SEGLC Stops Wasting Time and Starts Saving Money

The Challenge

Superior Electric Great Lakes Company (SEGLC) faced challenges with several of their processes, particularly time keeping, which was outdated and time-consuming. The company lacked a centralized source of truth for critical documents and data, leading to confusion between departments and reducing overall efficiency. As part of a close-knit, employee-owned group of companies that values teamwork and mutual support, SEGLC was determined to work together to become a more coordinated, efficient operation.

The Solution

SEGLC took a careful approach to implementing Procore, starting with Timesheets then expanding into other solutions, being sure to work closely with Procore along the way and taking the time to train workers across the organization.

The Results

• Switching from manual spreadsheets to Timesheets and Crews minimized repetitive work and opportunities for error.
• With less resources wasted on time tracking, SEGLC was able to save money on fees and labor costs allowing their employees to focus on more important tasks.
• With all Timesheet data digitized, SEGLC can create detailed custom reports that help managers schedule their people and track critical KPIs and data trends.

Combining a supportive culture with a more efficient process

Superior Electric Great Lakes Company (SEGLC) is a full-service electrical contractor based in Troy, MI. It is also part of Superior Enterprise Holdings, a group of employee-owned companies that work together to ensure fair wages and strong benefits in a supportive, family-like culture. Being part of such a close-knit company means always being there to support your fellow workers, says Thomas Dest, SEGLC’s Business Applications Support Specialist. “If you have a question, you can always reach out and get an answer,” he says. “No one is going to tell you it’s not their job to help you.”

To stay competitive, SEGLC needed to become a more efficient operation. Because there was no single repository for important documents or data, different departments would sometimes be working with outdated information. And many of their processes were labor intensive, with time tracking becoming a particular pain point: after filling out timesheets by hand, administrators would need to manually enter the data into various spreadsheets and accounting software. ”There were numerous locations that you needed to verify and match your hours,” says Adrianne Austin, SEGLC’s Field Admin Manager.

From streamlined payroll to mobile 3D models

When it came to implementing Procore, SEGLC left nothing to chance. Rather than introduce a suite of unfamiliar tools all at once, they rolled out applications gradually, starting with Timesheets—a product that anyone with an interest in payroll would be motivated to use. They created an internal Procore Committee that met every two weeks to discuss challenges and their progress. They wrote and distributed detailed Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to guide users through the new processes. And they conducted multiple site trainings to go over the new procedures with workers in the field. Most critically, SEGLC worked closely with Procore itself, signing up for personalized, rapid-response assistance with Premier Support and constantly exchanging feedback with their customer service manager. “The addition of Premiere Support has been the catalyst that brought us to the next level,” says Austin. “The benefits outweighed the cost.”

It didn’t take long for SEGLC to see the benefits of switching to Timesheets. Work that once took hours or days was now completed in minutes, resulting in a 55% time savings, with minimal effort needed to track down and fix errors or inconsistencies. “It’s a one-stop shop for all stages of time tracking,” says Austin. “Instead of double-checking all our data across different spreadsheets and software, we just review it in Procore and verify that it matches Sage.” With the time they saved on running payroll, field admins were freed up to take on various new jobsite responsibilities, making them a greater asset to their project managers and field supervisors. And with all the Timesheet data digitized and accessible, SEGLC was now able to create scheduled reports for department managers providing time recaps and PTO summaries, as well as many other custom reports tracking various KPIs and trends.

Once Timesheets was integrated into the company, other Procore solutions quickly followed. “A lot of the Procore processes are similar to Timesheets, so being familiar with that allowed everyone to springboard forward with other tools,” says Dest. For example, the Crews tool allowed managers to organize all their workers into project teams and easily move them on and off of jobs. “Supervisors no longer have to go searching down a list of names, because their crew is there and ready for them to enter,” says Dest. Other tools that made a big impact ranged from basic solutions like Directory, Documents, Daily Logs and Reports to more specialized instruments like BIM, which gives field workers access to 3D models from their mobile device. “The BIM modeling tool has really taken off,” says Dest. “We find ourselves using Procore models more frequently than ever.”

An entire company in sync

But for a company as focused as SEGLC on working together, Procore helped bring synchronicity to our projects allowing our departments to work more seamlessly together. With a single source of truth for all critical data, SEGLC could now be sure that all employees were operating with the same, up-to-date information. And thanks to the mobile app, users could complete their timesheets regardless of where they were located. “The real value of Procore is getting everyone on the same page, whether remote or in the office” says Dest. “We no longer have people working in different ways and producing varied inputs that the home office needs to compile. Everything is already pre-compiled.”

“Now, management can instantaneously look and drill down into whatever details have been submitted,” says Austin.

In the time since SEGLC has adopted Procore, it has greatly reduced the resources wasted on busy work and redundant processes and instead focused more intently on getting the job done. “Overall, we have seen much faster processing time and accuracy, which in turn has saved us money by cutting down fees and time worked,” says Austin. Working with Procore, SEGLC is more efficient, more effective and — most importantly — more connected.