CASE STUDYGallagher-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.

INDUSTRIAL

CASE STUDY GALLAGHER-KAISER

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CASE STUDY GALLAGHER-KAISER

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.”

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.”

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.”

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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.”

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.

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.

CASE STUDY GALLAGHER-KAISER CASE STUDY GALLAGHER-KAISER

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CASE STUDY GALLAGHER-KAISER CASE STUDY GALLAGHER-KAISER

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.”

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.”

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 e-mails 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.

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CASE STUDY GALLAGHER-KAISERCASE STUDY GALLAGHER-KAISER

GREAT FROM THE START, BUT CUSTOMIZABLE, TOOAllen 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

Procore Technologies, Inc.6309 Carpinteria Ave., Carpinteria, CA 93013

866-477-6267 // www.procore.com

FEATURESDrawing & Document Management

Accounting Integration

Contract & Change Management

Bidding

Daily Logs

RFIs

Submittals

Punch List

Meetings

Photos

BENEFITSImproved Communication

Mobile Access

Increased Productivity & Accountability

Flat Rate Pricing

Unlimited Users

Unlimited, Secure File Storage

Easy to Use

Superior Customer Support

Risk Prevention

WHO USES PROCORE?General Contractors // Owners // Engineering Firms

Specialty Contractors // Construction Management Firms