Without supportive construction technology, companies lack a single source of truth which can lead to disconnected teams, data silos and poor project visibility. Moreover, without interconnected, real-time data stakeholders are left scrambling to capture a clear picture of their business. Instead, they’re having to comb through countless spreadsheets and piles of paper. To eliminate these challenges and grow their business, specialty contractors need software that can create smart systems that last.
Michelle Blevins, the CIO at Paul Johnson Drywall (PJD) and presenter at Procore’s Groundbreak 2022 conference, discussed her company’s challenges in generating reliable data with outdated systems. Between a flurry of non-centralized Excel sheets, inconsistencies in price data, and irregular updates to core information, PJD’s submissions were inconsistent. It risked losing money on labor and resources or, even worse, being unable to fulfill customer promises.
“Most of the time we relied on broken, poorly utilized systems that function independently,” she said. “We used a series of reports, extracts, and patches to generate data on an ad hoc basis. This caused confusion, errors, and omissions. We needed to do something quickly to create a transferable, repeatable, and trainable system in order to spin up an infrastructure to support our aggressive goals.”
In fact, PJD wanted to generate five times more sales over the next three years — $1 billion, to be exact. The company realized it would need to make some equally impressive improvements to systems it had outgrown.
To reach that impressive goal, PJD focused on these four critical areas of improvement:
1. Building a Culture of Collaboration
The first thing PJD needed was a centralized and transparent way for teams to communicate and interact. Key developments like a centralized (and standardized) cloud-document storage system and integrating tech into one comprehensive platform were game-changing. Teams leveraged tech to chat more openly, work on estimations simultaneously, and update pricing sheets quickly and easily when the slightest detail had changed. By approaching new technology with collaboration in mind, all data can be accessed, secured, and exchanged without errors or inconsistencies.
2. Leveraging Core Competencies to Support the Mission
Identifying core competencies is all about focusing on the “special” in specialty contractor. For example, PJD is a champion for all things drywall, so it took a critical eye to all related systems and purchase practices. Because it uses and purchases so much drywall, PJD realized it had an advantage when negotiating with vendors. The company was able to standardize prices and purchase orders, which saved roughly 10% in cost that it could pass on to its builders and customers.
Additionally, all drywall purchase orders were given unique digital identifiers that eliminated any confusion about where they were meant to go and when. It also saved valuable admin time, allowing office employees to spend that time on more critical operations tasks. As a bonus, its suppliers are saved the trouble of managing order and delivery uncertainty, which saves both parties money. By focusing on its core competency, PJD could optimize new progress toward its sales goals.
3. Challenged the Status Quo
One specific focus for any specialty contractor wanting to create more optimized, big-picture systems is to first question the old, traditional processes. Is that process still serving the business? Could it be done better? Where are there missed opportunities?
For PJD, the answer was to institute a new annual bonus structure aimed at capturing lost revenue and rewarding teamwork. Not only did this support another company micro-goal (creating more collaboration), it shifted the focus of annual bonuses from “I” to “we.”
Under a Business Unit Income Structure, teams are incentivized to work together toward financial goals and are held accountable to those goals by their peers. Even seemingly foundational systems can be innovated with new tech and a new mindset.
4. Developed Strategic Partnerships to Build a Competitive Stream
PJD employs the “marriage approach” in its partnerships. The marriage approach states that “marriage is seven days a week,” whether things are rocky or smooth. Instead of saying goodbye to sunk costs, the specialty contractor decided to be proactive about its partnerships.
Consider PJD’s relationship with Procore, which has continued to grow and scale up over the years. Through clear and frequent communication and regularly scheduled check-ins, both parties successfully overcame slow adoption and benefitted from integrating more of Procore’s comprehensive solutions and tools down the line. Everybody wins when a partnership is proactive, intentional, and supported by software that makes it easy to do both.
As the partnership has continued, PJD has emphasized the importance of clear communication and shared goals with its strategic partners. In fact, the company has since employed additional Procore solutions, such as workforce planning and analytics, which have enhanced and centralized their construction management systems even further. Unsurprisingly, PJD is well on its way to that impressive $1 billion goal.
