CASE STUDY. Gallagher-Kaiser INDUSTRIAL CLIENT: GALLAGHER-KAISER

Transcription

1 INDUSTRIAL CASE STUDY Gallagher-Kaiser CLIENT: GALLAGHER-KAISER CHALLENGE: Lack of standard processes caused long delays and other inefficiencies. The company knew they needed to implement software to standardize their processes, but feared lack of adoption. SOLUTION: Due to its ease-of-use and powerful functionality, Procore was widely adopted, saving Gallagher-Kaiser time and money.

2 Detroit-based Gallagher-Kaiser Corporation is an established leader in automotive paint-finishing systems. They ve been in the business since the 1950s and provide most of the major automotive manufacturers companies like GM, Chrysler, Ford, and Toyota with the complex systems that paint newly manufactured vehicles. Gallagher-Kaiser Corporation coordinates and manages all the processes that go into painting a vehicle. There s a lot of information to handle. Yet for a long time, the ISO-certified company tracked its data using spreadsheets and Word documents. As the company grew, the lack of standardization across different units began to create confusion and bog down the process. By the time the company realized it needed construction project management software, its employees were struggling and scrambling, says Project Manager Allen Strong. Strong was tasked with finding the right tool for the job. He created a specific list of criteria for what he needed the construction project management software to do, did research on the Internet, and evaluated 15 different construction software vendors. In the end, he decided to implement Procore. Initially, says Strong, everyone had said that Procore is easy to use and the functionality is easy to use. For Gallagher-Kaiser, what made that challenging for us is that we re an older company and we have different levels of computer users and computer savvy. While some employees had grown up with computers, others especially older workers were still not entirely comfortable with them. I was looking for something that we would be able to plug in right away and hardly skip a beat, and Procore provided that for us. Before, teams at Gallagher-Kaiser collected data on different and not necessarily compatible forms. Word documents were saved on individual employees computers and were susceptible to getting stuck there. Some projects didn t use standardized forms at all. Management decided we need something better, Strong recalls. Procore now handles all that information in a consistent way, as a single solution. We re using Procore currently to track the data associated with those pieces, he explains. Gallagher-Kaiser uses Procore s Submittal s Tool, the RFI Tool, and the Meetings Tool. And for any data that doesn t fall neatly into those categories, the company banks on Procore s versatility by using Procore s Documents Tool. One of the biggest problems Strong had to tackle in moving everyone to Procore was employees natural resistance to anything new. Everyone is skeptical about change, and because of how old a company we are, we definitely had that as one of our obstacles, Strong acknowledges. Management took a firm but clearly positive tone, saying, Here s Procore. We feel you re going to like it, we feel that it will be easy to learn, and once you do learn it, you ll be happy with it and it will be fun to use. Gallagher-Kaiser s vast responsibilities cover everything from sheet metal to robotics to conveyor systems. They even build the ovens for drying the painted car parts. By the time our clients are done going through our processes, they have a painted vehicle, Strong says. What we do is coordinate all the pieces that go into that, and Procore is what we use to help us to manage these projects. 2 3

3 AN IN-HOUSE EXPERT One of the things that made Procore implementation go so smoothly at Gallagher- Kaiser is that they appointed Allen Strong the designated Procore expert at their organization. Allen has owned the Procore implementation for their company, and as a result, he knows Procore extremely well. He can answer most questions as they arise, without the need to call in outside help. Even so, Strong occasionally does get a technical question he can t answer, like when an employee using an older, not very up-to-date computer is using Procore. Those are the times when Strong calls Procore s Customer Support. To be honest with you, if I didn t have a direct Batphone connection to Procore s Customer Support Team, I would probably have a little bit more anxiety, Strong admits. But because I have that relationship and we established that relationship up front I know that I can pick up a phone and the team at Procore will help me solve the problem. Strong and his team chose someone in each division to champion Procore in its implementation phase. That person received extra training, and they passed on their knowledge to their colleagues. Support questions were directed to Strong. But I ll be frank with you, Strong says. I don t get that many questions, and when I do, they re easily solved. Usually it s a user-error situation and has nothing to do with the software. In the six months Gallagher-Kaiser has been using Procore, I ve hardly heard any negatives. Strong says. The few complaints he did receive actually turned out to be questions about how to use the construction software. In those instances, Procore s included training helped tremendously. Having those two key elements in place a designated in-house Procore expert and a responsive support team at Procore have been hugely beneficial to the Procore adoption process. Strong is not only familiar with Procore, but he also knows the employees and their responsibilities at the company. That s a significant boon in terms of implementation, training, and support. Procore has been excellent for me as an expeditor, as a trainer, and as a mentor, says Strong. There were no stumbling blocks, he says. 4 5

4 EMPLOYEES CAN GET ON WITH THEIR JOBS Introducing Procore into the company s workflow took time, in part because Procore s training program is designed to allow employees to get on with their responsibilities. Part of why we chose Procore was the fact that there was really no need for us to set up special days of classes and coordinate seminars and a certificate-type environment where people would have to sit in a class and learn how to do it. That was one of our concerns, Strong says. We were, as a management group, willing to go through that process if we had to, but as it turned out, there was no need, because the Procore approach is designed to train employees gradually, in small groups, as they get on with their normal jobs. For me as the trainer, Strong says, I only had to go into a room of a handful of people, and right away they picked it up. Indeed, they found that Procore is designed to work the way they do. The way that Procore is designed, it s sequential, Strong says. It starts with the s for general collaborating. Then you re going to produce submittals. Occasionally you re going to have questions, so you ve got RFIs. Next, the team began using Procore s meeting-minutes tool, as well. Once the project managers began to see how Procore was helping them, they were pleased, Strong says. Seeing the data being organized made everybody s job easy. Despite some of the early concerns about change, It s all been pretty positive and upbeat, Strong observes. When employees had questions or concerns, Strong was confident in replying. Having determined through his research that Procore was absolutely the best option for Gallagher-Kaiser, he says, I don t have to make an excuse for the product. Unlike with some competing products, with Procore, I did not have to talk away any limitations because there weren t any, Strong explains. Strong found that the most effective training was one-on-one. I probably did more one-on-one training than I did group training, and that really worked for us as a company, Strong says, because it allowed him to accommodate each person s individual schedule and responsibilities. Strong also prioritized the amount of time he spent training different groups. He scheduled less training time with engineers, for example, because they wouldn t be using Procore every day. That enabled him to spend more one-on-one time with members of the project management group to help familiarize them with Procore and get them on board with the ins and outs of it, because they were going to be the leaders of actually facilitating the paperwork and the documentation. Once they got on board with it, that made my job easy. 6 7

5 GREAT FROM THE START, BUT CUSTOMIZABLE, TOO Allen Strong likes Procore s built-in functionality, but he also appreciates being able to customize some elements especially the Documents Tool. The Documents Tool is a very powerful tool for us right now, he says, because of how it facilitates the sharing of data to and from customers and vendors. We re using it to get data to them, and they re using Procore to get data to us. We never had that capability before. We had it in the form of an FTP site, but that was very cumbersome and very confusing. As a result, Strong says, people weren t interested in using it. Due to its ease-of-use and powerful functionality, Procore was widely adopted, saving Gallagher-Kaiser time and money. Allen Strong Facility & Infrastructure Manager 8 9

6 WHO USES PROCORE? General Contractors // Owners // Engineering Firms Specialty Contractors // Construction Management Firms BENEFITS Improved Communication Mobile Access Increased Productivity & Accountability Flat Rate Pricing Unlimited Users Unlimited, Secure File Storage Easy to Use Superior Customer Support Risk Prevention FEATURES Drawing & Document Management Accounting Integration Contract & Change Management Bidding Daily Logs RFIs Submittals Punch List Meetings Photos Procore Technologies, Inc Carpinteria Ave., Carpinteria, CA //