Procore: To Buy or Not To Buy?
April 05, 2018

Procore: To Buy or Not To Buy?

Bryan Wilson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Project Management
  • Quality & Safety
  • Construction Financials

Overall Satisfaction with Procore

Procore has an intuitive interface and presentation. Individuals that use computers on a regular basis typically find the software easy to learn and use. Personnel that have limited involvement with computers typically find it challenging to use Procore. I make it a point to conduct a formal presentation of the use of Procore prior to starting a project and to make myself available to assist each user on an individual basis. If Procore, or any other collaborative software program, is thrust upon an individual without proper instruction, that individual will likely become frustrated and blame Procore for issues that stem from that individual's lack of computer literacy.
Butier Engineering's primary service offering consists of construction management services to governmental agencies and municipalities responsible for civil infrastructure, typically in the water supply and treatment field. Butier's role is construction manager as the agent. Procore is being used as the construction management software platform for most of the firm's largest projects, with an emphasis on operational project documentation control, as opposed to financial tracking, accounting, and budgeting. Procore is typically utilized for each new project where our client, the governmental agency or municipality, lacks an in-house construction management software platform. The majority of Butier Engineering personnel have used, or are currently using, Procore. Procore addresses the need for consistency of communication, organization, and the availability of accurate reference documentation across Butier's projects and clients.
  • Notification, Tracking, and Logging of Submittals and RFIs
  • By providing a dynamic infrastructure for the review and tracking of submittals and RFIs, Procore greatly increases the efficiency of coordinating reviews and eliminates the tedium and inaccuracy of maintaining submittal and RFI logs.
  • Mobile Access to Project Documentation
  • The ability to quickly access accurate and up-to-date information, including project plans, specs, RFIs, submittals, reports, and test results in the field is one of the great benefits of using Procore. Construction often proceeds without consultation of appropriate documentation in the field due logistical and cost issues. Field access to project reference documentation ensures that the project is being built according to plan.
  • Single Organized Source of Project Information
  • All information for a given project is located via a single login. Ranging from the official project personnel directory with direct dial capability to electronically slip sheeted blueprints with notations, Procore houses all official project information which is accessible by all project members, including the owner, general and subcontractors, third-party testing companies, and the architect/engineer.
  • Inconsistency of Formatting and Functionality Between Tools
  • Different tools oftentimes have differing formats or approaches to the same issues. For example, the Submittal tool as a robust review workflow capability enabling concurrent or sequential reviews with differing due dates and required versus optional review status. RFIs are often the subject of similar review scrutiny and routing to identical groups of personnel, yet the RFI tool has a very basic and limited interface with which to distribute and track review and commentary. Text input formats and editable drop-down lists also differ in format and capability between tools.
  • Granular Permission Levels Needed for Submittal and RFI Tools
  • With respect to viewing reviewer comments, access to the Submittal and RFI tools are all-or-nothing propositions. There currently isn't a method of screening interim, background, or unofficial comments within these tools from selected users. For example, the engineer and the project owner may have a disagreement on an issue that involves substantial time and cost. It would not be beneficial to the owner to have the general contractor see this disagreement and use it as a wedge in negotiations regarding a potential change order. Therefore, I do not grant the contractor and related personnel access to these two tools. Obviously, this approach is less than optimal and results in additional administrative burdens involving project communication and logging.
  • Permission Controls and Formatting Improvements to the Daily Log Tool
  • The Daily Log tool is in need of various improvements, ranging from photos fitting within the Daily Log PDF borders to larger text boxes for note entry, similar to the format used in the Meetings tool. The challenge with the Daily Log also presents itself externally with the typical user base. The Daily Log tool is used primarily by field personnel. These individuals are typically the least proficient technologically and encounter issues with the open permission architecture needed for their work and the aforementioned text input formatting issue. I normally grant Admin-level access to the tool to field personnel so that they can copy log entries forward and delete unused entries. On projects with multiple inspectors, they each see and can edit the other inspector's entries, instead of seeing and being able to copy and delete only their entries. This has caused confusion and arguments regarding data integrity and accidental modification of another individual's entries.
The fact that Procore's pricing model does not involve the number of users was a primary reason why Butier Engineering was able to implement the software. Butier's role as CM as an agent means that dozens of individuals from many different entities need to have full access to the program. Many of Procore's competitors either do not explicitly allow users from other entities to access the software or pricing quickly becomes prohibitively expensive and the project becomes "crippled" by limiting access to a single designated individual per entity. Procore's ease of use, intuitive interface, and unlimited storage and access for an unlimited number of users were primary purchase points for Butier.
  • Increased Efficiency and Decreased Cost
  • Traditionally, each project would have an administrative individual assigned to the project, or the administrative duties would be expected of the technical construction management and engineering personnel. With Procore, a single individual can effectively administer multiple projects, eliminating the need to staff each project, saving tens of thousands of dollars in labor costs per project per year. Procore also unburdens technical individuals in the field.
  • Increased Professionalism and Exceedance of Client Expectations
  • Using Procore on a project demonstrates to the owner and all involved personnel the level of professionalism and documentation accuracy to which the project will be managed. Increasing numbers of owners are now expecting that some type of an electronic project management system be employed to manage the project, and Procore typically greatly exceeds those expectations.
  • Field Accuracy of Construction
  • Due to logistical and communication issues, field construction crews often do not have comprehensive and updated plans and specs readily available at the job site, let alone complete submittal and RFI documentation. This leads to decisions being made on superseded or incomplete information, resulting in a loss of quality in the finished construction project. Field access via mobile device to all of Procore's information via a practical interface reduces downtime and increases efficiency and accuracy.
  • Gain visibility into projects
  • Ensure information is accessible and up to date
  • Document job site conditions
  • Report on incidents and inspections
  • Simplify employee time tracking
Butier Engineering heavily uses the Documents, Directory, RFIs, Submittals, Meetings, Photos, Drawings, Specifications, and Daily Log tools for daily construction management. The Reports, Prime Contract, Change Orders, and Change Events tools are also utilized, but to a lesser degree. Most of the other tools are rarely used. The above lists of tool usage reflect Butier Engineering's emphasis on document control by the use of Procore.
Procore is excellent as a comprehensive data management, routing, and tracking platform for users that are comfortable with computers and technology. It fully integrates various functions that traditionally have been managed manually or by separate programs or methods. Procore needs improvement with formatting and consistency across tools and needs additional configurability of permission levels and access.

Procore Feature Ratings

Plan distribution & viewing
10
Plan markups & sharing
9
Document sharing
9
Issue tracking & punchlists
5
Photo documentation
8
Jobsite reports
4
RFI tools
8
Collaboration & approvals
8
Mobile app
9