Scaling with SIERA: Building for now and what comes next

By

Shauna Hurley

Last Updated Oct 13, 2026

By

Shauna Hurley

SIERA Founder and Director Brent Thompson has always known that the right people, systems and hands-on approach are fundamental to scaling his business successfully. In Part 1, Brent and Head of Construction Tom Stirling explained how the SIERA team uses Procore to connect development and construction, centralise project information and resolve site issues on the spot. Here, they share how the same systems strengthen quality, transparency and accountability, support SIERA’s growing team and prepare the business for what comes next.

A single 'bible' for drawings

Across SIERA’s projects, up-to-date and accessible drawings, documentation and site records are central to keeping both day-to-day and overall project delivery on track.

"Ultimately Procore is the bible when it comes to drawings and documentation,” Tom says. “All of the consultants upload the drawings, and then our document controller, contract administrator or site engineer will filter through those drawings and upload them so they're ready to go for the guys on site. Gone are the days of printing A1 sets and having a plan bench."

"That's so important," Brent adds. "There used to be so many mistakes and errors and reworks because people were working off the wrong set of plans. Everyone tends to forget that and take having one up-to-date set of drawings for granted now, but to be honest, it's massive."

The same central and connected system makes it faster and simpler to bring new people onto a job.
"All of the approvals and record keeping, everything's able to be done in Procore, meaning it's super simple to bring people onto our projects," Brent says. "Today, I've got an estimator working on one of our new projects. I'm able to get him added to Procore and know that everything's been uploaded by the consultants and checked off by our design manager.

“In the past, you'd be sending Dropbox links, then tomorrow a consultant uploads a new set of plans and you're sending another link. Then they're getting confused: which link have they got? What are they working off? We never have those problems and delays now."

Accountability and auditability built in

As both developer and builder, SIERA maintains a formal contract between its development and construction entities.

"Construction is extremely high risk," Brent says. "We use a full Australian standard D&C contract between our development entity and our construction entity, and we run construction as if we are a third-party contractor. So extensions of time, notices of delay and all of that accountability are still done by the project team, and that all gets presented to a superintendent. We use Procore for all of that work as well, so that's really critical."

"Plenty of developers are taking construction in-house right now, and a lot of them are doing it because they have to. We have always built our own work. The structure is the easy part. Nobody outside enforces the standard a builder-developer holds internally, so ours is written down, audited and controlled, on safety, on payment and on document control."

That discipline also gives SIERA’s financiers greater visibility into how projects and risk are managed.

"When we're financing a project of this scale, we can sit down with the major banks and show them: here's our system, here's Procore, here's how the project is being managed, here's what the site team is doing," Brent says. "That level of transparency gives a financier confidence. They can see how the project is being run, how it is documented, and the track record behind it, and that counts for a great deal."

Building for what comes next

Brent and Tom both see SIERA’s ongoing investment in systems as an investment in the people using them, and a practical way to support and equip teams across the business.
SIERA has taken that commitment further, employing a dedicated AI software engineer to build a custom operating system that plugs into Procore, HammerTech and every other platform the business runs on, bridging the gaps between them.

"SIERA's system tracks our programme against the contract dates, cost and commercial exposure, safety and incident data off the site, open certifier and consultant items, and every document that arrives is captured and filed as it lands," Brent explains. "Overnight it reads the project, writes a construction brief for each site, flags risks while they are still cheap to fix and surfaces what has been missed."

"Every morning as I'm driving down the coast just after 5.30am, I've already got a brief covering my projects," Tom says. "It pulls all that information together, your Procore diary uploads, anything that's been done on HammerTech, it's all there to go through. You're not having to think about emails you're waiting on answers for. It sets your day up, every day."

Always with an eye on the bigger picture and what comes next, Brent sees the systems SIERA invests in today as the foundation for what the business can deliver in the future.

"Our choice to use Procore was never about one or two projects," he says. "It's about what SIERA is delivering in ten years, and having the systems ready well before those projects arrive."

"Technology is going to change how this industry builds, and I intend SIERA to be in front of it. I'm obsessed with optimisation, with reducing waste, and with what that can do for the cost of housing. It's not about taking people out of jobs, it's about asking how we do this better."

Written by

Shauna Hurley

22 articles

Shauna is never short of questions when it comes to construction, tech and science. A professional writer, researcher and podcast producer, she loves sitting down with industry insiders for in-depth interviews that uncover the latest developments, debates and emerging trends. Having worked with organisations like Microsoft and the European Bank of Reconstruction, Shauna joined Procore to explore the complex issues facing construction and share fresh, research-rich insights that help professionals navigate a rapidly evolving industry.

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