Niclin achieves 30% productivity increase with Procore

The Challenge

As the Niclin business grew, so did its project management technology suite. It had developed a custom-built system and had implemented third-party solutions with the aim of delivering a single system look and feel. The company did not have enforceable processes to store and manage data. Individuals built their own processes, which required workarounds to locate missing information. Inevitably, this created delays in analysis and project management.

The Solution

Niclin turned to Procore for Project Management, Quality and Safety and more recently, Procore Analytics.

"Procore has addressed two primary challenges for Niclin. First, the custom-built solution and add ons couldn’t move fast enough for the business. Second, we had no visibility of metrics. We couldn’t see the data to measure, nor manage it. If you can’t see mistakes, then a lack of accuracy and transparency can hold you back."

Understanding the signals for better data management

Niclin realised its existing technology environment was not delivering the flexibility and ease of use it needed to better support the business.

"The signals were there for some time that our system could not keep pace with our requirements and growth," outlined Brendan. The executive management team selected Procore to solve its business and technology challenges, implementing the software to a core set of users while the remainder of the business stayed on the old system.

"We quickly realised Procore was a superior solution for the business and we focused on a company-wide rollout," Brendan admitted.

A Procore implementation committee was established, and product champions were developed and used to ensure the transition was as smooth as possible. Cheatsheet instruction guides were used to transition the team of 35 away from the old technology stack.

Translating vision into reality

With the project management platform in place, Niclin turned to solve three pressing issues. The first was cost overruns, followed by quality and safety and finally, analytics. Niclin focused on building dashboards for a bank of screens in the office, giving everyone in the company 100% transparency into any of the projects that were managed simultaneously.

"These dashboards gave everyone an understanding of how a project was travelling from a cost, time, quality and milestone perspective. Gone were the siloed documents. Instead, these live dashboards helped everyone on the team learn from each other. These dashboard insights, together with the implementation of Procore, led to a 30 per cent increase in productivity company-wide."

Niclin also had a 360-degree view of how subcontractors were tracking and when they would be ready to start the next project. This further supported its ability to complete projects on time and on budget. Additionally, the better people management resulted in a zero lost time for injury (LTI) rate over the past 18 months.

"By reducing LTIs, we can now look at incidents and injuries when they occur and better understand who is involved, what support they need and why they occurred. It's easier to drill into the strategic aspect of problem-solving than wasting time with a blanket approach across everything we do."

Winning even before you start

Niclin implemented Procore Analytics to deliver the data visibility and competitive edge it wanted.

"A great example of this is tapping into the technical information Procore Analytics delivers. We have an up-to-date program thanks to all the data we have captured from our site managers’ updates. This is critical for our decision making," Brendan explained.

"Procore is moving fast in terms of innovation, and they deliver what we need next. We really love working with them."