Procore Event Uncorks Bevy of New Tools

Procore Event Uncorks Bevy of New Tools

Is that a dragon? 'Groundbreak 2016' landed at the Fess Parker Doubletree last week. No confirmation on the UFO.

by ROB McMANAMY | Feb 21, 2016

In the still-forming firmament of the construction technology universe, certain annual events already have taken on an iconic cachet. From Bentley Systems' Year in Infrastructure celebration, and 'The Hammers' Construction Computing Awards black-tie gala — both in London — to Autodesk University's dazzling Las Vegas stage show, and the AEC Hackathon's series of intense, problem-solving weekends in select cities, the industry's tech dance card has been filling up fast

Tooey? No, Fess Parker!

Still, no tech calendar would be complete without Groundbreak, Procore Technologies' own fun-drenched festival of project management tools, held each winter in the sand and surf of Southern California. This year's iteration, taking place Feb 16-17 at the Fess Parker Doubletree Resort in Santa Barbara, did not disappoint. Billing itself as "the foremost construction technology summit with more speakers [47] than any other construction software conference", Groundbreak 2016 featured talks by Mortenson DVC Ricardo Khan, Dodge Data & Analytics' research director Steve Jones, and Consigli Construction CIO Anthony Chiaradonna, among others, in addition to Procore's own CEO Tooey Courtemanche, President Steve Zahm, EVP Bassem Hamdy, and more.

• BuiltWorlds' first-ever CEO Tech Forum will make its own mark this April. Learn more here.

• Above, the real Tooey introduces the hundreds on hand to Procore's new products.

"Yeah baby!" Mortenson team was all smiles.

"Once a year, the construction industry elite come together to share everything they know about disrupting the status quo and breaking the chains of outdated construction technology solutions," said Courtemanche, who founded the Carpinteria CA-based maker of cloud-based project management software. "The goal of Procore is to help modernize the construction industry, and the product announcements we made at Groundbreak are another step towards achieving that goal."

Those new enhancements this year included four new tools: Intelligent Specs, which Procore says is the first-ever project specification tool designed directly for general contractors; Quality & Safety Performance Management, an attempt to improve both measures by reducing rework; Field Financials, a centralized, collaborative, and mobile communications platform for tracking change orders, and accounting; and Insights, a real-time portal by which project participants can report progress and log concerns. Together, the new features will serve customers by "eliminating the need for a scattered collection of single-purpose construction software applications," said Courtemanche.

All for one

Also last week, Procore announced that its launch of App Marketplace, as well as its new Partner Program, an online hub for third-party integrations and custom applications, backed by "a growing ecosystem" of software providers. "We're focused on providing our clients with a platform that is comprehensive and customizable," said Paul Lyandres, Procore's VP of Strategy and Business Development. Toward that end, Procore now boasts partnerships with such firms as providers as Botlink, Box, Dexter + Chaney, iSqFt, Okta, and Tableau.

Of note, the App Marketplace offers a host of solutions for ERP and accounting, business intelligence, CRM, drone technology, and more.

At launch, more than 20 apps were made available, with plans to greatly expand integration offerings within the year. "We realize that many of our customers have applications and processes that are 'must haves' for their businesses to run efficiently," said Procore President Zahm. With App Marketplace, "companies of varying size and focus areas can easily locate the tools needed to make them more productive," he added.

Meanwhile, the Partner Program aims to boost openness and collaboration by creating an ecosystem of tech solutions for all levels of construction management. Currently, more than 20 partners are working on integrations. Several were introduced at the Partner Pavilion during Groundbreak 2016.

For more information on all the new partners, products, and initiatives, visit the Procore blog here.