Sime Darby Property centralises data intelligence with Procore to future-proof its development business.

The Challenge

With its existing software evaluated as inadequate in storing historical & analytical data, Sime Darby Property turned to Procore to help drive greater efficiencies and future-proof the business. Following an evaluation process, they implemented Project Management, Drawings, Analytics, Design Coordination and BIM tools. An integrated construction management platform would help ensure better collaboration and greater efficiency due to  Procore's speed and productivity capabilities. Being able to record data, store and use it for business analytics in the future was part of the company’s vision. Sime Darby Property aimed for better collaboration between its design and contracting teams.

The Solution

Driving Sime Darby Property’s digital transformation was to benchmark quality assurance, create a common data environment for designs and record all construction and post-construction defects in Procore. The analysis of all defects allows the team to avoid repetitive issues and unnecessary rework. Having a common place to collaborate on design and construction tasks saves a lot of time and effort in completing the tasks.

By implementing Procore and centrally recording all variation orders, Sime Darby Property for the first time can now analyse, predict and cost potential variation orders. It plans to incorporate the Metaverse and create a 3D visualisation of elements of its future developments. It plans to overlay this with potential defect analytics to visualise the design, and its progress, identify quality assurance challenges and examine how collaboration can be improved.

The result for the Malaysian property developer? Mandating the use of Procore across all of its projects to build smarter and deliver a better product for the end customer.

“We believe Procore can help us establish and measure operational benchmarks from design to construction. Our builders and contractors will be more accountable for meeting these benchmarks and inevitably become more efficient. That’s our goal,” said Stevensan Innasimuthu, general manager of digital transformation and information technology at Sime Darby Property.

Securing Contractor Buy-in for Success

Many of Sime Darby Property's contracting teams work across multiple projects. The first step in implementing Procore and kicking off its digital change initiative is to secure contractor buy-in.

“Switching from a software solution where we could only search through emails to find data to a specialised construction collaboration platform requires commitment from our contractors again. We have fully implemented a change management program to ensure the adoption of Procore remains our number one priority, and we aim to complete the transition for all projects over the next two years,” said Innasimuthu. “So now I have got 800 contractors and 300 labourers using the system. On top of it, we have full visibility—what’s happening, when it’s happening, how it’s happening and what we can do.”

Re-defining a Fully Integrated Future

Integrations are currently underway between Procore and Sime Darby Property’s eProcurement, ERP and CRM systems — enabling a seamless flow of data and transactions from one stage to another while producing business intelligence from the consolidated data from all systems. These integrations enable faster approvals, payments and consolidated reporting. To further enhance performance, every tool Procore produces in the future will be examined for incorporation into its digital platform.

Sime Darby Property has already experienced the seamless way Procore integrates and supports its processes and systems, ensuring a more productive and efficient way of working.

“Procore is more than a platform for recording data for approvals and workflows, tracking costs, and reducing human error…that is our future, with Procore as the engine and organised platform driving it,” Innasimuthu concluded.

Time and Cost Savings—a Dream Come True

As an owner developer, Sime Darby Property understands the value of time. They are always seeking to increase efficiencies and time savings across their portfolio—and Procore has been a major factor in achieving these wins.

“Procore’s helped to save our time—time to deliver, time to construct, time to start work. We cut by 12 months—that’s a lot for a property developer,” shares Innasimuthu. “It saves a lot in our opportunity costs, staff costs, investors costs, delivery costs, financial costs and revenue recognition is faster now. Those five things, if you tell me that’s not the five best ROIs we have, well, I wish to see somebody else who can tell me what’s a better ROI.”

Innasimuthu and his team are devoted to continuing to find more intelligent ways to build, supported by Procore. Since implementation, Sime Darby Property is more excited than ever to see how they can spur innovation and collect data insights from the solution.

“It’s not what Procore can do. What you can do with Procore, that’s most important,” says Innasimuthu. “You need to set your objective right. What you want to drive, what you want to achieve. They didn’t sell me a solution. They sold me a dream—a dream to drive construction, smart, intelligent. With the data you need, you can make the decisions you want.”