Why Construction Software Matters

The Los Angeles Times is publishing a series of articles that reveals how a $5.7 billion program to rebuild L.A. community colleges has produced lots of new construction, much of which is poorly done. The investigation by the Times reporters took place over 18 months, and reveals that tens of millions of dollars were wasted.

The Times examines one project, a new college science center, in today's coverage:

"The Los Angeles Community College District, which paid a contractor more than $48 million to build the science center, had to pay other firms at least $3.5 million more to fix and complete it. The district and the original contractor, FTR International of Irvine, are embroiled in a court fight, with each seeking to recover money from the other."

Hmmmm.

At Procore, we read about cases like these and wonder how much thought was actually given to construction project management, by both the owner and the project team. Did the owner hire a contractor without asking to learn about their project management process? How was the owner expecting to get visibility into the progress of the project?

On the contractor's side, how was the course of construction documented? Is the contractor able to prove that they built the project using all of the correct submittal information? Did the architects on this project promptly respond to RFIs so that the sub-contractors had the necessary information for completing construction? Where are the emails that detail the communication between the project team members?

We don't understand how any owner, or any contractor, can begin a significant construction project without some type of construction project management software in place. It doesn't have to be Procore, although obviously we think Procore is a great choice. But please, if you are in charge of a project as an owner, or starting to build a project as the general contractor, take a look at the construction collaboration and project management software that is available on the market. Don't let your firm end up as the topic of a newspaper investigation.

Click here to read the Los Angeles Times article Billions To Spend (March 1, 2011).

Procore for Android Released!

Procore is proud to announce the release of Procore for Android, a smartphone app for creating, managing and sharing construction project data with Android-powered devices. This app is for all those Procore smartphone owners who have Android phones and need full-featured construction project management software right on those phones.

Procore for Android brings key features of Procore’s web app to Android devices. Users can create, manage and share project information with just a few clicks. All data on Procore for Android is synced in real-time with Procore’s web-based construction project management software.

The first release of Procore for Android offers all of the tools available on our first mobile app, Procore for iPhone. Procore for Android offers document viewing and sharing, photo creation and sharing; punch list item creation and distribution; directory contact access and sharing; time card logging; RFI status review, and daily job log note taking. Procore for Android uses Google Voice to transcribe voice dictation audio into text, resulting in fast voice-to-text transcription.

Screen shots of Procore for Android, as well as tool descriptions, product literature and the Procore for Android User Guide (PDF), are all available on Procore's web site at www.procore.com.

The reaction from Procore's customers to Procore's mobile apps for construction project management has been positive. Construction software review site commented that Procore for iPhone is their "favorite construction app." We anticipate that Procore for Android will receive the same quality of reviews as our iPhone app.

Procore for Android is provided at no additional charge to all Procore registered users, and can be downloaded today from the Android Market.

Click here to learn more about Procore for Android, including how to download.

Software Advice: "Procore for iPhone Is Our Favorite Construction iPhone App"

Construction software buyer's guide Software Advice selects Procore for iPhone as "our favorite construction app."

Procore has highlighted buyers' guide site Software Advice before on our blog. We think Software Advice provides a great service to the construction industry. The people at Software Advice match companies looking for software with vendors selling software. They save people time, money and a lot of hassle. The Software Advice service is free to people shopping for software.

If you've ever searched for construction-specific iPhone apps, you're probably aware of one challenge when looking for construction software. Search for "construction" in the App Store, and more than 225 apps will appear. Worst of all, these apps include games and other apps that are irrelevant for someone trying to get some work done.

Software Advice has a solution to this confusion. They took the time to filter out all of the junk for you. The result is a list of over 120 iPhone apps that can be used by someone involved in architecture, design or construction.

We are also pleased that Software Advice singled out one app on their list from the rest:

"Procore – This is our favorite construction app. It allows users of Procore construction software to create, manage and share Procore project data from their phones. Specifically, users can create and manage punch list items, access contact data, share and store project photos, log time card entries and more. The Procore iPhone app has a rating of 4.5 and can be used on iPhones (OS 3.0 or later), iPads and iPod Touch."

Thanks, guys! We're glad Software Advice likes Procore for iPhone, and we think all Procore users will be impressed with how much they can do with the app. Especially since we'll be adding some new features very soon to make Procore for iPhone even more useful.

Click here to download Procore for iPhone from the App Store.

Click here to read the blog post The Best Construction Management Apps for the iPhone and iPad at Software Advice's site."

Map: Procore Construction Project Management Software Is Everywhere

Using Google Maps, the tech wizards at Procore have created a map of the location of every construction project in North America that uses Procore's construction software. From our first project more than seven years ago, Procore has continued to grow until now Procore is almost everywhere!

As you can see from the map below, Procore's construction project management software is used to manage projects in every US state, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

(Click on the map to zoom)

This map gives a good idea of Procore's reach. We think the map also shows how easy it is to get up and running with web-based construction project management software. Getting client-server software installed at all these locations would have taken decades (as it has for some of the older vendors in our industry).

Most of the projects on this map joined Procore during the last year -- while other construction software companies have been standing still, Procore has seen record revenues and big-time growth. The reason is that Procore's construction software is easy-to-learn, simple to use, and a rock solid value.

Plus, Procore is hassle-free. No implementation hassles, free training, unlimited support, and we'll get your project online the same day you sign up.

Most Procore users start using Procore on a pilot project. Once Procore proves its effectiveness, more projects are brought on board.

Looking for a world map of Procore projects? Check out the world map of Procore projects live on our web site about that shows the global reach of Procore's construction software.

Speed Matters: Procore Construction Project Management Software Faster

If you're evaluating web-based construction project management software, you may be interested in the biggest feature that isn't evaluated until AFTER most companies have actually bought and implemented their new software.

We're talking about speed - meaning, how fast does the web-based construction software actually work?

Scroll down to see a chart of what we're talking about, but here's the background on the data:

Many prospective buyers of web-based construction project management software evaluate different vendors' products by creating a "must have" list of features and functions. These lists include the ability to track documents, manage communications, create project schedules -- standard stuff for the construction software packages in the marketplace.

What those lists don't cover is the actual user experience of the software. In other words, what is it like to actually be the guy who has to use the construction software on the job site?

One thing we've learned at Procore -- if the software is slow, the guys at the job site won't use it. Ever.

Most construction software vendors make it difficult, if not impossible, for potential users to judge exactly what the user experience is going to be like. Vendors will show you all sorts of PowerPoint presentations and "canned" demos, but they'll never let you actually get in and knock around with the software. These companies also don't offer any kind of pilot project evaluation, because selling just one project instance of their software doesn't make sense with their business model. Software vendors that rely heavily upon implementation and configuration charges need to sell an entire company-wide software implementation before their users even get a chance to try out the software.

The result? Many investments in construction software fail because the software is hard to use and SLOW.

Older client-server and web-based construction software technologies get slowed down by the load of simultaneous users. That's why Procore uses the latest and greatest 21st century web technologies, not old code left over from the earliest days of the Internet.

Procore invests a lot of time in making sure our construction software has fast response times and no lag. A fast page response means our users spend less time waiting for the information they want to see. And when the software is fast, the guy at the job site is happy.

We benchmark Procore against other web-based construction management software packages. As you can see from the chart below, Procore handily beats the other vendors, even under equivalent load conditions:

The chart shows that Procore's pages consistently load faster than any of our competitors' pages. This is because our competitors don't have the highly scalable infrastructure that Procore has to deal with the load of many users. In addition, Procore's competitors use older technology that can deliver web pages under loads from multiple users, but only at speeds that are half as fast, or much worse, as Procore.

The lesson is clear: with web-based construction software, speed matters. Don't forget about speed when evaluating web-based construction software. Make sure to ask construction software vendors if you can try a pilot project before you buy their product.

Interested in using Procore on a pilot project? Click here to Contact Us, and we'll get you started today.