For the past 5 years, construction technology company, Procore, has hosted their customers and tech enthusiasts at a multi-day conference called Groundbreak. There’s been significant growth since the events humble beginnings, not only in just attendees, but in the conference’s offerings.
This was my second time attending Groundbreak and, in case you couldn’t make it, here are the highlights of the items you missed:
Procore’s 3 big announcements
It wouldn’t be a proper Groundbreak without Procore CEO Tooey Courtemanche dropping some Procore news on the audience and, this year, he had 3 items to share: Procore for Owners, Procore Analytics, and the expansion of the Procore community of contractors and 3rd party applications.
Procore for Owners
After their recent acquisition of Honest Buildings, which was one of the few owner-oriented construction software in existence, we were left wondering how it would be integrated into the Procore platform. We now have our answer and its name is Procore for Owners. With this addition, Procore now touts the fact that their platform is a true end-to-end solution for the construction industry, from project funding all the way to closeout.
I was able to sit down and chat with Riggs Kubiak (coolest name alert), the owner of the former Honest Buildings who will now lead the Procore for Owners division in New York. He had this to say about the transition from Honest Buildings to Procore:
“Procore for Owners is Honest Buildings 3.0: a project management solution tailored to the needs of commercial real estate owners, but now combined with everything Procore has to offer. The result is a quantum leap forward in achieving our mission to connect every stakeholder in the construction process on one global platform. For owners, the combination of having visibility into an entire portfolio while also being able to reach into the execution of the project has never been accessible before.”
As I mentioned above, the Owner product will be managed out of New York, which is significant for a couple reasons. Procore is based in California, so this office now gives them coast to coast coverage. Riggs also mentioned that they have already doubled the square footage of their existing offices, hinting at continued growth for the software.
Procore Analytics
All of the data you collect doesn’t help you run your project or business any better if you don’t analyze it. With the announcement of Procore Analytics, Procore hopes to make the data from your prime contracts, change orders, budgets, invoicing, RFIs, and inspections - just to name a few – come alive with more than 80 customized reports.
Analytics is only available in a limited release currently, but it is certainly tied to their recent acquisition of ConstructionBI. To get more information about Procore Analytics, visit their website here.
Procore Community & 3rd Party Apps
Procore Community is an online of other Procore users and collaborators which allows them to connect and share ideas with each other. Within the platform, you can ask questions, find Procore related events, and get Procore support.
In addition to the Procore Community platform, Procore also recently announced the enhancement of their 3rd party app marketplace by way of their new Embedded Experience. The new release allows the full version of your favorite applications to be embedded directly into Procore, so you don’t have to jump between tabs. For more information about the Embedded Experience, check out our recent article about it here.
Groundbreak’s Year Over Year Growth
In my opening paragraph, I hinted at the significant growth that Groundbreak has seen since it began in 2015. It’s first year, there were only 197 people in attendance at their headquarters in California. There were 373 in 2016, roughly 1,000 in 2017, 2,000 last year, and a whopping 4,000 this year. That’s an incredible growth trend, which not only signals that Procore’s customer count is growing, but that Groundbreak adds value to their customers.
I was able to speak with several of the attendees while I was there and they mentioned that having the ability to talk to the Procore product managers responsible for the software they use on a daily basis is a big deal for them. They can also connect with many 3rd party applications that are integrated with the Procore platform.
Speaking of that, not only was there a ton of growth in attendance, the exhibitor area nearly doubled from last year, as well. There were roughly 120 vendors at the show this year, compared to about 70 last year. Many of them announced new integrations into the platform, including dozens that have been added to Procore’s embedded experience, which allows users to use the full version of a 3rd party app without ever leaving Procore.
More to come…
We have a ton of additional coverage of Groundbreak coming up, including over a dozen interviews with some of the exhibitors at the show this year, so stay tuned, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel!
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