Robins & Morton sees huge productivity gains through the integration of Egnyte and Procore

"We have reduced the challenges we had in the field with accessing and creating large files, as well as storing and archiving project documentation by integrating our existing apps with Egnyte. This supports our team’s ability to efficiently plan and execute projects."

David Pratt

Director of Corporate and Operational Technology • Robins & Morton

Robins & Morton is committed to continuous improvement in everything they do.

This philosophy has helped the construction firm founded in 1946 become one of the leading specialist builders of new hospitals and healthcare facilities in the United States today, completing more than 1,700 successful projects across 38 states. These projects have spanned from the Miami Beach Convention Center Alternate Care Facility built during the pandemic, to the Fort Hood Intrepid Spirit Center which serves up to 1,000 service members annually.

Continuous improvement is also one of the guiding principles behind the Building Forward® initiative, an innovative approach within Robins & Morton that empowers project teams to share ideas and process feedback throughout the planning, design, and construction project phases.

As construction projects have become more complicated and complex across more locations, Robins & Morton is improving how its office and field-based project-teams access, share, and collaborate on project files to run smarter, more efficient projects. This was the impetus for integrating its construction project management system, Procore, with Egnyte.

Challenge

Managing 160 projects across 16 states, Director of Corporate and Operational Technology, David Pratt, is always looking to reduce inefficiencies for the architects, sub-contractors, and client representatives working on projects.

Procore is used by project teams to coordinate and track each step of the construction process. In addition to managing real-time scheduling and project tasks, it is used to capture daily progress reports and plan reviews.

All company and project-related documents, from contracts and photos to CAD drawings and large digital AR/VR files are stored within Egnyte’s cloud-based file-sharing platform, making it easy for field-based teams, to securely access and collaborate on files regardless of where they are located, or what device they are using.

With so many active projects, Pratt needed to ensure that both Procore and Egnyte were always aligned and updated for project teams to easily locate files on the Procore Project page, eliminating the need for users to navigate two systems or juggle multiple permissions.

Solution

By using Egnyte’s native platform integration with Procore, project teams now have a single source of content truth, to access, share and collaborate on key project documents, simplifying the experience for users and IT administration alike.

“When a new construction project begins, IT simply creates a new job project in Procore, defines the access rights of all team members – which will include clients and trade partners – and then identify which content in Egnyte we want to securely share with whom,” Pratt said.

A two-way automatic sync between Egnyte and Procore eliminates the need for manual intervention, allowing users to easily upload new project documents to Procore, which are then automatically saved to Egnyte.

“The integration of Egnyte and Procore has been positively received by all. At a stroke it has eliminated the challenges we had in the field with data storage and archiving project documentation,” said Pratt. “Plus, integrating the two environments has boosted our ability to efficiently spin up new projects and interact with partners through planning, design and construction.”

Results

With a seamless integration in place, Robins & Morton has streamlined how it provides all stakeholders access to documentation for the duration of a project, generating significant productivity gains across project sites.

This proved particularly transformational when COVID-19 hit.

“We had to innovate fast to ensure that work on urgent healthcare and emergency Covid-19 facilities could continue,’ said Pratt. ‘That meant finding new ways to document job site progress and share this with partners and clients so we could work together faster. Thanks to the Egnyte and Procore integration, we were able to do this efficiently.”

The integration made it safer and easier for clients to visualize and manage projects, allowing Robins & Morton to unleash truly ground-breaking operational innovations across its project sites. This included the creation of BIM caves where clients could immerse themselves in VR models, gain a 360° perspective of future development and make construction decisions faster.

Project teams securely shared photos with stakeholders to document progress at construction sites, ensuring that approvals and decision-making processes were not impeded by physical access restrictions.

With a culture that embraces continuous improvement and innovative technology partners working together to solve complex construction challenges, Robins & Morton is delivering on its mission to make a lasting impact on the people and companies it partners with.