The Challenge
ShopCore Properties, the Chicago based retail arm of The Blackstone Group, manages over 24 million square feet of retail space in the US. With the rise of technology slowly becoming the norm in the real estate business, ShopCore knew that their processes were ready for an upgrade. Their teams recognized that the invoice, bidding, and contracting processes were "archaic” as they relied primarily on email chains and paperwork—which caused errors and delays. The project teams felt burdened by administrative tasks.
ShopCore found that not only were their processes creating a build-up of admin work, they were also interfering with transparency, especially for their vendors waiting on status updates for pending invoices, change orders, etc. The crosschecking of multiple systems was inefficient and frequently resulted in vendors being paid later than expected, putting a strain on the relationship. ShopCore was confident that technology could help relieve administrative time and enhance transparency for project teams and their vendors.
The Solution
At the start of 2018, the ShopCore team began looking for a platform that could help improve their time management and best practices for project cost management so that their teams could spend more of their time driving progress on projects and less time on administrative work. When Stephanie Karolich, a Development Analyst at ShopCore, was brought in to analyze Procore, she immediately saw the potential to create a one-stop-shop for project management.
Procore presented a clean user interface and the ability to create a single source of truth across projects, accounting, and budgeting. ShopCore decided to implement Procore and integrate their accounting instance in MRI with Procore to create a frictionless process for managing budgets, invoices, change orders, contracts, and paying vendors.
“We were approving contracts in our payable system and via email. The back and forth in accounting, emails, and spreadsheets was just clogging up our process. We needed a system to help create best practices.”
Stephanie Karolich
The Results
"I would say that Procore has cut our time approving and getting invoices from start to finish by 50%. The time has been at least cut in half if not more. Not only is there the time savings, but the transparency is allowing us to have a better relationship with our vendors." —Stephanie Karolich, Development Analyst, ShopCore
Since implementing Procore, and then adding on the MRI integration, ShopCore has been able to realize massive time savings, while also improving transparency and customer service to their clients and vendors. Karolich found that centralizing bidding, cost tracking, and communication into Procore has made the process much easier for her team, their architects, and vendors.
Luke Petherbridge, ShopCore’s CEO, was thrilled when he saw firsthand how Procore made the lives of the project managers and accountants easier. The new-found access to quality data has been a game-changer for his business to be able to invest in value-add work rather than administrative tasks. From the nitty-gritty details of managing projects to the big picture of data-driven decision making, Petherbridge sees the value of Procore every day.
"Procore has become an integral part of our desire to harness both internal and external information, to better our decisionmaking ability and drive greater performance. This system has allowed us to spend more time focusing on our projects and tracking our progress from project start to completion."—Luke Petherbridge, President & CEO, ShopCore
