Procore recently announced multiple platform updates all designed to meet the needs of customers as it looks to expand globally.
“We recently shifted our product strategy to really focus on a number of critical areas: going global, connecting the field and the office and then we began this journey of the construction network,” explained Wyatt Jenkins, senior vice-president of product for Procore, a provider of construction management software.
The biggest announcement was Procore’s new collaborative document management solution, which will provide a single location for all project documents from preconstruction through closeout for all customers around the world.
The tool will offer “a more flexible and configurable approach, making it easier and faster to access and collaborate on documents and provide customers with an integrated markup experience, offer custom approval workflows with granular file level permissions, and provide a solution that helps them meet common data environment (CDE) requirements and ISO compliance standards,” states a release issued by Procore.
“The push for us to go international has really forced us to rethink the way document collaboration works,” said Jenkins. “We took a step back and we rebuilt. This is a big initiative and we are just going into pilot with it.”
Most customers today are using multiple, disconnected solutions, Jenkins noted.
“Our solution allows them to have it all in one place and those documents can now be attached to any of the other documents in Procore.”
Procore is also expanding its global infrastructure with 11 new cloud data centres for file storage, bringing the total number to 15. This will allow customers to store certain project data locally, while also improving the speed and performance of the platform.
“What we have today is cloud file storage and what we will have in the future is we will continue to add all of Procore into those zones globally,” said Jenkins.
With a focus on bringing together the office and the field, Procore Conversations will soon be available in pilot, providing contextual messaging and integrating communication across channels.
Conversations are organized, prioritized and accessible on mobile and web, states the release, adding updates, questions and discussions will happen across the office and field and are contextual to the item being discussed, such as an RFI, change order or observation.
“Today on a jobsite everybody’s using different communication tools,” said Jenkins. “Instead of having that communication spread over 50 different channels, now you have that conversation, so you can track it and you can figure out at the end of the project what went right and what went wrong.”
Launching in 2022 is Procore Quick Capture, a voice-enabled technology. On the Punch tool, users will be able capture a video of punch items and talk to Procore. Through AI and ML, Procore will create the punch item, attach a photo and assign it to the appropriate trade, states the release. Early feedback shows it can cut down the time required to capture and log information in the field for reporting by at least 50 per cent, said Jenkins.
“When you are doing a punch walk and you don’t need to type anything you can just take a photo and talk into the phone,” he pointed out. “This has been getting rave reviews in the pilot.”
While the Procore Construction Network is still in its early days, it is growing a lot faster than expected, said Jenkins.
Groundbreak, Procore’s annual conference is being held virtually Oct. 12 to 14.
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