With construction projects, most of the heavy lifting happens at job sites. Speedy communication and alignment are crucial to keeping projects humming, which is why Procore, a software platform custom-built for the construction industry, is leading the charge in helping the industry adopt new collaborative solutions. Using Procore helps construction professionals keep their projects on time, on budget and safe.
Slack Enterprise Grid, a premium version of the channel-based messaging platform that allows teams to collaborate across an organization with the most security, flexibility and control, has been Procore’s go-to communications tool. Teams across the company rely on Slack for:
- Faster, easier internal communication—more than 80% of Procore’s employees use Slack four or more days a week
- Connecting all the tools in Procore’s tech stack with Google Calendar, Guru, Salesforce, Jira Cloud and Zoom integrations for Slack
- Strengthening relationships with partners using Slack Connect—Procore securely collaborates with more than 100 external organizations (and counting) in Slack
“Slack is a critical tool for all of us—internally and externally. We use it every day to connect with each other and to collaborate with our ecosystem of partners.”
Managing a network of more than 100 partners—and counting—with Slack Connect
Despite a turbulent 2020, the construction industry is showing steady signs of growth and recovery as necessary housing, commercial and civic building projects resume. Procore’s more than 2,000 employees are rising to the challenge with the support of hundreds of the company’s partners. That group includes consultants, system integrators and construction associations. Until last year, Procore relied on email to facilitate communication with its partners and to respond to requests.
The construction industry has a reputation for being a bit “old school” and resistant to embracing new software solutions, because it’s based in a world of physical equipment, says Kristopher Lengieza, Procore’s vice president of global partnerships and alliances. The company and its partners are taking the lead in changing this paradigm among construction companies, and Slack Connect is home base for much of the planning.
Slack Connect, a feature included in Enterprise Grid, brings external communication out of siloed email inboxes and into channels to securely share messages, tools and files. In Slack, Procore communicates with partners in real time, delivering feedback and information faster than ever.
“Slack Connect has helped Procore accelerate collaboration with partners by 25%. I used to say it’s not a real partnership if you’re not texting. Now we say it’s not a real partnership if you’re not using Slack!”
“Slack Connect helps us connect with more partners more frequently, immediately increasing our capacity and bandwidth,” says Lengieza.
Since December 2020, Procore has grown its Slack Connect usage by 700%, averaging one new shared channel per day. Lengieza attributes that growth in part to how easy Slack is to use, even though many partners had never used the tool before.
“It’s really impressive how quickly our partners onboarded and adopted Slack Connect as the preferred way to collaborate with Procore,” Lengieza says. “On top of that, our partners recognize the investment we are making in their success.”
Lengieza’s team begins communicating with new partners in Slack Connect from the initial meeting onward. Working in Slack channels makes it easier for Procore to solicit feedback from its partners regarding Procore, its products, and how Procore and its partners can better collaborate.
“Communication exclusively through email led to exchanges taking place over the course of two weeks to two years,” says Lengieza.
To seamlessly onboard partners, Procore uses Workflow Builder, Slack’s visual, no-code tool for automating tasks. A new partner joining Procore’s workspace in Slack Connect triggers a welcome message that includes all the information they need to get started.
Elevating sales teams to quickly cement deals
Procore’s crew of sales professionals know that the key to finalizing a deal is making a good first impression. Slack and Slack Connect allow Procore’s account executives (AEs) and customer success managers (CSMs) to respond to leads in real time by spinning up secure internal channels as well as connected channels with partners and consultants, maintaining crucial context with every conversation.
“Slack has been our main communication chain from a sales perspective,” says Nolan Frazier, an account executive of strategic accounts at Procore. “We do everything in Slack, from sharing files to collaborating on actual documentation.”
“We’ve replaced 30-minute check-in calls with five-minute Slack conversations.”
Even before a deal is finalized, Procore often brings its engineers and consultants into a Slack channel to work back and forth with them on a potential solution. According to Lengieza, this helps accelerate adoption and seal the deal faster for a prospect.
Procore’s AEs and CSMs also rely on the Salesforce integration for Slack to do a lot of heavy lifting. It allows teammates to view and share Salesforce records with one another without ever leaving Slack, speeding up approvals and shortening deal cycles in the process. Teams can add Slack conversations to Salesforce records, easily updating the extended team on the status of a deal or triaging a customer support issue.
If CSMs don’t have the answer for a customer, they can quickly search for the right subject-matter expert internally or across Procore’s ecosystem of partners in Slack, reducing response time from two days to several minutes.
“With Slack Connect, we’ve accelerated our sales-deal cycle by communicating in real time with prospects, customers and partners.”
Reinforcing a robust event response management system
Slack is integral to the day-to-day operations of Procore: keeping the business running and allowing them to loop in necessary parties during projects and events. “Slack is very much at the center of our universe,” says Shane Redman, the director of information security and engineering at Procore. “Being able to use a channel in Slack to communicate with our teams quickly, versus searching a thread of emails, is invaluable when working in a fast-paced environment.”
There are many Slack integrations that help Procore IT live its mission of making the working lives of Procorians more simple, more pleasant and more productive. Atlassian’s Jira Cloud integration for Slack is a key tool in Procore’s belt.
Kelli Bonin, the manager of IT network and security operations at Procore, explains that the Jira integration allows her teammates to keep stakeholders in the loop as events are happening. The team uses Jira to pipe real-time updates into Slack. So as the team makes progress, it can push Jira tickets directly from Slack into its service desk. The Opsgenie integration for eventing works together with communication automation to push Slack updates via Workato to targeted Slack channels.
“Slack drives cross-functional visibility. Instead of working in a reactive and siloed atmosphere, we’re equipped to take a proactive approach and collaborate in real time with an evolving, intelligent platform.”
Slack and Procore are leading the charge to renovate the construction industry by providing new technological solutions, driving efficiency while encouraging transparency, collaboration and communication. This digital shift ensures that ever-changing construction project requirements are addressed quickly and executed successfully against critical timelines.
