From Zero to Full Enterprise: Lydig Construction's Journey with Autodesk Construction Cloud

MATT SELLE: Welcome, everybody, to our presentation of Lydig Construction's journey from zero to full enterprise of Autodesk Construction Cloud. This is a timeline presentation that will take you through each phase of our journey as we go from the very start and the very identifying some of our problems and situations all the way to our current day.

So with me today-- has been very instrumental in the success of this venture. We have Sabina and Cari from Autodesk. Cari and Sabina, could you please introduce yourselves and share maybe a little fun icebreaker with you?

CARI TRANEL: Yes, definitely. I'll go ahead and kick it off. So first, Sabina Worthington is our manager of adoption services who spearheaded the paid pilot with our implementation team. I'll just give her a fun fact. Right now, she is actually on her sabbatical traveling across Italy, which is awesome because she's been here for more than four years.

And then my name is Cari Tranel. I'm a customer success manager who's been working with Lydig for a year and a half as their partner and advocate to implement, adopt, and optimize ACC across their organization. And a fun fact about me is that right after college, I bought a one-way ticket to Australia and lived there for a year. So I can be a little spontaneous sometimes.

[CHUCKLING]

What about you, Matt?

MATT SELLE: My name is Matt Selle, VDC manager for Lydig Construction, also the point person that has been running more of the technology aspect of Lydig. And fun fact about me-- I don't know if it's really fun. But now I'm on my 35th year of being on the Green Bay Packers season ticket waiting list. So hopefully, sometime before I retire, I'll be able to get something in the mail. But we'll leave that for another day.

So first off, we want to start off with, who is Lydig Construction? It's not a very big company. We are-- have been around for about 66 years. We're roughly about a 200 team member company, primarily located in the state of Washington. We will go, in fact, outside of our state to help out with owner-specific needs in a wide variety of states. Our projects can consist of historic renovations-- K through 12, higher education, things like that. And we're located all throughout the state. We're primarily focused on traditions of fairness, excellence, and craftsmanship and the dedication of our loyal, high professional staff.

And we cannot start this presentation off without a safe harbor statement. It's a little different than what you typically hear from your Autodesk Construction Cloud or any other platforms that get presented. But we are going through an accelerated time frame of going-- of picking platforms for our entire company-- just want to mention that it is very accelerated. We want everybody to take bits and pieces of it and, hopefully, apply it to your own culture, your own process throughout your organizations.

So with that, we have to start off in the beginning. It was right around March of 2022. At that time, our current state of technology was very disconnected. Our estimating is in their own silo, so to speak, project management, accounting, we had some integrations, not a whole lot, but primarily a lot of other platforms or other departments, I should say-- did everything manually, very disconnected and things like that.

And then unfortunately, what eventually did happen is our current platform gave us a call and really gave us some unfortunate news. It would-- downgraded us to just year contracts. And also, it rose to just about 25%. And when you're trying to predict cost forecasting throughout your company from an overhead standpoint, it really hit us in the gut as far as really trying to figure out how much is this going to cost us long-term. And unfortunately, that was about the only time that we discussed the infrastructure and the involvement of that platform.

It really left a sour taste in our mouth to just say, hey, time-out, what's going on? And what was really beneficial is me personally coming from other GCs in the Midwest, actually, where I was actually helping deploy many of the Autodesk products for those companies-- it prompt my boss to actually call me up right basically when he got the phone call and said, you got to tell me about Autodesk. You got to tell me about all these things-- or what other platforms are out in the world that we could use? So that really prompted him to work with other executives that could sponsor a group that we could almost form a team and really evaluate what's out there.

So when that actually happened, Lydig put together a vital factor team of technology. So-- really helped us get through and put together a committee that could really help us evaluate the technologies. And what that makeup was is having folks in our different operational groups and having one member of each operational group from each department that could all work together.

So when that did happen, we went over the timeline. We went over a lot of the current state of technology and the issues that we were having. Unfortunately, with the time constraint that we did have, we had to move forward with the platform that we were currently utilizing. We had all of our eggs in one basket. And we really couldn't make a jump within 30 days. It was just too unrealistic. So with that vital factor team, we were able to come together and establish what timelines we had to conduct and when.

First thing's first-- is our evaluation of the current platform. Each department needed to put together a list of must-haves that needs to be in that software or that platform, and then maybe also some wish list items or-- man, that this really would be great to include in a platform that we could trust and utilize all throughout the company.

All the people that were on the project team-- we were able to come up with, I would say, about six to 10 different platforms that are out there on the market. And we really honed it down to three of them-- Procore, which was our existing platform, which we've been with them for seven-plus years-- obviously, with Autodesk Construction Cloud, and then we also looked at Trimble as well. And what was enticing about that it was already part of our accounting software. So-- really thought that was going to be a great opportunity for us to leverage.

So we went through a lot of the Trimble. And it turns out we didn't really have a lot of integration qualifications or requirements that the project management piece and the cost management piece at the time really didn't jive well with what we wanted out of it. And then we're also very familiar with what Procore had. So it really took us in right down to Autodesk Construction Cloud. And at that point, we were able to bring in Autodesk. And with that, as we move on to the next phase of this journey, Cari is able to tell us more about how they're able to help us evaluate it.

CARI TRANEL: Perfect. Thank you, Matt. Let's go ahead and kick into the paid pilot program if you want to move to the next slide. Perfect. So the goal of the paid pilot program at Autodesk is to allow customers to test and validate their workflows in both Autodesk Build and Cost Management before finalizing their purchase.

So this includes involvement from multiple internal Autodesk stakeholders, including a sales executive, a technical sales executive, and implementation consultants, who are the post-sale training resource. Although implementation consultants don't typically train customers until they purchase the software, our paid pilot program provides both pre and post-sale resources so that we can focus heavily on customizing the experience.

So what exactly was included in the paid pilot for Lydig? The pilot was completed over 90 days with 10 hours of virtual training included. We kicked it off with the discovery phase, where we learned Lydig's current processes, which helped us understand how to improve their workflows in ACC and configure their projects.

After the project configuration was complete, we conducted a hands-on training with the Lydig team, showing them how they would apply their current processes into Autodesk Construction Cloud both from administrative and end user perspectives. And then we also assigned homework between the different sessions so that the team could spend time in the tool.

And there were quite a few different reasons that this paid pilot was so successful. First, Lydig selected an internal committee of stakeholders that were chosen across different organizations within their business. So this allowed different parties with different goals to ensure the tool would work for them and that this included project managers, superintendents, and more.

We also met once a week for an hour to ensure that we all remained on task. And then we alternated each of the weekly calls between Autodesk Build and Cost Management, which meant that specific Lydig stakeholders only had to join certain calls bi-weekly. And during those sessions, we used Lydig's actual data, such as drawing sets, files, sample budgets, sample contracts, and change order templates.

And then lastly, the agenda topics for each call were set at the beginning of the paid pilot. And this really allowed Lydig to invite additional folks outside of their internal committee to the sessions that applied specifically to their work. So for example, they invited additional superintendents and field stakeholders to the mobile session so that those users could have more eyes on the software.

And although we were able to get through a lot during those 10 hours of virtual trainings, the goal was only to test and validate workflows-- or sorry, validate workflows, not to get the entire company up and running on the software. So after the paid pilot completion, Lydig did invest in additional implementation services for their enterprise rollout, which we'll cover later.

So we did set the agendas for each of the different sessions at the very beginning of the pilot. So for Autodesk Build, we started going through project admin and document management, where we talked about licensing, permissions, sheets, files, transmittals, and reviews and Autodesk docs. From there, we went through RFIs, submittals, issue management, safety and quality management, which included forms and assets, and then finished off going through the Autodesk Build mobile app. Finishing with the mobile app was a positive way to conclude the pilot, as Lydig was specifically looking for improved mobile workflows.

Now, Cost Management-- since Cost Management is so customizable, we actually have a designated implementation consultant specifically for this module. Tyler Patton, who is a senior implementation consultant here at Autodesk, is Lydig's assigned resource specifically for Cost Management. He kicked off the paid pilot by going through an overview of Cost Management. And he talked about the settings and configuration within the tool.

He then went through budgets and subcontracts, which included pay apps, expenses, and template configuration. Then he touched on change orders forecasting and wrapped it up with reporting so Lydig could understand how to utilize the data because as we all know, the better the data going into the system, the better the data will be coming out.

Now I'm going to hand it back over to Matt to discuss Lydig's VFT review.

MATT SELLE: Thank you, Cari. So this was an entire summer filled with lots of information, lots of time out of our regular day-to-day jobs to really hone in on what we wanted the platform. And it was very overwhelming. But really, what we needed to do was regroup. We really wanted to get back into the flow of what we benefited from, the spring of working together, and really went through that evaluation phase.

So what we did is executive sponsorship really took control of the meetings and really brought us back together and said, now that we went through everything, we need to go back to our internal CBA worksheet to really identify, again, those must-haves and those wish list items that made up some of the spreadsheets that our project teams filled out.

We wanted to reevaluate if those items still stayed true or if we need to modify them in any way. Once we locked those back in again, we then graded each of those companies that we went through-- or I'm sorry, which one of those platforms that we were evaluating throughout the summer and how they stacked up against each line item for each company or each department in the entire company.

We also, when we did this-- we went back. And what we did is we actually went back to each team member and had them do this internally without the need of the department or the VFT committee. And the reason why we did that is we didn't want somebody that would be overbearing or would be blurting out their favorite platform-- I'll raise my hand on that one-- but really, really wanted everybody to have a fair shake at what that evaluation to them really mattered to them.

Along with that, our executive team were in partnership with each of those platforms and really wanted to break down what a pricing structure would look like for Lydig. So when everything came together, we really brought that in at the same time to do an overall grade and share with the project teams. And it was really close.

There was a lot of people that, by human nature, really benefited of having seven years of what they were traditionally working with. Other people really saw the huge benefit of just the sample size. They didn't even get into it. And they already felt it was pretty even.

So once we gathered all that information, we went over it again to validate exactly where everything was at. And that went-- we elevated up to our senior executive and ownership decision. That took a little bit of time to take place. But that-- we're sitting right around fall time, things like that, to make sure that we had everything presented to them and they were-- they had the understanding of what we experienced throughout the year.

And as you can mention as far as that final decision of where we went to, obviously, we went we went with Autodesk. Again, it took a little bit just because we wanted to make sure that we had everything covered, all of our bases covered, and, again, in a short period of time. Along with that, it was right around the Autodesk University of last year. And we were able to-- my colleagues and I were able to send feedback of any new products or any additional information that they may need because we were collaborating with colleagues throughout the industry-- so brought back a lot of exciting stuff, as many of you all do. But it was really a benefit to having that well timed with each other as well as our project stakeholders meeting and things like that.

So now the fun begins. Now that we've made our decision, now we have to figure out how we want to configure this platform to our liking. And with that, it took a lot of resources, again, with the collaboration of Autodesk to help us out. And Cari will help us share some of those insights as well.

CARI TRANEL: Perfect. Thanks, Matt. Let's go to the next slide. We'll kick it off. Awesome.

So after Lydig moved forward with Autodesk Build, we immediately scheduled their kickoff call, which is the first step of our internal implementation path. And the goal of having the structured kickoff call is to provide our customers a clear outline of how we will be working with them to onboard and adopt their new platform.

So on the kickoff with Lydig, we went through introductions and the organizational structure to make sure that everyone understood the different roles and responsibilities of each team member. And from there, we went through our typical approach to success planning, which included a high-level timeline and tracking milestones.

We asked Lydig about their initial goals and priorities so that we could start building a plan to work toward those. And we shared our recommendations for implementation, starting with setup at the account and then project level with key champions and administrators and moving into the project team rollout.

We asked about timing and what we needed to consider to begin setting those key milestones for the initial projects to just make sure that we were holding everyone accountable. And from there, we explained that the next phase after implementation would be moving to the execution phase, where we would officially begin rolling out the initial projects and ensuring that all of the Lydig teams had been trained.

From there, we wanted to move into optimization, which would be including analyzing data across projects to track progress and identifying any additional areas for improvement. We also broke down our approach to success planning by creating actionable items that we would be partnering on to support Lydig's ongoing ACC adoption.

As a team, we reviewed how we wanted to approach the rollout, especially in regards to whether there were-- there was any additional data that we needed to migrate over from the previous system. We also identified key metrics that we wanted to review and monitor over the first few months and beyond.

And then lastly, the implementation consultants on the call confirmed Lydig's preferred dates for upcoming onsite training. They provided an overview of what each training would consist of and how many hours each module would take and exactly what would be covered. At this exact stage, I was overseeing the process. But our delivery services team really took the reins and began training and working towards helping Lydig implement Autodesk Build. Next slide, please. Awesome.

So throughout the implementation and today, I have been meeting with Matt and the Lydig champion team once a month, where we go through updates from Lydig, their rollout progress, updates from the Autodesk side, as well as the bimonthly product roadmap update. Lydig also purchased additional services for their enterprise rollout. So Elizabeth Koehler, Tyler Patton, and Sabina Worthington from our implementation team, alongside our partner, IMAGINiT, had several remote meetings with the core champion team. And then Elizabeth, Tyler, and Sabina did an additional onsite in the Lydig office with the larger PM group.

To ensure that we've had continued collaboration and that feedback doesn't fall through the cracks, we've actually been utilizing ACC for real-time updates. Lydig invited me to be part of their account. And we have been utilizing files and issues to share documents and provide updates on feature requests that are specific to what Lydig has specifically requested as an enhancement to the platform. I also provided visibility into the feature request process and how our R&D and product teams have been prioritizing the feedback that is coming directly from our customers and what the short and long-term vision for ACC is over the upcoming months, and even more long-term.

Ultimately, as I mentioned in the initial kickoff, the goal with adoption is to eventually move into the optimization phase, which is where our customers have mastered the key modules in ACC, their teams have been trained, and they're able to move on to more data-centric and proactive measures. Lydig entered this stage extremely quickly after only a few months of implementation. To optimize ACC, they have been exploring additional integrations using our Power BI dashboards for powerful insights. And they've partnered with our R&D teams for beta opportunities and continued user research.

I would also like to call out that some of Lydig's feature requests are actually live now in ACC. And it's truly been amazing to be able to work with such a proactive and innovative customer that is using their voice and insights to help us shape the future of our product. And that being said, let's take a step back and hear directly from Matt about Lydig's deployment and go live date.

MATT SELLE: Thank you, Cari. So all of that time, all of that information, training the trainer, things like that, took place in that January, February time frame. March 1-- now it's really time for us to really go live. And that was able for us to take the information that we were learning from the ACC team and really apply it to our project team members.

When we did that, we first got together internally and really built out our internal manual. We went through each manual with Autodesk and really wanted to configure it how we wanted to. When that happened, we actually documented internally. And then that was the-- essentially, the manual that we were sharing with our project teams as we rolled out these go live projects.

Once that took place or once we had those created, we also had, in partnership or in line with that-- we assigned-- or we actually hired a third-party contractor called Morpheus. And they were actually-- just like we really wanted to accelerate this, they were even faster in this. They were able to, in a matter of just a few months, really connect our accounting software with the Autodesk Construction Cloud Cost Management platform.

Really, it was right in time when we were ready to go live. And when we were able to do that in March, we had that line in the sand where everything from-- I believe it was March 10. But right about at that time, everything forward was going to be in the new ACC platform. And everything existing was going to remain in our previous platform that we were-- we had before.

We had a number a number of different training strategies. We had a few projects to where we actually had a really good day-long sit down and went through, click by click, on how you get to certain areas. We also had some projects to where they were very hands-on. As much as you can train them and try to go through everything, they weren't-- it wasn't going to be picked up as well if they just dove in and just tried it out.

When we had those opportunities, we actually created a sandbox project that was built off of when we started creating a lot of those-- that content with Autodesk. That allowed them to play in a sandbox to-- we knew that they weren't going to mess anything up. So we allowed them to be a part of that platform. And then once they got ready, we then set up and configured their project accordingly in the live site.

Once we had a lot of those trainings, a lot of times, you always have questions, comments, concerns, things like that. And it was always just a re-engaging effort to stay with them to know that this isn't a training, and off you go and you're never going to hear from us, which we still stayed with them throughout the process. And I think it really gave them a lot of confidence in the platform, knowing that this is going to be a growing and continuous effort of support.

Along with the follow-up and support, a lot of the information, the content that we got from our end users really provided a lot of content for our monthly cadence with Autodesk. So just like Cari mentioned, if we're going to use the platform, we might as well use it in our collaboration efforts with Autodesk. So a lot of those line items-- we used the issues module, actually, with various issue types, like the meeting minutes, submittals, docs, things like that. And those issue line items were our wish list items that we wanted Autodesk to review and, hopefully, someday put into deployment or into working order for us.

Along with that, we had various topics that would come up, and then also share our future phasing opportunities, whether it's more integrations or more platforms that we want to adopt within the Autodesk platform, good, bad, or indifferent. We had those meetings each month as far as where we're at with the platform. And Autodesk was very transparent throughout this entire journey.

Having this accelerated platform or accelerated journey, obviously, there's a lot of lessons learned. Testing-- I think that we should have-- in hindsight, obviously, if we had a testing project that-- an actual live project, we simulated as much as we could in the platform or in the time frame that we had. It was very successful. However, I think getting the most out of that evaluation if we would have had an active project-- I think that would have been really great for us to take that feedback from.

Documentation-- I think that we found out later in the process of how much you can fill out in a project versus a template. So we had to have a lot of documentation in place from our learning manuals as well as what is already set up in that project template. I think if we would have discovered that early on, I think we would not put that burden on our project teams when that project team started out.

Another opportunity was is we had more of the Build side of things and the cost training in ACC. And we should have actually had more of the integration earlier. We really solved a lot of our training and our implementation strategies within Build and Cost very early. And if we would have known it wouldn't have taken us that long, I think we would have flip-flopped the integration phase versus the rollout and test and configuration.

And then also, deployment, really staying on top of all the different projects that come online-- some are in a wide variety of the state. And we had some excellent team members be able to step in to really share what the platform is and how to use it instead of having that formal central location training exercise. I think if we had a little bit better strategy on how that was going to be rolled out-- it was as needed or when someone was available. I think if we had that set up, we really would have hit the ball out of the ballpark with that one.

So with that, that is the entire length of-- from March of 2022 all the way to the present day of our journey with Autodesk. Once again, I hope that you have taken a few bits and pieces out of this. This model may not be well suited for your culture, for your company. But hopefully, you're able to take what we have and, hopefully, apply it to your own liking. So definitely appreciate it. And thank you.