Keeping every project on track with lean, connected teams

The Challenge

Before Procore, ECI Construction relied on spreadsheets to track nearly every aspect of its multifamily developments — draws, change orders, even weather logs and forecasts. Data was scattered, updates were delayed and errors were common. As an owner-builder managing millions in construction volume, ECI needed a consistent, reliable way to track progress, control costs and make faster decisions.

The Solution

When Assistant Vice President of Construction Erin Williams joined ECI, Procore had already been purchased — but barely used. She rebuilt the company’s construction workflows around the platform, connecting field and finance through automation and training. With Procore integrated into ECI’s Yardi ERP, teams gained a single source of truth for every project and real-time visibility from jobsite to ownership.

The Results

• Helped to reduce manual data entry and financial reporting errors
• Enabled real-time tracking of budgets, draws, and change events
• Streamlined subcontractor invoicing and forecasting
• Supported lean staffing without sacrificing oversight
• Increased transparency across development, construction, and ownership

From spreadsheets to a single source of truth

Since 1969, ECI Group has been building and operating multi-family communities across the Southeast. Through its construction arm, ECI Construction, the company acts as its own General Contractor. But when Erin Williams arrived in 2020, the technology side of the business was anything but integrated.   

“Everything was a spreadsheet,” she said. “Change orders, daily logs, even weather tracking — it was all being done manually.” The company had purchased Procore two years earlier, but teams were mostly using it to store documents. “It was basically a really expensive file cabinet,” Williams said.

The manual process created inefficiency and dangerous exposure to risk. Financial data had to be transferred by hand between systems, leading to mistakes and long delays in reporting. “If someone asked where a project stood financially, it might take a week to figure it out,” Williams said. “By the time you had the answer, things had already changed.”

Williams set out to rebuild ECI’s use of Procore from the ground up. She customized workflows, trained teams in phases and integrated the system with Yardi, their ERP system, so that financial data could flow seamlessly between construction and ownership. “Once we connected Procore to Yardi, everything changed,” she said. “Now, what’s happening in the field is visible in real time, and it’s reflected in our financials automatically.”

Real-time visibility for better decisions

With Procore fully implemented, Williams and her project teams can see the health of each project at a glance. Draw requests, change events and forecasts update automatically, giving leadership confidence in the numbers and the ability to act quickly when challenges arise.

“We used to spend so much time just finding and validating information,” she said. “Now it’s all there, updated in real time. I don’t have to call accounting or the super. I can log in and see what’s happening.”

ECI’s project managers now use Procore’s change events to flag potential risks early, helping to ensure that exposures are visible long before they affect the bottom line. The use of Procore has helped with specialty contractor invoicing and owner draws to become faster and more accurate. “Procore locks everything in,” Williams said. “You can’t overbill or alter an SOV once it’s approved. That’s been a huge time saver.”

The new forecasting tools have also made it possible to plan with precision. What was once a tedious, error-prone task is now an opportunity for proactive management. “We weren’t reforecasting before because it was such a manual process,” Williams said. “Now we can adjust for market shifts, like when lumber prices dropped. We can see the savings, book it and move forward.”

Running lean while building big

Today, ECI Construction operates with a remarkably lean team — just project managers, superintendents, and a very small corporate staff including Williams.  Yet the company continues to deliver large-scale multifamily communities on schedule and on budget.

“Myself, the pm’s, supers.. can see everything without having to call one another. I don’t think we could operate this way without Procore.”

The time saved through automation and real-time access with the help of Procore has allowed Williams to focus on high-level improvements rather than day-to-day troubleshooting. Each gain from one module opens the door to another. “Every time I save hours on invoicing or forecasting, I reinvest that time in rolling out new tools,” she said. “That’s how we stay lean while taking on bigger projects.”

A culture built on transparency and control

Procore has also changed how ECI collaborates internally and externally. With shared data accessible to everyone, from developers to investors, the company operates with a new level of openness.

“We’re confident letting people see everything because we’re confident in our process,” Williams said. “Our development partners have the same information we do in real time. There are no surprises.”

For Williams, transparency and efficiency go hand in hand. “Procore has helped us bring accountability to every part of the business,” she said. “It keeps us lean, it keeps us honest and it keeps us moving.”