
"As we were growing and getting more people on board, we wanted to standardize our processes. We knew that if the tools weren't easy to use, then they wouldn't get used. And since we're not a big company we rely on teams to manage themselves–we can't micromanage."
Because of this, Richard realized that what would be most beneficial to their company and the way their teams work, would be a user-centric tool that could give their employees ownership over their responsibilities. They also wanted to find a tool that could integrate with everything they needed to grow their business.
Ease of Use = Happy Partners
GSE has seen successful adoption of Procore from both internal staff and subcontractors. Richard claims that the Procore experience is turning heads among their subcontractors and partners.
"On one of our large projects, the owner had actually just purchased Primavera Contract Manager. We had them using Procore and they were impressed with how much more intuitive and user-friendly Procore is. They really regret their purchase."
Saving Time with the Cloud
Richard's teams are seeing major time and workload savings since adopting Procore.
"In the office, we have our internal server, but for guys in the field, they use a VPN. As cameras get bigger, the photo size gets bigger. So, before we had Procore, if someone wanted to upload 50 photos, they needed a good hour or so just to upload them. Not anymore."
Keeping Teams Connected, Even When They're Not
With builds across Southern California, it is difficult for some of GSE's project managers to visit each build on a day-to-day basis.
"Some of us are unable to get around to all the projects. To be able to sit back in the office and see where all the projects are just from the photo diary aspect is really something we love. We can see the day-to-day progression of each job no matter where we are."
Informed and Happy Owners
In Richard's experience, educating owners on the benefits of Procore has made their onboarding process easy.
"We've been fortunate enough to be able to discuss with the owner at the beginning of the job and show them the benefits of staying with an integrated system. It just helps everybody out having them on board and it's worked out well for us.
Moving Forward
Since adopting Procore, GSE teams in both Northern and Southern California are working on expanding their usage and adding new projects to the system.
