May 2, 2025 • 19 mins
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Imagine a world where construction project data flows seamlessly between office and field teams, where disconnected spreadsheets transform into integrated insights, and where project managers can see the complete picture of their operations in real-time. That's the future QuickBase is building for the construction industry.
Tim Douglas, GM of Construction at QuickBase, brings 25 years of construction tech experience to this conversation about the industry's unique challenges and promising solutions. He articulates why construction is particularly difficult to modernize: "Every single project is a prototype. The teams that come together, come together once, will maybe never work again on the same project...every project literally is a snowflake." This fundamental reality creates persistent challenges around disconnected systems, data silos, and communication gaps between field and office teams.
What makes this conversation particularly timely is the looming demographic shift in construction. By 2031, approximately 40% of today's construction workforce will retire, creating both a knowledge gap and an opportunity for transformation. The incoming generation of workers expects digital tools that match their tech-native experiences, driving companies to modernize how work gets done. QuickBase's approach stands out by functioning as both a solution for specific problems and a connector between existing systems – the "brick and mortar" of a modern construction tech stack.
The recently launched Project Hub Pro represents QuickBase's response to these challenges, allowing mid-sized contractors to quickly transition from disconnected spreadsheets to a unified view of their operations. One electrical contractor imported three critical spreadsheets into Project Hub and immediately gained unprecedented visibility across previously siloed data. This "light bulb moment" led to plans for deeper integration with accounting systems and field data collection tools. Whether you're managing a single project or overseeing a global portfolio, construction's future depends on connecting the right information to the right people in the right format – exactly what QuickBase is designed to deliver. Discover how your projects could benefit from this approach by exploring QuickBase's construction solutions today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey everybody, Diving into the world of construction
with a favorite of mine fromQuickBase, Tim.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Doing great today.
How are you doing, Evan?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm doing well, thanks.
Really intrigued by all thingsthat you do at QuickBase in
terms of modernizing ourapproach to project management
and collaboration and IT intothe construction industry, so
really keen to dive in.
Before that, maybe introduceyourself your role in the
company, and at a high level.
(00:32):
For those who aren't familiarwith QuickBase, how do you
describe the company these days?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, so Tim Douglas, I'm the GM of construction at
QuickBase.
Relatively new business linethere formed about nine months
ago and I think that you knowQuickBase is really the AI
powered platform for businessoperations.
That's how we look at ourselves.
(00:58):
That's how our customers areleveraging QuickBase to solve
operational challenges within anorganization, not only in
construction, but acrossindustries, but also using
QuickBase to connect databetween different systems that
exist in any customer's techstack.
So it's an exciting time to beat QuickBase and we're seeing
(01:19):
some really interesting traction, particularly in the
construction vertical.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
That's so interesting to me.
I cover multiple industries andyou're involved in many of
those, from telecom to financialservices and healthcare and
other industries but why is theconstruction industry so ripe
for change, disruption andaddressing some big challenges
that they have facing them?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, I mean, I've been working in construction
tech for almost 25 years now andit's kind of amazing as far as
we've traveled in those 25 years.
There's still a long way to goand I think a lot of it has to
do.
I know people often comparemanufacturing to construction,
and why is it that constructioncan't just adopt manufacturing
(02:06):
methods?
And the fact of the matter isis every single project is a
prototype.
The teams that come together,come together once, will maybe
never work again on the same orscale of the project, and so
therefore, you know every, everyproject literally is a
snowflake, and even if you havethe same companies working
together, you may not have thesame people.
(02:27):
You're probably unlikely tohave the same systems that all
talk to each other, so there'sjust a lot of disconnection in
the systems, the processes andthe people who come together to
execute important work.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Oh, that's so interesting.
So if you're a project manageron a construction project, I
mean you have a lot ofchallenges, but what do you
think the most significantchallenge is?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, I think that there's kind of three key
challenges and are notcompletely unique to
construction, but it's certainlynot that there's a lack of
technology in construction.
But it's certainly not thatthere's a lack of technology in
construction.
The VC community andsignificant players in the tech
space have invested billions andbillions of dollars in
technology to support thedifferent parts of the project
(03:18):
delivery lifecycle.
But each of those offers bothan opportunity to solve a
problem but introduces thechallenge of a data silo,
because not all of these systemstalk to one another.
These systems are oftendisintegrated.
Deep integrations betweensystems is not something that is
undertaken across all the toolsthat are used to execute the
(03:41):
work and, you know, the mostwidely deployed tool and
technology today forconstruction is Excel, which
magnifies both of thosechallenges.
And then the final one, whichis, you know, prevalent on every
single job site, is connectingthe field and the office, and
(04:02):
the field and the job site andthe office.
There's just differenttechnologies, different form
factors that work in differentsettings, and that's always been
one of the challenges toovercome is how do you get the
right data to the right personin the right format where
they're doing their work?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Fantastic.
And where are we in theconstruction industry with that
data-driven approach?
I imagine it's all over the map.
You've seen all the bestpractices as well.
What's the sort of state of theindustry in terms of real-time
project data across the team?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely been a journey, I you
know.
I think that the the, quitehonestly, I think the pandemic
folks had to rely on technologyto fill the gaps in
communication, and I think thatthat, combined with the changing
in the age of the workforce, isgoing to play a major role in
how data gets used, howtechnology gets leveraged to
build things going forward.
One of the stats that sticks outto me is that, you know,
(05:29):
between now and 2031, about 40percent of the current
construction workforce is goingto age out of the industry.
Wow, to backfill that braindrain and the bodies to get the
(05:52):
work done is going to reallyrequire a concerted effort on
their part to attract and retaintalent, and one of the ways by
which they're doing that is bymodernizing how they work.
The workforce that's coming uphas been digital from
practically day one, and so theyexpect that the facility and
the tools that give them thatfacility, with the way they get
their job done and the impactthey can have because it's much
(06:15):
more integrated, is reallyimportant to the next generation
.
And so I think that there's acouple big drivers there for how
and why digitization ishappening and accelerating in
construction today.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Interesting.
So let's switch gears a littlebit to QuickBase.
I can understand why Excelisn't the ideal tool for most
things, actually, but forconstruction project managers.
But how do you solve the datadisconnect problem?
What's the QuickBase sort ofmethodology or approach?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, I think you know.
I think QuickBase is reallyunique.
You know something I learnedabout, you know, when I joined
QuickBase and thinking aboutQuickBase in the context of the
tech stack of your typicalconstruction company today,
whether that's a generalcontractor or a specialty
contractor, and whether you're avery small business or a very
(07:09):
large business, there's somekind of key, you know, big rocks
in that tech stack that folksrely on to execute their work.
Probably, in construction, italways starts with some type of
ERP, whether you're talkingabout QuickBooks or Sage or you
know, in the upper end, CMIC orOracle.
(07:31):
And the thing that I recognizedearly and see really as a huge
opportunity for QuickBase andthe way that we fit into the
tech stack of our customerstoday, is that QuickBase can
both be a brick in that systemby solving a specific problem,
or it can be the mortar thatconnects the different tools
(07:51):
that are already in use.
And so I think, by being thiskind of brick and mortar,
depending on the problem thecustomer's trying to solve, how
we coexist within that techstack and ecosystem, how we
extend the value of existingsystems like Procore, like Sage,
how we connect office and fieldwith QuickBase and FastField,
(08:14):
we really have a uniqueopportunity to connect that data
.
That underlies that, becauseonce you have those core data
structures established withinQuickBase your projects, your
people, your resources thenhaving that connect to those
(08:34):
other systems of record whetherthat's your project management
system, your ERP system, your HRsystem there is underlying data
that's common and you really doneed to connect it to get a
handle on how you're performingyour work.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Interesting.
So it's more than just the backoffice team.
It's the project manager,obviously, the site team, the
back office, all workingtogether with the same set of
data.
Is that the goal?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think that one of the things
that we've seen is that wereally, because we are so
configurable, we can meet theneeds of the different
participants who are working ona project.
Whether you're the CEO andleading a company that's
managing projects acrossterritories, across states,
(09:24):
across the world, even you needa certain view at a portfolio
level about the projectperformance, and then you take
that view and you parse it downto the project executives that
may have multiple projects, tothe project manager, who may
have a couple projects, to theproject engineer who's on a
single project.
That information really needsto telescope and be connected to
(09:47):
help the field engineer do hisjob, capture the data that's
relevant for the part of thescope of the work that they're
responsible for, but connect itin a way that gives visibility
to where the project is all theway up the chain, and I think
QuickBase is uniquely positionedto be able to do that.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Interesting, so I'm looking here at your website.
You have some other tools thatempower your customers, like the
Project Hub Pro app.
How does that fit into thisscenario?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, so I think that we have just released the
Project Hub Pro app, about twoweeks ago, so it is brand new.
One of the things that I saw,one of the things that QuickBase
saw in deciding to invest inthe construction vertical, was
QuickBase had had a lot oforganic success in the
(10:40):
construction segment, withcustomers leveraging QuickBase
again either to solve a specificproblem or to use QuickBase as
a data connector betweendifferent systems.
And then some of the use casesthat we had been solving very
well for a number of customerswere CRM and bid management,
safety, time tracking, materialsmanagement, prefabrication.
(11:04):
So what I realized was we had abunch of spokes, if you will,
that typically hooked into othersystems to extend the value or
connect the data, but we didn'twithin our own ecosystem have a
hub that could serve as thatconnector for these other
functional use cases.
And so with the project hub nowwe have within QuickBase the
(11:29):
ability to be that hub, and Ithink, particularly for
mid-sized companies and below,who aren't investing today in
solutions like a Procore, theycan really get a view of their
business through a single paneof glass in a highly
configurable platform likeQuickBase and with the Project
Hub as a starting point, tocollect their data, gain the
(11:51):
views of that data and be ableto take action on that data in
ways that they hadn't been ableto before, because the tools
they had available to themprobably QuickBooks or Sage and
a whole bunch of spreadsheets inthe different departments in
their business.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Interesting.
So you mentioned you sort ofgrew up organically the
grassroots in the constructionspace.
But what about the C-suite?
I mean, they're looking atbigger picture items as well.
You know, like risk mitigationand you know project visibility
and viability, cost control.
I mean, how do theseperspectives come into play on
(12:30):
projects?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah, I think that you know.
It is about our ability toconnect that data.
It is about our ability toconnect that data and if we're
not connecting or evencollecting data in the field
around quality, around safety,around project progress, if we
aren't connecting or collectingthat data in the field with a
(12:52):
tool like FastField that we have, that is perfectly suited for
job site data collection, if youaren't collecting in some
structured and organized waywhat's actually happening on the
job site, any data you'rerolling up to the CEO on project
progress, outstanding billings,resource utilization, project
percent, complete project budgetyou can't get to those answers
(13:15):
that are important to the CEO.
If you don't have the peopleexecuting the work, if they
don't have a mechanism by whichthey can monitor, capture
information, data and insightsinto their specific scopes of
work that then roll up to thatlarger picture and the overall
performance of the company.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Interesting, what a great opportunity of the company
.
Interesting, what a greatopportunity.
And looking ahead, you know, asyou're focused on the
construction space, what newintegrations, new opportunities
do you see for the rest of theyear?
It's a pretty vast industry,probably one of the world's top
few industries, right?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah.
So I think where I seeourselves with with Project Hub
today and where we're going is astarting point and I think that
you know we've landed our firstcustomer on Project Hub and in
many ways, I think that theirstory is going to be the story
that we see replicated again andagain.
And this was a midsizeelectrical contractor.
(14:16):
Right, they saw Project Hub,were intrigued and were talking
to a leader in the business andwe talked and tried to
understand where they were todayin their digital journey.
They talked about the fact thatthey ran QuickBooks to capture
their back office you knowfinancials but every department
(14:37):
in his business had aspreadsheet and so, as a first
step, we took his three mostimportant spreadsheets that
aren't connected and we importedthem into the project hub in a
matter of an hour or so, gotthose spreadsheets in there and,
through the import of thosespreadsheets into the project
hub, that project executive orbusiness executive was able to
(15:03):
have a view across his businessinto those things that we were
talking about outstandingbillings, resource utilization,
project percent, complete.
I mean truly seeing the lightsgoing on the lights, you know,
light bulb flashing.
When he saw that, he was likethis is fantastic, but I don't
want to be uploadingspreadsheets, because that
defeats the whole purpose ofthis.
(15:23):
We need to integrate this withQuickBooks as a starting point,
and then we need to developapplications in the field that
are collecting information onour project, progress in the
field, on our resourceallocations, on our billings,
and so for him, the problem hewas trying to solve that he
didn't have because he only had,you know, QuickBooks and
(15:45):
spreadsheets was getting asingle pane of glass through
which he could see the state ofhis business.
Once he had that at the macrolevel, they can now start
thinking about what problem ismost pressing for them to solve
next.
Is that safety?
Is that material tracking?
Is it fleet management?
Is that safety?
Is that material tracking?
Is it fleet management?
(16:06):
It really is about the customerthen defining their journey
from this starting point to theother problems they're going to
solve, and know that at everystep in the way, they're just
connecting more data to providethat comprehensive view of their
business.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Fascinating, and some of the biggest construction
projects in the world areoutside of the US.
This must be quite a globalopportunity as well.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah, I think that you know.
I think that the way projectsget delivered more or less is
the same, whether you're, youknow, sitting in Boston or
sitting in London or sitting inSydney.
You know, I've had a greatopportunity to get to work with
folks across the world in tryingto solve this problem for years
, and it really does come downto those fundamentals, like we
(16:52):
talked about.
There's just too manydisconnected systems, there's
too many spreadsheets and that'snot helping people get better
deliver their projects on budget, on schedule, with quality and
safety.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Brilliant.
So you guys attend a lot ofreally interesting events that
are not familiar to me as atechie.
What's on your radar?
The next few weeks and monthsMust have a lot going on going
on.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, we have some really interesting stuff coming
up across the board, you know,working with organizations like
NECA and Electri, working withthe AGC and ENR, and I think one
of the things that's reallyimportant for us as we establish
our business across the UnitedStates is how we develop hubs.
Right, construction happenslocally and so as we look to
(17:49):
establish our presence,leveraging what I would say is
our anchor customers, like in,say, portland Oregon right,
portland Oregon is notleveraging electrical
contractors from Missouri.
There's folks around Portlandthat work together.
Oregon is not leveragingelectrical contractors from
Missouri.
There's folks around Portlandthat work together.
(18:10):
Folks in this industry tend tomove from company to events in
the spring and in the fall wherewe can bring together general
contractors who are working withspecialty contractors, some who
(18:32):
have experience with QuickBaseworking with others who are just
hearing about QuickBase andwhat we have to offer in
construction for the first time.
So I think taking that localapproach but leveraging the
national organizations that arekind of the backbone of thought,
leadership and enablement, bothfor the general contractors and
specialty contractors, is agreat kind of partnership and
(18:54):
then being able to execute itwhere work is happening.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Wonderful.
Well, there's plenty of work tobe done, including a quick base
.
So congratulations on that and,onwards and upwards, thanks for
joining and sharing a peekbehind the curtain regarding an
industry many of us are notfamiliar with, so it's amazing
to see the work there.
Great Thanks for having me,evan, great to meet you.
Thanks.
Thanks for joining.
Thanks everyone for listeningand watching.
Hey everybody, Diving into the world of construction
with a favorite of mine fromQuickBase, Tim.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Doing great today.
How are you doing, Evan?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm doing well, thanks.
Really intrigued by all thingsthat you do at QuickBase in
terms of modernizing ourapproach to project management
and collaboration and IT intothe construction industry, so
really keen to dive in.
Before that, maybe introduceyourself your role in the
company, and at a high level.
(00:32):
For those who aren't familiarwith QuickBase, how do you
describe the company these days?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, so Tim Douglas, I'm the GM of construction at
QuickBase.
Relatively new business linethere formed about nine months
ago and I think that you knowQuickBase is really the AI
powered platform for businessoperations.
That's how we look at ourselves.
(00:58):
That's how our customers areleveraging QuickBase to solve
operational challenges within anorganization, not only in
construction, but acrossindustries, but also using
QuickBase to connect databetween different systems that
exist in any customer's techstack.
So it's an exciting time to beat QuickBase and we're seeing
(01:19):
some really interesting traction, particularly in the
construction vertical.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
That's so interesting to me.
I cover multiple industries andyou're involved in many of
those, from telecom to financialservices and healthcare and
other industries but why is theconstruction industry so ripe
for change, disruption andaddressing some big challenges
that they have facing them?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, I mean, I've been working in construction
tech for almost 25 years now andit's kind of amazing as far as
we've traveled in those 25 years.
There's still a long way to goand I think a lot of it has to
do.
I know people often comparemanufacturing to construction,
and why is it that constructioncan't just adopt manufacturing
(02:06):
methods?
And the fact of the matter isis every single project is a
prototype.
The teams that come together,come together once, will maybe
never work again on the same orscale of the project, and so
therefore, you know every, everyproject literally is a
snowflake, and even if you havethe same companies working
together, you may not have thesame people.
(02:27):
You're probably unlikely tohave the same systems that all
talk to each other, so there'sjust a lot of disconnection in
the systems, the processes andthe people who come together to
execute important work.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Oh, that's so interesting.
So if you're a project manageron a construction project, I
mean you have a lot ofchallenges, but what do you
think the most significantchallenge is?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, I think that there's kind of three key
challenges and are notcompletely unique to
construction, but it's certainlynot that there's a lack of
technology in construction.
But it's certainly not thatthere's a lack of technology in
construction.
The VC community andsignificant players in the tech
space have invested billions andbillions of dollars in
technology to support thedifferent parts of the project
(03:18):
delivery lifecycle.
But each of those offers bothan opportunity to solve a
problem but introduces thechallenge of a data silo,
because not all of these systemstalk to one another.
These systems are oftendisintegrated.
Deep integrations betweensystems is not something that is
undertaken across all the toolsthat are used to execute the
(03:41):
work and, you know, the mostwidely deployed tool and
technology today forconstruction is Excel, which
magnifies both of thosechallenges.
And then the final one, whichis, you know, prevalent on every
single job site, is connectingthe field and the office, and
(04:02):
the field and the job site andthe office.
There's just differenttechnologies, different form
factors that work in differentsettings, and that's always been
one of the challenges toovercome is how do you get the
right data to the right personin the right format where
they're doing their work?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Fantastic.
And where are we in theconstruction industry with that
data-driven approach?
I imagine it's all over the map.
You've seen all the bestpractices as well.
What's the sort of state of theindustry in terms of real-time
project data across the team?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely been a journey, I you
know.
I think that the the, quitehonestly, I think the pandemic
folks had to rely on technologyto fill the gaps in
communication, and I think thatthat, combined with the changing
in the age of the workforce, isgoing to play a major role in
how data gets used, howtechnology gets leveraged to
build things going forward.
One of the stats that sticks outto me is that, you know,
(05:29):
between now and 2031, about 40percent of the current
construction workforce is goingto age out of the industry.
Wow, to backfill that braindrain and the bodies to get the
(05:52):
work done is going to reallyrequire a concerted effort on
their part to attract and retaintalent, and one of the ways by
which they're doing that is bymodernizing how they work.
The workforce that's coming uphas been digital from
practically day one, and so theyexpect that the facility and
the tools that give them thatfacility, with the way they get
their job done and the impactthey can have because it's much
(06:15):
more integrated, is reallyimportant to the next generation
.
And so I think that there's acouple big drivers there for how
and why digitization ishappening and accelerating in
construction today.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Interesting.
So let's switch gears a littlebit to QuickBase.
I can understand why Excelisn't the ideal tool for most
things, actually, but forconstruction project managers.
But how do you solve the datadisconnect problem?
What's the QuickBase sort ofmethodology or approach?
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, I think you know.
I think QuickBase is reallyunique.
You know something I learnedabout, you know, when I joined
QuickBase and thinking aboutQuickBase in the context of the
tech stack of your typicalconstruction company today,
whether that's a generalcontractor or a specialty
contractor, and whether you're avery small business or a very
(07:09):
large business, there's somekind of key, you know, big rocks
in that tech stack that folksrely on to execute their work.
Probably, in construction, italways starts with some type of
ERP, whether you're talkingabout QuickBooks or Sage or you
know, in the upper end, CMIC orOracle.
(07:31):
And the thing that I recognizedearly and see really as a huge
opportunity for QuickBase andthe way that we fit into the
tech stack of our customerstoday, is that QuickBase can
both be a brick in that systemby solving a specific problem,
or it can be the mortar thatconnects the different tools
(07:51):
that are already in use.
And so I think, by being thiskind of brick and mortar,
depending on the problem thecustomer's trying to solve, how
we coexist within that techstack and ecosystem, how we
extend the value of existingsystems like Procore, like Sage,
how we connect office and fieldwith QuickBase and FastField,
(08:14):
we really have a uniqueopportunity to connect that data
.
That underlies that, becauseonce you have those core data
structures established withinQuickBase your projects, your
people, your resources thenhaving that connect to those
(08:34):
other systems of record whetherthat's your project management
system, your ERP system, your HRsystem there is underlying data
that's common and you really doneed to connect it to get a
handle on how you're performingyour work.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Interesting.
So it's more than just the backoffice team.
It's the project manager,obviously, the site team, the
back office, all workingtogether with the same set of
data.
Is that the goal?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think that one of the things
that we've seen is that wereally, because we are so
configurable, we can meet theneeds of the different
participants who are working ona project.
Whether you're the CEO andleading a company that's
managing projects acrossterritories, across states,
(09:24):
across the world, even you needa certain view at a portfolio
level about the projectperformance, and then you take
that view and you parse it downto the project executives that
may have multiple projects, tothe project manager, who may
have a couple projects, to theproject engineer who's on a
single project.
That information really needsto telescope and be connected to
(09:47):
help the field engineer do hisjob, capture the data that's
relevant for the part of thescope of the work that they're
responsible for, but connect itin a way that gives visibility
to where the project is all theway up the chain, and I think
QuickBase is uniquely positionedto be able to do that.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Interesting, so I'm looking here at your website.
You have some other tools thatempower your customers, like the
Project Hub Pro app.
How does that fit into thisscenario?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, so I think that we have just released the
Project Hub Pro app, about twoweeks ago, so it is brand new.
One of the things that I saw,one of the things that QuickBase
saw in deciding to invest inthe construction vertical, was
QuickBase had had a lot oforganic success in the
(10:40):
construction segment, withcustomers leveraging QuickBase
again either to solve a specificproblem or to use QuickBase as
a data connector betweendifferent systems.
And then some of the use casesthat we had been solving very
well for a number of customerswere CRM and bid management,
safety, time tracking, materialsmanagement, prefabrication.
(11:04):
So what I realized was we had abunch of spokes, if you will,
that typically hooked into othersystems to extend the value or
connect the data, but we didn'twithin our own ecosystem have a
hub that could serve as thatconnector for these other
functional use cases.
And so with the project hub nowwe have within QuickBase the
(11:29):
ability to be that hub, and Ithink, particularly for
mid-sized companies and below,who aren't investing today in
solutions like a Procore, theycan really get a view of their
business through a single paneof glass in a highly
configurable platform likeQuickBase and with the Project
Hub as a starting point, tocollect their data, gain the
(11:51):
views of that data and be ableto take action on that data in
ways that they hadn't been ableto before, because the tools
they had available to themprobably QuickBooks or Sage and
a whole bunch of spreadsheets inthe different departments in
their business.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Interesting.
So you mentioned you sort ofgrew up organically the
grassroots in the constructionspace.
But what about the C-suite?
I mean, they're looking atbigger picture items as well.
You know, like risk mitigationand you know project visibility
and viability, cost control.
I mean, how do theseperspectives come into play on
(12:30):
projects?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah, I think that you know.
It is about our ability toconnect that data.
It is about our ability toconnect that data and if we're
not connecting or evencollecting data in the field
around quality, around safety,around project progress, if we
aren't connecting or collectingthat data in the field with a
(12:52):
tool like FastField that we have, that is perfectly suited for
job site data collection, if youaren't collecting in some
structured and organized waywhat's actually happening on the
job site, any data you'rerolling up to the CEO on project
progress, outstanding billings,resource utilization, project
percent, complete project budgetyou can't get to those answers
(13:15):
that are important to the CEO.
If you don't have the peopleexecuting the work, if they
don't have a mechanism by whichthey can monitor, capture
information, data and insightsinto their specific scopes of
work that then roll up to thatlarger picture and the overall
performance of the company.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Interesting, what a great opportunity of the company
.
Interesting, what a greatopportunity.
And looking ahead, you know, asyou're focused on the
construction space, what newintegrations, new opportunities
do you see for the rest of theyear?
It's a pretty vast industry,probably one of the world's top
few industries, right?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah.
So I think where I seeourselves with with Project Hub
today and where we're going is astarting point and I think that
you know we've landed our firstcustomer on Project Hub and in
many ways, I think that theirstory is going to be the story
that we see replicated again andagain.
And this was a midsizeelectrical contractor.
(14:16):
Right, they saw Project Hub,were intrigued and were talking
to a leader in the business andwe talked and tried to
understand where they were todayin their digital journey.
They talked about the fact thatthey ran QuickBooks to capture
their back office you knowfinancials but every department
(14:37):
in his business had aspreadsheet and so, as a first
step, we took his three mostimportant spreadsheets that
aren't connected and we importedthem into the project hub in a
matter of an hour or so, gotthose spreadsheets in there and,
through the import of thosespreadsheets into the project
hub, that project executive orbusiness executive was able to
(15:03):
have a view across his businessinto those things that we were
talking about outstandingbillings, resource utilization,
project percent, complete.
I mean truly seeing the lightsgoing on the lights, you know,
light bulb flashing.
When he saw that, he was likethis is fantastic, but I don't
want to be uploadingspreadsheets, because that
defeats the whole purpose ofthis.
(15:23):
We need to integrate this withQuickBooks as a starting point,
and then we need to developapplications in the field that
are collecting information onour project, progress in the
field, on our resourceallocations, on our billings,
and so for him, the problem hewas trying to solve that he
didn't have because he only had,you know, QuickBooks and
(15:45):
spreadsheets was getting asingle pane of glass through
which he could see the state ofhis business.
Once he had that at the macrolevel, they can now start
thinking about what problem ismost pressing for them to solve
next.
Is that safety?
Is that material tracking?
Is it fleet management?
Is that safety?
Is that material tracking?
Is it fleet management?
(16:06):
It really is about the customerthen defining their journey
from this starting point to theother problems they're going to
solve, and know that at everystep in the way, they're just
connecting more data to providethat comprehensive view of their
business.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Fascinating, and some of the biggest construction
projects in the world areoutside of the US.
This must be quite a globalopportunity as well.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Yeah, I think that you know.
I think that the way projectsget delivered more or less is
the same, whether you're, youknow, sitting in Boston or
sitting in London or sitting inSydney.
You know, I've had a greatopportunity to get to work with
folks across the world in tryingto solve this problem for years
, and it really does come downto those fundamentals, like we
(16:52):
talked about.
There's just too manydisconnected systems, there's
too many spreadsheets and that'snot helping people get better
deliver their projects on budget, on schedule, with quality and
safety.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Brilliant.
So you guys attend a lot ofreally interesting events that
are not familiar to me as atechie.
What's on your radar?
The next few weeks and monthsMust have a lot going on going
on.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, we have some really interesting stuff coming
up across the board, you know,working with organizations like
NECA and Electri, working withthe AGC and ENR, and I think one
of the things that's reallyimportant for us as we establish
our business across the UnitedStates is how we develop hubs.
Right, construction happenslocally and so as we look to
(17:49):
establish our presence,leveraging what I would say is
our anchor customers, like in,say, portland Oregon right,
portland Oregon is notleveraging electrical
contractors from Missouri.
There's folks around Portlandthat work together.
Oregon is not leveragingelectrical contractors from
Missouri.
There's folks around Portlandthat work together.
(18:10):
Folks in this industry tend tomove from company to events in
the spring and in the fall wherewe can bring together general
contractors who are working withspecialty contractors, some who
(18:32):
have experience with QuickBaseworking with others who are just
hearing about QuickBase andwhat we have to offer in
construction for the first time.
So I think taking that localapproach but leveraging the
national organizations that arekind of the backbone of thought,
leadership and enablement, bothfor the general contractors and
specialty contractors, is agreat kind of partnership and
(18:54):
then being able to execute itwhere work is happening.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Wonderful.
Well, there's plenty of work tobe done, including a quick base
.
So congratulations on that and,onwards and upwards, thanks for
joining and sharing a peekbehind the curtain regarding an
industry many of us are notfamiliar with, so it's amazing
to see the work there.
Great Thanks for having me,evan, great to meet you.
Thanks.
Thanks for joining.
Thanks everyone for listeningand watching.
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