Customer Story
Shining new light on complex solar projects
Altus Power relies on Procore for real-time project insight, allowing PMs and the C-Suite to track progress, budgets, and issues with confidence
The Challenge
Altus Power, a national commercial scale solar owner-operator, was growing quickly across 26 states and managing an expanding portfolio of complex projects. Rapid scaling led to challenges in visibility and coordination. Budgets slipped, schedules lagged and teams struggled to get reliable information in a timely manner, prompting an urgent need for a platform that could bring order and clarity.
The Solution
After a disappointing experience with another project management platform, Altus Power took a closer look at Procore. The company was thrilled to discover that the platform was suitable for its needs, providing the ability to centralize documents, budgets, schedules and project communication. Procore quickly became the foundation for a more connected, more confident approach to delivering solar projects.
The Results
- Gained real-time visibility into budgets and schedules
- Improved confidence and clarity for project managers
- Faster, more informed decision-making for C-Suite executives
- Stronger alignment across development, engineering and construction
- Centralized documentation replaced multi-system searches
“Now that [Procore] is integrated in my job, I feel much more confident in my answers to the CFO. If I’m home with my kids and someone needs something, I can jump into Procore and get them the information.”
Kira Henderson
Vice President of Construction
Altus Power
A solution that solved nothing
Altus Power is one of the nation’s largest commercial and industrial solar owner-operators, with more than a gigawatt of assets spread across 26 states. As the company expanded its portfolio and added new projects at a rapid pace, the demands on its teams grew just as quickly.
The growth exposed process gaps in the way work was being managed. The company was originating, designing, permitting, and building dozens of solar projects simultaneously, but efficiency was starting to lag. “We were growing so quickly that things were falling through the cracks,” said Kira Henderson, Vice President of Construction. “Budgets were slipping, schedules were slipping, issues were taking too long to resolve.” It was rapidly becoming clear that the company needed a platform that could scale with the pace of its portfolio.
But the path to a better system wasn’t a straight line. Before turning to Procore, Altus invested in another project management platform — only to discover it couldn’t support the way the company worked. Training was minimal, the workflows felt rigid, and the software never fit the realities of managing solar projects. “I eventually stopped using it, and everyone else did too,” Henderson said. “We were still missing deadlines and losing time, and we knew we needed a different approach.”
Procore provides a bright spot on the path to solar efficiency
When Altus began reevaluating its options, Procore wasn’t the obvious choice. “When I first thought of Procore, I assumed it was for residential construction,” Henderson said. But as the team dug into the demos and talked through their needs, their assumptions shifted. They saw how Procore’s flexibility, customization and support structure aligned with the complexity of their solar projects.
It took time to rebuild trust after the failed implementation, but the more the team explored Procore, the more confident they became. The products matched their workflows, the financial tools gave them the visibility they lacked and the support team stayed with them through every step of the evaluation. “It was a hard sell at first,” Henderson said, “but now I have people from other teams banging on my door asking how they can use Procore.”
Empowering teams with real-time information
Once Procore was implemented, Henderson and her project managers began to live in the platform day to day. Budgets, contracts, schedules, photos and issues are all in one place. “Most of my day is in Procore,” she said. “It makes it much easier to manage all of the moving parts on a project.”
That access has changed how Henderson feels about her own role. “Now that it’s integrated in my job, I feel much more confident in my answers to the CFO,” she said. “I can pull numbers instantly. If I’m home with my kids and someone needs something, I can jump into Procore and get them the information.” Project managers have seen a similar shift. Expectations are clearer, information is easier to find and they no longer need to hunt through spreadsheets or folders to see where things stand.
Whether it is a small scope or a 12-megawatt solar project, the effect is the same. “There are always lots of moving parts,” Henderson said. “Procore makes it much easier to manage them.”
Managing a national solar portfolio with confidence
With Procore in place, Altus now has a repeatable way to manage projects from coast to coast. Before, teams might search through three or four different systems hoping to find the right document. Now, budgets, schedules and contracts live in one central hub. “I try not to imagine going back to the pre-Procore days,” Henderson said. “Even finding very simple information took significantly longer than it does now.”
Executives benefit from that clarity as well. “A CEO or CFO has a million things going on,” she said. “Procore gives you the ability to click one thing and see exactly where you are on a budget. You can have a dashboard that gives a quick snapshot of where projects stand.” Approvals that once bounced around in email now move through a simple, trackable workflow, saving time at every level of the organization.
Altus is also beginning to explore newer tools like Procore Assist and other AI features to reduce repetitive administrative work and speed up analysis. “AI is evolving so rapidly,” Henderson said. “Being able to analyze things instantly is going to drive better efficiency for our whole team.”
Looking back at the journey from spreadsheets and scattered files to a single connected platform, Henderson sees Procore as more than just software. “I view Procore as a partner because it allows us to streamline everything in one central hub,” she said.
