Procore helps Nabholz Construction get it right the first time

The Challenge

Nabholz Construction’s business is a mixture of commercial and civil and infrastructure work — with the company acting as a general contractor in some instances and a self-performing entity in others. They needed a uniquely flexible tool to maximize productivity and address the industry’s labor shortage — one that ensured the front office, finance and field teams all had access to the most up to date information, enabling them to do their best work everyday.

The Solution

In Procore, Nabholz found the perfect fit for the company’s needs: built-for-construction software to ensure everyone understands what needs to be done, who’s going to do it and how long it will take.

The Results

• Faster execution with a shared view of all project variables, helping Nabholz teams work confidently across industry segments
• Seamless knowledge transfer with stored job insights and advanced training as experienced personnel retire
• Early conflict resolution by aligning priorities between accounting and field teams on a single platform

Innovating with a Mission, since 1949

Nabholz distinguishes itself by handling commercial and civil and infrastructure work, and by acting as both a general contractor and a self-performing entity.

But there’s more that sets this Arkansas-based business apart. Their mission is to grow their people, serve their clients and build their communities. Since the company’s founding in 1949, every decision has been anchored in this three-pronged commitment.

Nabholz’s genuine commitment to the community is exemplified by the Nabholz Charitable Foundation, created by Bob Nabholz almost forty years ago to guide the company’s philanthropic efforts — which have added millions of dollars in donations to hospitals, schools and universities.

Of course, maintaining such a commitment requires a solid foundation for the business. That foundation is the company’s unwavering focus on innovation — from establishing the first in-house carpentry apprentice training program in Arkansas in 1973 to developing the specialized capabilities to meet an emerging need for infrastructure work in the 1990s.

Unique Projects, Unique Platform

Civil and infrastructure projects like highway construction, building pad excavation and utility installation are very different jobs from erecting a skyscraper — and they present unique challenges. At Nabholz, many aspects of their civil and infrastructure projects are self-performed, exponentially increasing the details being managed under one roof. More project ownership means more responsibility, in a landscape of very specific requirements:

“You’re managing a lot of information very quickly, and a lot of people and equipment” says Chris Wright, EVP of Operations Support. “It can be quite complicated for what appears to be a fairly simple project. The way the jobs are priced, the way they’re contracted — there are subtle differences that can have a really big impact on exactly how the business is managed.”

Nabholz’s civil division needed to maximize project management capacity while providing the flexibility to adapt the process for nuanced project types. Procore puts all the project’s information in one flexible platform — and makes it accessible to every stakeholder, allowing them to make better decisions, faster.

“When a revision happens, oftentimes it needs to be implemented very quickly,” Wright explains. “If you don't have the latest and greatest information immediately available, it's hard to react.”

Procore provides real-time visibility and historical perspective to shape the process to meet unique expectations, moving projects forward faster and keeping everyone on the same page:

“Being able to put everything in one tool and have everybody looking at the same information creates a new sense of direction,” says Wright.

Using Tech to Pass Knowledge to the Next Generation

While Nabholz tackles some unique challenges, it’s also facing one of the most common dilemmas in the industry. “We've got a lot of folks that have a lot of experience and really know what they're doing — and they're getting ready to retire,” Wright says.

While it is being felt more dramatically with the current departure of seasoned employees from the workforce, this isn’t a new problem. The management and transfer of institutional knowledge has always been a top priority for the construction industry, given the specialized experience involved and the stakes at play.

“So how do we take that institutional knowledge, hold on to it and pass it down?” asks Wright. “A big part of that is having good tools and processes in place and trying to capture lessons learned.”

Procore’s ability to store insights is crucial — and its ability to make that process fluid is even more crucial. As Wright puts it, “What we really focus on is trying to implement these processes that more or less capture the information while we're doing work rather than having to stop and report on what we did.”

But capturing the information is only half the battle — the other half is disseminating it. Procore’s virtual trainings meet that need. “The training center's been really helpful,” says Wright. “The incoming generation craves technology — they’re very attuned to going in and watching a five-minute video on how to do a particular activity.”

With access to a constantly growing database of online learning, Nabholz’s newer talent can progress and fill the shoes of experienced, outgoing team members faster and more effectively.

From the Back Office to the Front Lines

From working in different places to using different systems to subscribing to different ways of thinking, there are many causes for misalignment between office-based finance and accounting teams and field teams. However, successfully scaling a business starts with correcting that misalignment.

By integrating with most major accounting systems, Procore enables companies to bridge the divide, helping accounting and field teams work off a common dataset.

"In the past, our accounting system was separate from our project management software. Now that we've integrated Procore with our account software, Sage, we've had the opportunity to reevaluate our processes and increase the clarity between accounting and project management."

Having the clarity and alignment to make the right decision with less wasted time is the key to building a better bottom line and a better business.

As Wright puts it, “We want to do it right the first time, so we need to increase the quality. These are all things that flow from having the right information at the right time in the right place.”