Keys to Successful Cost-Management Implementation

BRAD BUCKLES: Welcome to the Keys to a Successful Cost Management Implementation. With me-- my name is Brad Buckles and with me today I have Staci Elkhatib, and we are looking forward to going through, running an implementation like a project.

And so my name is Brad Buckles. I am the director of technology for Charles Perry Partners. We're a Gainesville, Florida based construction management firm. I have a little over 30 years of experience in information technology. I've been able to be in a technology leadership role for about 22 of those years, and 11 years here at an executive role at CPI.

During that time, I've had an opportunity to lead in construction innovation, work through really transforming CPI with, of course, our team, to deliver projects that are innovative and really push the innovation forward for the industry. With me today I have Staci Elkhatib. Staci, would you like to introduce yourself?

STACI ELKHATIB: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much, Brad. So hello, everyone. My name is Staci Elkhatib. I was previously a senior customer success manager on the Autodesk Construction Cloud team. I am now the manager of partner services for Autodesk Construction Cloud, and through my time as a working professional I spent over nine years in software as a service, and the last five years has been in construction software. I previously worked for Pipe which was an acquired by Autodesk in 2020, and through my last three years at Autodesk I've had a lot of rich experience working with great customers such as Brad, and leading those customers through a transition from some of our legacy point solutions and products that you all have been familiar with, to the Autodesk Construction Cloud.

In just the last two years I have worked with customers and partners to lead them through at least three different cost implementations, and at least two of those involved ERP integrations as well. My customers, like Brad, are some of the largest users of cost, the most advanced users of cost. And so I'm lucky today that I get to present on this with him.

And Brad and I have a little bit of history. So the last two years, I have been working as his customer success manager, and then back in the day when I worked at Pipe I did help support the CBTI accounts at time for the softwares there. One more thing, Brad did not mention it. But last year I was so proud that he was on the main stage at Autodesk University, giving his perspective on touching data once, and so you'll hear some of those themes today as well.

So when it comes to Autodesk cost management. I do want to first go through maybe a little bit of what it's not. I work with a lot of customers, and so there is a lot of, maybe some people in here that know exactly what it is. But for some people maybe you don't know what Autodesk cost management is. So I do like to talk first about what it's not.

So Autodesk cost management is never going to replace your ERP or accounting system. So for any of our accountants in here, or anybody working in accounting, do not worry. We will not replace your accounting systems. Our only goal is to be a complement to those systems, so that your project level teams can go ahead and centralize all cost activities in the cloud, in the system that they're working in, which is Autodesk Construction Cloud. And then if you decide it would make sense to provide different integration points we can automatically exchange some of that project level accounting to your central cost system and back and forth to enhance some of the accounting processes that you already have in place.

When it comes to features of cost management, so this is now shifting over to more of my project level, teams and executives working in operations, cost management covers pretty much everything when it comes to job costing. So it covers budget and contract management, change management, payment applications, forecasting and dashboards, and there's some additional supporting functionality such as document templates and signature connections so that you can go ahead and issue contracts and get signatures there as well.

I am going to pause here for just a second so you can take a look at some of the features here. But I'm not going to read off the slide here for you guys today. And then if we move into our next slide, we will be looking at what the cost management value is to a great company like CPPI. Could never speak for Brad when it comes to this. So Brad, I'm going to pass it back to you.

BRAD BUCKLES: Thank you, Staci. Golly, I'll tell you that when we started we had disjointed systems, and we had disjointed processes. And there was really difficult to create standardizations. Now don't get me wrong, CPPI, we've been in business for a very, very long time. And we've been delivering successful projects. But what we realized is that it was taking a very long time to move data around, and there was a vast amount of data that we were having to touch all the time, and multiple times.

And so we set up a strategic plan that we needed to deliver to our organization, our subcontractors and our owners a way that we could streamline those processes and bring cost management into a single system. When I look at what value has it brought to CPPI, golly, I look at the standard operating procedures that we've been able to create. Because the software allows us to funnel our cost management activities through a single chain of events, it helps us, almost kind of requires the cost manager, to go through certain change management steps.

Couple that with our integration, and we really hit a home run when it comes to standardizing. Not only that, though, it brings us the ability to be able to create meaningful and actionable analytics. And that is something that our executives and our leadership team strive to get, but you can't get that in spreadsheets. You can't get that when it's files buried in folders.

We knew we needed a more accurate forecasting, and we've been able to deliver that through the use of the cost management application. But it's not just the leadership that this has impacted. Our goal was to create those efficiencies so that it would deliver that to our project team. Because we knew if we could standardize these things, we could create best practice processes that would allow our project team to be able to eliminate the duplicate work that they were doing. And it was almost duplicated for everything that they were touching. And we set out a mission to touch data one time. But we needed a system with the flexibility to be able to do that. The API library that would allow us to develop an integration to do that.

And we also knew that the amount of spreadsheets that they were utilizing to track change orders, potential estimated costs that were going to hit the job, waiting on a job cost report to be printed out of accounting, and delivered back to them, only to find that it was several weeks old information. So the ability to leverage all of that in a single software, to eliminate the duplicate entry, to be able to touch data one time internally, and to be able to get the job done faster, we knew would take some of the strain off of the project team, and also be able to let them get home to their families a little bit earlier.

And that's been our mission. That continues to be our mission as we move forward. And the cost management application has had that flexibility and capability to do just that.

When we think about what is an implementation, if I could just talk to every construction company out there that's getting ready to implement some software, I've been doing this I mentioned 22 years in a leadership role in technology. And the biggest misnomer is that implementing software is easy. You just install it, you start using it. Maybe there's a little bit of configuration, but we'll catch up to it. We'll get used to it.

And that is just not the case. It's not the case at all. It is very disruptive to an organization. And I'm not just talking about Autodesk cost management or Autodesk build, I'm talking about any kind of core application that's going to be utilized across your organization. It's going to be disruptive. And disruption is not a bad thing because you're getting rid of some of, and purging some of these old processes that are disjointed. These old processes that are time consuming, and it's giving you an opportunity to renovate your entire organization.

And that is the case with cost management. You have this opportunity where you can streamline and make things more efficient. But that requires more than just software. It requires process changes. It requires training, and it requires collaboration.

And I know Staci has had opportunities working with other customers as well, where she seen just this, she's seen not only the confusion about what an implementation is, but she's also seen how that confusion can make things go wrong. Staci, would you like to share?

STACI ELKHATIB: Yeah, absolutely Brad. And when it comes to an implementation as Brad mentioned, it truly does need to involve all stakeholders. So we're not just talking about when we're talking cost, OK, accounting needs to be involved. Or we're not talking about just project management needs to be involved, or just leadership needs to be involved. We're talking about everyone who touches that information, and is a piece of that puzzle. They need to be involved, and they need to be included.

I am working with a customer right now that has done a great job at including the major and minor stakeholders, and their implementation thus far has gone extremely well. And to Brad's point about collaboration and communication. They have empowered their end users to go ahead and not just communicate, so not just hear information, maybe pass it along, but to truly give their point of view as far as how they're doing their day job in day in and day out. So that again, once this gets rolled out to the entire organization, they have considered the viewpoint of all individuals involved.

When you do that, that does tend to lead to a better implementation. So we'll be talking about communication and collaboration a little bit more later. But that being said, I'm going to pass it back to you, Brad, to talk a little bit more about collaboration and how it's been vital to your success.

BRAD BUCKLES: Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that is often times missed is we think we need to communicate more. We think we need to communicate. Well, the reality is we don't need to communicate more. We do just fine communicating. We text, we send emails, we pass people in the hall, we have conversations, we have meetings. We have meetings to talk about meetings. My goodness, we're pushing information out. And I think all organizations are doing just fine at communicating.

What we really need for a successful implementation is collaboration. It's not this one person or a group of people speaking to others, and then them listening. It's the other people communicating back and creating that synergism that's needed for proper understanding of what's going on, and if I could press one of the most important keys to a successful implementation of cost management, it requires that collaboration.

It's just like Staci just said, the stakeholders have to be involved. It can't be just one person. It's got to have accounting and IT and operations and executive leadership talking. They have to get in the same room and talk. And it's not a one and done. It needs to be a part moving forward. It's going to help make things more memorable. It's going to foster the teamwork.

It's reducing excuses. Well, no one ever told me. Well, did you ask the question? It's so important that we change the mindset of how we implement software. We're not just communicating but we're collaborating.

When you get started in this journey, this collaboration becomes vital. Because you're going to get ready to hit three emotional states of a cost management implementation. And I want to break these out for you.

First of all, there's this vision stage. Now where does this vision stage start? It starts when salespeople are talking about what can the software do, right? You guys are writing an image. We all do this, right? What can this-- oh my goodness, it's going to be great. It's going to make my coffee in the morning. It's going to do all of these wonderful things, and I'm designing this vision to fit around my needs. Or maybe my individual circles needs. And that's a good thing.

Then the freak out stage occurs, right? And that's where reality meets the vision, and time lines don't change, deadlines for things don't change, people still need to get paid. We still need to get paid, but the whole software, everything that you're used to doing, all of the processes are now behind you. All of the software is now behind you and you have these new processes and new software to work with.

And that causes a freak out stage. And trust me when I say, every company it's going to hit this freak out stage. It's not an option. And it's not just-- again, I want to reiterate this guys. It is not just Autodesk cost management that you're going to have these three stages. I've seen these three stages throughout my career, and it never, ever deviates from these three emotional states.

But finally, as you climb that mountain you're going to get into the comfort zone. And that comfort zone is when you start getting familiar. You're starting to hit your stride. You're starting to get adjusted to this routine. Your users, your end users now understand how to use the software. The processes are now starting to be optimized, and you're starting to see the return on investment that you've had not only in a call standpoint on purchasing the software, but that return on investment and all the time that you spent.

So today, as you can see underneath each one of these stages, we're going to be talking about each one of these stages, and what should be done in order to implement this software successfully. What do you do when you're in the vision stage? What do you do when you're in the freak out stage? And what do you do when you're in the comfort zone? Because the comfort zone is not the end of the road, it's the beginning of a new road. And so we're going to talk about what that looks like as well.

So the very first thing I want to talk about is the vision stage. Now the vision stage is where you're going to start setting the expectations. But you're also going to be preparing for your implementation. And in this vision stage, it is where you're going to see people at the highest of their optimism. They're excited, they believe in the potential benefits that the software can do for their organization, for themselves.

This is going to be also from all departments, accounting, operations, the project manager. Everywhere the software leadership is going to be excited and optimistic about it in some degree or the other. And so you want to capitalize on that optimism and excitement, and start immediately in your planning and strategy stage.

Now this is where you start engaging in that core implementation team that we talked about. You want to designate some executive oversight. You want to work with operations, work with accounting, and work closely with IT as well.

Identify the software requirements. What does each individual department, if you will, require of the software? What is the expectations? What is that vision that was created for them? And that's where you want to start documenting and really scoping out the work.

We're going to talk in a little bit about how this needs to be handled as if you're building a building. And I mean it really is-- you guys are professional. A lot of you are professional project managers, or you've been a project manager, or you support project managers. And want this implementation of cost management to be considered as if you're doing just that.

So you need to identify what the scope of work is. Align what the software's capabilities are with what your goals are. And the good news is about the implementation of cost management that we found is that we didn't have to shape our company around the software. We've been able to shape the software around our company. And we've been able to lean in some of the functionality that the software has to optimize CPPI, to be a high performing, cost management, change management system.

And this is where mobilizing your team becomes extremely important as a part of your planning and strategy. And you also want to take this, is where you want to start onboarding and setting up your training sessions. Start now. Start in that vision stage, thinking about the implementation. You know, you're going to build excitement.

One of the things that we did at the beginning of this, because the three emotional states. What news to me. I sat down with our marketing department, we created a flyer it's going to be included in the handout, our example of the flyer. And it was something that we broadcasted company wide. And it was, full disclosure, you guys are going to have three emotional states. Here's what they are. And we went through the vision, the freak out, and the comfort zone.

We wanted to set the expectations and prepare the company for this implementation. Because some people think, it's just software, right? And again, I'm not doubling down on the complexity of the software, but don't minimize it either. Don't think it, don't oversimplify it. And we started engaging our stakeholders. We started engaging upper management. We started bringing project managers that were going to be utilizing this software in to get their buy-in, let them see the software work.

And we actually even talked to Autodesk and had Autodesk do cost management demos. We already bought the software, we had already started the implementation phase, but they needed to be able to see what we had seen that got us excited about it. Because we needed to replicate that excitement throughout the organization. So we had demos that was done throughout.

And one of the lessons learned, I think, that I could give to you guys, that I think is also vitally important is creating clear documentation. Look, if you don't have standard operating procedures, now is the time to start writing them. And you want to write them on budgets, and how do you get that budget and income set up. You want to be able to write it on change management. You know, owner change order, subcontract change orders, potential change orders. You know, how you communicate to your subcontractors. Pay applications.

Now is the time to start writing out those clear documentation requirements. And then once you have it configured, you'll go back in and you'll make iterations to it to continue to develop it along. Staci's going to talk here in just a second about developing champions, and what she's seen in some of the other organizations out there. But what we did is we took each region, and we identified someone that could be the ears that we wasn't to be able to hear the people at the grassroots level. So Staci, would you like to comment on the developing champions, how that's done and the importance you've seen that throughout your career?

STACI ELKHATIB: Absolutely, Brad. So when it comes to developing champions, I always am encouraging my customers to go ahead and do this. The thing that happens in construction is someone like a Brad can be telling his entire organization, hey, you guys need to be doing this. And I've been an individual contributor before, I know what it sounds like sometimes when someone who maybe is not out in the field with you at all times telling you to do something. You're not as engaged.

So if you're able to develop champions that are truly passionate about cost management and improving the lives of themselves as well as other people in their teams, they are able to evangelize for you. They are able to solve problems for you. They are able to provide guidance at a project level or an individual level for you.

Everybody in this room has a full time job that is probably not managing software, or not developing champions. That being said, you can't be everywhere at once. And so we want you guys to be able to put some trust in some people, whether that be at your different offices, whether that be in different departments, to ensure that they can help other individuals see the same thing that you guys are seeing at your level.

There's just one little story about a champion here. I've had some issues before when a company, maybe I didn't do the best job at helping my customers develop champions. And you know what? One person who was sort of in charge of everything decided it was a great time to retire. And let's just say it was a very difficult process for me later to try and re-implement and reprove the value that I had already gotten through to one person.

It's the same thing for you guys. So I don't want you to ever have to do that work all over again. If you're one champion leaves, definitely use it as an opportunity to develop many people. And when we're talking about vision stage, we never want you guys to feel like you're alone.

So throughout everything that Brad was saying, Autodesk or your Autodesk partner is here to help support your needs and initiatives. I like to tell my customers that it's my job to make sure that you understand what is available to you. What the options are, and guide you to help make the best decisions for your organization.

I know Autodesk. You all know construction, but I know Autodesk. And I know how to operate within Autodesk and pulling the necessary resources to make sure that you all are getting the most out of your investment. And one thing that a lot of my customers have not taken advantage of that we wanted to share with all of you all today is the solution adoption advisor. So when you are working on building out an implementation plan, sometimes it's really difficult.

So maybe you haven't done a major software implementation before, maybe you haven't implemented cost for eight years. And so you might need somewhere to start. That is the solution adoption advisor, this is in our appendix that we're providing to you guys. But this gives you a baseline and a starting point to give you some suggestions on how to effectively roll out something like Autodesk Construction Cloud, cost, many other tools available here at Autodesk.

There's templates, there's worksheets, there's videos, you can assess your team. And once again it gives you that great baseline to be able to develop your own personalized plan. So if you maybe don't have a customer success manager, I would say that this is going to be really key for you to work with. Maybe if you're not working with a partner, this will be great.

But then everybody who is working with a customer success manager or a consultant of some sort, a partner, I would still advise that you take a look at this. So we want you all to use the KISS method. Keep it simple stupid, and let Autodesk do the work for you and provide the resources for you to create your own personalized plan.

BRAD BUCKLES: Right, and that solution adoption advisor. Those links are provided in this slide, and will be provided as well. So definitely, I was taking a look at them. I wish I'd have had this back when we started implementing, but one of the things we did is we sure did call on Autodesk. And they really do deliver, guys. I mean, it's unbelievable the resources that they have. And when we needed more resources, that's who we reached out to, and they really did deliver on that. So everything Staci said and more.

We talked about the collaboration. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where thinking like you're building a project really truly means something. This is where project planning becomes vitally important. Dialing through, understanding what the expectations are for your organization, and building your plan around that. And then scheduling coordinating resources. Those resources, as Staci mentioned, need to be internally, but they also need to be externally as well.

That team that you formed or that you will form will be a part of those resources. They'll be a part of setting the training, setting the settings that you're going to have in the software, and building through that. Set your regular meeting cadence, just like you would if you were building a project. Whose ball in court is this responsibility. Who is going to be handling training for this particular office, or for this particular region.

And again, documentation, documentation, documentation. Communicating that company wide end goal. Staci can definitely provide some feedback when it comes to utilizing the Autodesk resources for this particular purpose.

STACI ELKHATIB: Yeah, absolutely. So if you ever are utilizing implementation services within Autodesk or through your partner, the biggest thing is we want to help you define what your end goal is. So we typically start from the end, and work our way back. I've heard from customers before that their leadership says that they need to be ready to go in three months. Well, we walk through, we start three months at the end, and then work our way back, and we quickly are able to realize that will not be enough time to truly meet their company goals. And so setting realistic goals is very, very important.

I will also mention that, and I hope this is nobody in this room, but I have seen many times with large implementations that the proper resources are not even provided. So there is just one person kind of left holding the bag, and that is never what you would do in your own construction project. You would never have your architect being your superintendent, and it's the same idea when it comes to a software implementation. Use the best minds that you have, and make sure that they are the experts in what they are doing.

Finally when it comes to collaboratively planning and strategizing, just make sure you're involving your Autodesk team. So we're here to help support, keep you on track, and be that extra eyes and ears when it comes to utilizing and enabling resources for you all.

So I gave you a little bit of a preview in this, but let the experts be the experts. So once again, I've never spent a day in the field. Sometimes people like Brad will say that they couldn't tell, but I stay in my lane when it comes to what I am best at. And what I'm best at is being able to communicate appropriately with Brad, follow up on the things that he needs and what his team needs, and ensuring that he is well aware of what Autodesk has to offer.

And I encourage all of you to identify those strengths within your own organization, to go ahead and solve the complex problems within your organization, like managing cost. So when it comes to solving complex problems, there is going to be training and onboarding. Whether that use LearnACC, or partner network, implementation consultants and paid training within Autodesk. Software nowadays is complicated, it is solving complicated problems, and there is usually some sort of rework needed to current processes within your organization. And so please do not try and do it alone. We are here to support and help guide you to a successful implementation and training.

I also want to point out that, as Brad mentioned here, IT accounting operations executives. Everybody plays a specific role and a vital role. This is not a one person or an IT only job, because it deals with software.

This does not just deal with software. This deals with your entire organization. This deals with operations. This deals with accounting, and cash flow is one of the most important markers of a successful construction company. And so especially when it comes to implementing cost management, I would highly encourage that you involve these stakeholders and give them the sort of, what's in it for them. So help define for them why they are doing this, why they are taking time out of their day job to help support this. And I guarantee you will be successful.

BRAD BUCKLES: You know, Staci, you had mentioned LearnACC. We require all new employees to become build certified. That when they come in the door, the very first day they're there, they're introduced to LearnACC. Now LearnACC is to be completely honest with you, it just builds a foundation. It doesn't get into your our company's processes, it doesn't give them a very deep dive. I'm not sure that it's intended to do that.

But what it does do is it lays that foundation, so that when they start utilizing the software, they've seen it, they've kind of understand how to navigate through it, and they understand some terminology behind it. And we've had great success with that. And then, of course, that's not all the training that we provide our folks, but it's certainly important.

And that starts in that vision stage. Believe it or not it really truly does. It starts at the beginning before it begins actually. So what else is there in the vision stage? A few more things, right?

We need a ramp strategy. We need to how are we going to board projects. Are we going to have a cut over date where all new projects start on a certain date within cost management? Are we going to-- I recommend don't do that overnight, right? You want to ramp up to that. You want to start one or two projects. Try to get a smaller project that can churn and burn that you can get through the entire cost management life cycle, if you will, for a lack of a better term, from getting your GMP and your budget imported into Autodesk build, to all the way to where you're handing that information off to the owner.

And you're also wanting to use this ramp period to design your custom documents. Listen, Autodesk has a very, very extensive variable library. Cost management has these variables that you can Insert into a Microsoft Word document. It doesn't require some fancy report writer. You just Insert these variables. Let's just say project name, right? There's a project dot name, and it's in little squiggly brackets, and if you copy that variable anywhere in the document, in Word document, it's going to populate when you generate that document.

So this is where you want to get your legal language converted over into Microsoft Word. You want to start inserting variables in there. We're able to generate documents without ever having to open up Microsoft Word, make any edits. It all pulls all of the information from build into the contract document or the change order, and then once we do that, we're able to send them for signatures. Once we do that, it the signature automatically files back into Autodesk build, executes the document, and integrates it to accounting.

So our process may not look like your process. But again, it gives you the flexibility. And you want to define that during that ramp phase. You want to say, how am I going to generate contracts? How am I going to generate change orders? How am I going to generate pay applications? And utilize that variable library to do that.

Now there is some technical requirements that you're going to have to understand some of tech speak in this. So this is where you want to engage IT or even engage Autodesk to help you get those variables set. Of course, there's some project managers out there that could probably pick it up and run with it, but I would highly encourage you to engage your more technical resources for that purpose.

But also within here is where you're going to define your budget segment. And this is where you're going to need accounting and project managers to come together to make an agreement upon what a budget code is going to look like. Even if you don't plan on an integration, which I can't imagine why you wouldn't, but if you don't plan on an integration, that's OK. But build this budget segment with an integration in mind, because who knows? Two to three years later, you may be ready to start integrating with your accounting system. You may be ready to start transferring change orders that are executed over to your accounting system.

So define these budget segments with an integration in mind. Already know what you would expect in a workflow when it comes to integration. And this is where, before you ever start implementing, this is why I say, do this in the vision stage before you ever even think about putting on a project, these are the things that need to be done. And let your creativity be a part of this. Get everybody involved in this.

I tell people during our meetings, they'll say, well, Brad, I don't know if it'll do that. So I'm just not going to say it. No, don't do that. You say it out loud, I'll tell you whether or not we can do it or not. Of course I've been working in cost management for quite some time, but you know your Autodesk resources could do the same thing.

I'll tell you, you tell me if you want it to make your coffee in the morning, I'll let you know what strength it's going to be, all right? But all jokes aside, let the creativity-- creative minds turn on, because that's where you're going to find these out-of-the-box ideas that you can really, truly challenge the software, challenge technology, challenge Autodesk to make the impossible possible. Because what we have started out doing, we didn't know if we were going to be able to accomplish it. We didn't know if we were going to actually be able to get to a point where we could touch data, literally one time, and then move on to the next task.

And that's exactly what we've been able to do, because we all got in a room and we said, well, what about this? This is where we're touching data twice. And so we just kept challenging the technology, kept leaning into the technology, until we was able to accomplish what we've done. And then we still are continuing to innovate. We're going to talk about that later, too.

So setting up a project for testing. Once you've got the idea of what your processes should look like, you've started documenting things. You've already had several meetings. You already know what everyone's expectations are. You've already started being creative. This is where the implementation team is now going to sit down and we're going to decide how things are going to be configured. What are our workflow is going to look like? Do we have some type of an approval system in place, or workflow in place that we need to utilize?

And if so, let's get the software to configure, again, around your expectations, not your expectations configuring around some default configuration within cost management. And I think I've said this probably too many times, but I'm going to continue to say it. This is where you want to engage Autodesk. This is where they can really help you reach those things that you don't think could be possible.

The answer-- the worst case scenario the answer is no. But you don't want to not ask, because the answer might be yes. And if you hold back, then that could be a detriment to your future, your journey, and what your goals are in trying to accomplish. And another thing that I'm going to repeat over and over and over, because it was a lessons learned for CPPI is we needed clear and concise standard operating procedures.

Flowcharts are great for visual learners. They're great for people that want to know how the dots get connected. Change management is not something you can just explain in 30 seconds or less, right? So you need a detailed standard operating procedures for change management. Something that everyone can go to, especially if your goal is like us. And that's create standardizations so that it's not the wild, wild west and everybody's doing cost management their own way, this is where those clear and concise standard operating procedures go.

If you have that in place, it's going to help you build an integration if you want to. Without that it's going to be chaotic, almost, when you try to go to build an integration if you don't have those standard operating procedures built. And secondly, when you get into the comfort zone, we're going to talk about this too. These clear and concise standard operating procedures become instrumental in building data analytics.

And if you have standardization across all of your projects and all of your regions, you're going to be able to create meaningful and actionable data analytics. Once you have that configuration set up, now it's time to start piloting. Once you've went through all of that vision stage, you're still in the vision stage here, but now you're going to start piloting on a couple of test projects. Now only you can answer the question is, how many that you're going to do, but I'm going to give you some guidelines here.

If it's possible select a project team that has a good grasp of technology. Don't get someone that's out there that struggles with Excel, that has challenges with email. Listen, we all have people with varying different degrees of technology. So you want to get one that really embraces innovation, and embraces change. And you want also to select a project with a short-- one of your shorter duration projects. Don't try to get one that's going to take forever for you to get through this pilot project. You want to be able to get one that's hopefully five, six months.

And if you have projects that are out there like that, or less, that you can get through pretty quickly, that you can get through the whole process, during that time, you're going to go in there and you're going to start revamping your standard operating procedures. What we thought would work didn't actually work. And we need to change those standard operating procedures. Utilize the template that you created, keep your champion involved. Keep them involved daily.

They need to be-- they are your ears. They need to be the person that's working with that project team, that's listening to that project team, and communicating back upstream to the broader committee. Now depending on your company size, this may be a smaller group, and that's OK. You can figure this out, I promise it's not that complex. But that champion involvement on a daily basis is so important.

And then you want no more than weekly review meetings. I know we get tired of meetings. I get tired of meetings. Staci gets tired of meetings. We all get tired of meetings. But when you involve this pilot program, if you put it out there, and then you just throw everybody to the wolves, so to speak, then they're going to drown. It's going to happen. It's too much for them to learn overnight, so you need to be-- they need to know they have your support through this so that you don't-- because you're going to hit a freak out stage even in your pilot program and you're going to understand that better. Staci, do you have anything you want to talk about on this?

STACI ELKHATIB: Yeah, for sure. The pilot project, I just want to echo what Brad was saying about the selection of who is going to be on this team. So I have seen some customers before struggle in the fact that they chose maybe their best project manager, but that project manager does not adopt software well, does not do well with change in the technology that they've already had, maybe wasn't as engaged in the beginning processes of understanding why this decision was made.

And so the right people will be the opportunity for everyone on your team to start off on the right foot. And a lot of times the people on your pilot are the ones who end up being your long term champions. With that, your long term champions, I encourage everybody to use this pilot team as an opportunity to make adjustments to the process that you had defined-- excuse me-- in your head. These are the people that are actually utilizing the processes that you guys have defined in the field. And they are starting to realize potentially things that they find a different way to make it better, or they've saved some time on a different process, where now change orders, they have more context on them when they're creating them.

And so I do encourage you all during this pilot process to be open to some additional change and suggestions. Always focusing, however on those key goals. So is this helping us reach our company goals related to cost management? If so, let's be open to some change.

BRAD BUCKLES: Most implementations fail, Staci, when the pilot program goes south. When they start doing a pilot, and they hit the freak out stage, and I'm going to talk about that in a little bit. It's so important. But when they hit that freak out stage, that's where the feedback comes back and everybody starts panicking. Right? And we're going to talk about how to mitigate that panic, and how to handle those things gracefully to get you through that pilot program.

Just remind people, guys, this is tried and true software. We're not sitting here beta testing something. We are the ones who need to understand this better. We are the ones who need to get our processes in alignment. Be careful with the pilot project. Don't let the noise change your course of direction. But listen at the same time.

STACI ELKHATIB: Yeah, absolutely. And if we haven't made it clear already, again, everybody in the construction industry, some of the best project managers I have ever met in my entire life. That being said, when it comes to software implementation, I feel like there's a lot of hands that get thrown up in the air, and we forget that you are all project managers. So even if you are not an expert in software, even if you have never done a software implementation before, or the last one you did went really terrible, I want you to remember, think about the keys to success when you're creating or building a project. Think about the basics of project management. You can incorporate that into your software implementation program and plan and you will be successful.