Procore Document Control - from a Project Engineer's Perspective
October 17, 2018
Procore Document Control - from a Project Engineer's Perspective
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Project Management
- Quality & Safety
- Field Productivity
Overall Satisfaction with Procore
Procore is primarily used for document control, safety tracking/ checklists, as well as just an overall project-specific shared file site between the client/ architect/ construction/ commissioning team. Construction drawings are uploaded and the newest renditions of the drawings are kept in the "drawings" tab. Between its text OCR recognition and its ability to supersede old drawings, but also maintain the superseded drawing within the same location, it is the most robust document control program that I have used. It is currently being used within a single department, and on a project-specific basis. If I was part of upper management, I would definitely push to implement this across the whole organization. I feel that it definitely helps alleviate the question of "who is working off the latest drawings?" in the field. All users can access the latest and greatest drawings.
- Maintain latest drawings and every rendition of that drawing to allow for easy navigation and review of changes
- OCR text recognition helps expedite uploading drawings/ project specifications, especially on larger projects with volumes of specifications
- Cloud-based, centrally located project documents make file shared and collaboration seamless between all parties involved on the project
- Integration with Trimble products and Sage Timberline would be nice-- our company uses Trimble Prolog and Timberline for cost management, so Procore is not the "one-stop shop" for all aspects of the company, only document control.
- Primavera P6 integration with the submittal log would be a nice feature to see. This would help with providing more information and detail on the material procurement/ submittal logs.
Bim360 as a standalone is not as robust as Procore. Drawings/ document maintenance is a great example. To get a similar result to Procore's drawing management, you would need to use "Bim360 Field", which would have a similar OCR text recognition feature to Procore, but its another added step. And BIM doesn't superseded drawings like Procore does or maintain that history of drawings the way Procore does. It just makes the whole task so much more lengthy and bogged down with addition sub-tasks and sub-sub-tasks to those sub-tasks. From my past experience, it is also not as self-explanatory and does not offer as much stand-by support/ support links the way Procore does.
I have definitely benefited from these collaboration capabilities. The unlimited licenses are particularly helpful. For a GC to get subcontractor buy-in on software is pretty difficult. The question of finances always comes up. With the unlimited licenses, it fosters a climate of collaboration without subcontractors griping about not have access because they are not "contractually obligated" to purchase access to the software. More accountability on all parties results from this collaborative climate, as Procore allows users to assign a responsible person/ party for a task, like a submittal or an RFI.
- Procore has helped save time, with the ease of use in updating drawings and that aspect of document control, as well as assigning responsibility for submittals/ RFIs.
- Increased efficiency because of the unlimited licenses and the ability to include all parties involved in the project, from the owner to the GC to the sub. Everyone can have access to the most updated drawings and this reduces the risk of re-work through GC/ subs putting work in place based off superseded drawings.
- Checklists for QA/QC/ safety results in a project that is of high quality, safe, and documented.
- Gain visibility into projects
- Ensure information is accessible and up to date
- Document job site conditions
- Report on incidents and inspections
- Identify job site risks
- Simplify employee time tracking
The drawings feature on Procore allows for documents/ drawings to be easily accessible and up-to-date, while also maintaining a history of those documents. Files uploaded and deleted on Procore are also never "deleted", so it makes data recovery easier also.
The ease of uploading and maintaining drawings also frees up time to focus on other tasks that actually should require multiple steps (updating and maintaining drawings should not be as laborious as some programs make it).
Checklists on Procore allow for quality standards to be maintained and exceeded. Any issues can be reported immediately and a documented history to be maintained.
The ease of uploading and maintaining drawings also frees up time to focus on other tasks that actually should require multiple steps (updating and maintaining drawings should not be as laborious as some programs make it).
Checklists on Procore allow for quality standards to be maintained and exceeded. Any issues can be reported immediately and a documented history to be maintained.