For the second year in a row, Procore is pleased to announce that we have been accepted into the Sage Construction and Real Estate Development Partner Program! Using Procore’s construction software, Sage Timberline Office users can view job cost data and vendor information via the Internet. Authorized Procore users can access the Sage Timberline Office data from any web-connected device, including laptop computers or smart phones such as Apple iPhones and RIM Blackberry devices.

Procore CEO Tooey Courtemanche noted the benefits of Procore’s involvement in Sage’s Construction and Real Estate Development Partner program during the past year. “As a result of technical support and documentation provided by Sage, Procore has been able to integrate our online construction software with Sage Timberline Office. We have also been able to market Procore’s construction software through Sage’s independent Business Partners, a new sales channel which has resulted in additional revenues for Procore. We are planning to bring an even greater number of innovations to our customers during our next year of participation in the Sage Construction and Real Estate Development Partner program.”

“Procore’s online construction software provides our customers with the ability to view Sage Timberline Office job cost data from any Internet connection, in the field or at the job site,” said Monique Devine, Director, Sage Construction and Real Estate Development Partner Program. “The ability to extend Sage Timberline Office’s capabilities through third-party applications is what makes the Sage Construction and Real Estate Development Partner program so valuable for our customers.”

Click here to view the web version of the press release announcing Procore’s acceptance into Sage’s Construction and Real Estate Development Partner Program.

Click here to download a PDF version of the press release announcing Procore’s acceptance into Sage’s Construction and Real Estate Development Partner Program.

Or, you can have your job candidate watch the video below and then try to carry even half as many bricks as this guy manages to tote in one trip. If you find someone who can accomplish that task, and you need construction materials carried—hire that guy!

Procore users can now easily keep track of meeting agendas and minutes right in their Procore projects.

With Procore’s new Meeting Minutes tool, a meeting agenda can be quickly created and distributed to all project team members using email. Once the meeting has been held, the agenda can be converted with a single click into the minutes for that meeting. Comments and notes on the actual proceedings can be added to the minutes, and then the completed record can be distributed to all meeting participants. Open items from a single meeting can be carried forward to the next meeting, and meetings can be related to each other. So, if a weekly job site meeting needs to have a recurring topic, that topic can be carried forward from one meeting to the next.

This feature is available in the Enterprise Edition of Procore, for no extra charge.

SoftwareAdvice.com (www.softwareadvice.com)

Probably the most comprehensive construction software review site. Allows you to narrow down the sites by your requirements, so that you don’t spend your time investigating construction estimating software when what you really need is construction project management software. The site is full of product information, screen shots and feature/function lists that help you find likely products that fit the way you work.

Once you find some products to consider, submit your name and contact info (at no cost) to SoftwareAdvice.com. They’ll forward your request to various software vendors, who can then contact you for online demos. One of the easiest ways to shop for construction software.

Capterra.com (www.capterra.com)

Like SoftwareAdvice.com, allows you to filter construction software packages by features and functions. More advertising focused than SoftwareAdvice.com, so that software vendors get more prominent placement on the site depending on how much they pay Capterra. Also allows you to request demos from multiple vendors by filling out a single online form.

BuyerZone.com (www.buyerzone.com)

A more structured way of finding construction software vendors. Site visitors fill out a “one-size fits all” type of form to request calls from various software vendors. Not as much content (e.g., screen shots, feature/function lists) as the prior two sites, but is still a one-stop way to have software vendors call you, instead of you spending all your time making that initial contact.

ConstructionSoftwareReview.com (www.constructionsoftwarereview.com)

Comprehensive site with actual user reviews of construction software. More than 80 construction software vendors are listed, and the site includes a great deal of information. The site’s blog gives some updates on developments and new products in the construction software industry. Good resource for getting a handle on what’s going on in construction software.

Have any other ideas on how to find quality construction software vendors? Leave us a comment (below) or drop us an email at info@procore.com.

Construction software industry observer Don Fornes, CEO of Construction Software Advice has posted an article noting that more construction companies are embracing web-based construction project management.

Fornes bases his observation on the behavior of the construction companies that contact Construction Software Advice to inquire about construction management software:

“Recently, we’ve noticed a big change in construction firms’ views on the web-based, or Software as a Service (SaaS), model of using project management software. Among AEC companies evaluating new construction management systems, we’ve observed:

• approximately 40% are asking specifically for a web-based system
• about 50% understand the web-based model and are considering it
• approximately 10% remain committed to managing software “on premise.”

These statistics are very different from what we saw a few years ago from buyers of construction software.”

Why the change in contractors’ willingness to embrace hosted, software-as-a-service construction project management tools? Fornes notes several reasons, all having to do with the simplicity and functionality that using a hosted solution provides.

Specifically, the Construction Software Advice clients recognize that the latest generation of web-based applications offer a high level of functionality. These construction management software tools utilize the broadband connections that are now typically available at the job site. In addition, a SaaS construction project management solution can make it easier to manage data, ensure data reliability and provide data security.

Click here to view the Construction Software Advice article online.

Congratulations to Procore’s client Finton Associates for their recent recognition in the Los Angeles Times (June 12, 2008).

The LA Times story outlines how Finton Associates is able to keep busy building multiple 20,000 square foot plus custom homes, even in a down market that is making it tough for many U.S. home builders to get by. In fact, Finton Associates President John Finton notes that business at the top-end is not letting up at all:

“Builder John Finton, who is overseeing construction of the 32,000 square-foot house on Sunset Boulevard for businessman C. Frederick Wehba Sr. and his wife, Susan, said he knows of at least 20 20,000-plus square-foot homes under construction or about to break ground in what he called the “platinum triangle” of wealthy areas in Los Angeles County: Beverly Hills, Bel-Air and Holmby Hills.”

Finton Associates is a long-time user of Procore, having brought its first projects onto the system in 2004. Now the company uses Procore on large custom home projects (including the Wehba Residence mentioned in the article) in both the United States and Mexico, and has standardized its operations around using Procore’s construction software for the information flow associated with building mega-mansions.

Finton Associates takes advantages of many of Procore’s features. Daily logs and communications for multiple jobs are all tracked through Procore’s construction project management software, and the document archive functionality of Procore has made it possible for Finton Associates to retrieve vital emails and RFIs on jobs where historical information was needed.

Procore’s ability to store and share digital photos makes it easier for Finton Associates to update home owners on job progress, particularly when the job site is in a location that is remote from members of the project team. Several of Finton Associates’ clients are having homes built in the Loreto Bay development in Mexico, and Procore usage is particularly important on those jobs.

Click here to view the Los Angeles Times article online.

Procore congratulates our client John Finton at Finton Construction on being featured in the article about the importance of understanding contractors which appeared in the New York Times Home section.

John provides some amusing anecdotes as well as telling insights into the life of a luxury custom home contractor. The article points out that building a custom home is a collaborative effort. Something that is often overlooked is the fact that during times of stress, project owners would be well-served to remember that being reasonable with a builder will usually help more than getting angry.

Procore’s construction software is used by Finton Construction to manage the construction progress on several projects in the United States and Mexico. Procore allows Finton Construction’s project teams to share important documents, archive digital photos for projects, organize project emails, and keep project owners satisfied.

Click here to read the New York Times article Building Rage (May 15, 2008).

Click here to visit the Finton Construction website.

You might say, “My company has a handle on all this document stuff. I’m sure everyone on the job site is doing just fine tracking all of our project information.”

Maybe.

As part of our plea for you to check on your company’s project document tracking process, we submit this recent story from the Associated Press.

It seems from this article that even the most high-profile projects are not immune to document mis-management:

Report: NYC Freedom Tower plans found in trash

(04-18) 14:52 PDT New York (Associated Press)—

The government agency building a 102-story skyscraper at the World Trade Center site is investigating the discovery of two sets of blueprints for the building that a homeless man says he found in the trash.

The schematic documents for the Freedom Tower, under construction at ground zero, were marked “Secure Document — Confidential,” the New York Post reported Friday.

The documents, dated Oct. 5, 2007, contain plans for each floor, the thickness of the concrete-core wall, and the location of air ducts, elevators, electrical systems and support columns, the Post reported.

Michael Fleming told the newspaper he found the documents on top of a public trash can in downtown Manhattan, with written warnings on it to “properly destroy if discarded.”

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owned the World Trade Center and is building the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, has protocols requiring contractors and architects with secure and nonsecure documents to shred them, spokeswoman Candace McAdams said.

The agency’s inspector general is investigating the disposal of the documents, which McAdams said are bidding documents given out to contractors, agency staff and selected companies bidding on work.

Mishandling the blueprints would be “cause for serious disciplinary action — up to termination for employees and breach of contract and legal action for contractors,” she said, although she added the plans have been updated many times since October.

City police weren’t investigating the disposal; Tishman Construction Corp., the main contractor building the tower, declined to comment Friday. A spokesman for the building’s architect, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, didn’t return a message seeking comment.

Interested in managing your project documents more effectively? Get started with Procore today and store an unlimited number of documents and photos in a single, secure online location.

CLICK HERE to get started.

Constructech Magazine, a leading construction industry publication, notes that Procore’s approach to providing construction software may convince some contractors to investigate how technology can be leveraged in their businesses:

“One of the biggest deterrents for some contractors when it comes to technology is cost—cost of the software, cost of the implementation, and cost of the support. (Procore) is taking cost out of the equation, hoping contractors will give technology a try on the vendor’s dime.”

Two key features of Procore’s construction software have made it possible for the company to offer a free version.

The first advantage is that all versions of Procore’s construction software (free or paid) are web-based applications that can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection. This means that Procore does not have to charge users for software installation, servers, databases, or implementation costs. Because Procore is web-based, users can get up and running immediately, without the hassle of traditional software installation.

Procore’s second significant feature is simplicity. Procore’s construction software is designed to be easy-to-use, and easy to learn. Every feature of Procore has its own video tutorial that users can view at any time. With Procore, there’s no need for classroom training, or taking people away from work in order to learn how to use the construction software. This simplicity means that Procore can afford to deliver a construction software package for no charge, because users can teach themselves, without consuming customer support resources.

Click here to register for Procore’s Free Version now. No credit card is required and there’s no time limit on usage.

Click here to go to Constructech Magazine’s story on Procore’s Free Version.

Procore congratulates our client Loreto Bay on the article about their project which appeared in the New York Times Travel section.

Loreto Bay is a planned community located in Loreto, Mexico, that will be built out over the next decade. More than 800 homes have been sold to-date in the development, and the first residents have already moved into their new homes. Loreto Bay makes extensive use of green building principles, and is designed to fit harmoniously with its surroundings.

Procore’s construction software is being used by Loreto Bay to manage the construction progress on more than a dozen homes in the development. Architects, homeowners and trade partners located in the US have the ability to log into Loreto Bay’s project sites and monitor job progress in real time.

Because Procore’s construction software is web-based, Loreto Bay’s Mexican staff did not need to wait for software to be installed on their local computers—they simply accessed the projects over the Internet. This meant that the entire international team was able to get on the same page without any delay. Procore allows Loreto Bay’s project team to easily share important documents, archive digital photos for each home, and organize project emails.

Click here to read the New York Times article on Loreto Bay (March 7, 2008).

Click here to visit the Loreto Bay website.