How HBW Construction Leverages an Integrated Tech Stack to Showcase Projects and Win New Business

HBW Construction is a full commercial construction firm on a mission to deliver highly personalized service and to build trusted relationships. Their core mission is to use their expertise to deliver the best result for every client — to sweat every detail on every job —and exceed client expectations every single time.

Showcase Projects from Conception to Completion

From homes and highways to schools and skyscrapers, every building project is divided into six stages:

1. Conception and design, 
2. Permitting, 
3. Procurement, 
4. Pre-construction, 
5. Construction, and 
6. Post-construction. 

Each of these stages are, in turn, divided into smaller digestible units making it easier for firms to establish completion timelines. A misstep during any one of these stages is likely to result in costly delays that take days, even months to work around. 

The leadership team at HBW Construction avoids these issues by outfitting the firm with integrations between OpenAsset, Unanet, and Procore, which enables their project, marketing, and leadership teams to showcase and track projects from conception to completion. 

This case study explores how the HBW team uses an integrated technology stack to turn prospects into projects, and create the progress photos they need to manage construction, update leadership, and create stellar proposals, presentations and more. 

Challenge: How to Manage Prospects, Projects, Photos and Presentations 

Progress photos are key to the success of every construction project. Taken from phones, tablets and even drones, these project photos add up very quickly. Burdened with an overabundance of project photos, the marketing department at HBW Construction needed a better way to:

• Manage project photos,
• Update leadership,
• Create presentations,
• Respond to RFPs, and 
• Write content for their blog, website and social media. 

Challenge: Maximum Clutter, Minimal Access and Multiple Workflows

Like many AEC firms, HBW Construction uses Procore Construction Management Software to collect the job site photos they use to track project progress and showcase the progress of a project as it is being built.

Additionally, HBW Construction stores project details in their Unanet CRM.  They were looking for a way to bring in the data from their CRM and Images from Procore to streamline workflows and help win new business… Enter an integrated technology stack.

Solution: Integrate Unanet CRM and Procore to OpenAsset to Work Seamlessly 

Fortunately, HBW subscribes to both Unanet and OpenAsset, making them the perfect candidate for the OpenAsset-Unanet CRM integration. Built to enable seamless integration between these two systems, the OpenAsset-Unanet CRM integration gives HBW users the power to:

1. Leverage existing data in Unanet CRM to tag images at scale in OpenAsset;
2. Access Unanet CRM project and employee records from OpenAsset;
3. Push data from Unanet CRM into custom fields in OpenAsset;
4. Streamline workflows, and 
5. Create more efficient processes.

“The project starts in Unanet CRM and it’s literally just a click of a box in Unanet and then it appears in OpenAsset for us.”

Megan Alfonso, Digital Marketing Coordinator, HBW Construction.

Enabled with that type of cross-system functionality, your team can tell the story of each project as it progresses – a capability that is incredibly valuable in terms of project management, sales, marketing and branding.

Search, Store and Share from a Single Source of Truth 

Prior to their use of the OpenAsset, the marketing team at HBW had to contend with thousands of project photos, categorized into hundreds of folders scattered across multiple desktops and shared drives. 

“Knowing that we have the ability to search and find photos easier versus relying on memory is a gamechanger”

Kelly Jones, Marketing Manager, HBW Construction.

HBW would be forced to rely on memory – checking multiple storage locations for project photos taken days, weeks even months prior. Now with the help of the OpenAsset – Unanet CRM integration, users can automatically tag images with their customer marketing level data, making photos incredibly easy to store, find, and use.

Track Project Progress with Before-and-After Photos

From superintendents and project managers, to investors and potential clients, they all want to see before-and-after photos to make sure the project is on track, on time and proceeding as planned. 

Manage Proposal Creation, Presentation and RFP Process

Using their integrated technology between OpenAsset, Unanet, and Procore, HBW Construction has become the undisputed master of before-and-after photos, using them to not only track project progress, but also create valuable marketing collateral and bolster client presentations with stunning project photos. 

Facilitate Leadership and Stakeholder Updates

Using Procore, HBW superintendents in the field use their devices to upload photos into their Procore solution and the HBW marketing team can pull those images straight from Procore to OpenAsset, where they can be reviewed by leadership and stakeholders back in the office for applicable presentations. 

Develop High Quality Content for Marketing, Branding and Social Media 

The speed and ease with which project photos are transferred from Procore to OpenAsset enables real time direction of onsite photography teams, making it easier to capture the perfect photo every time, even when teams are separated by hundreds of miles. 

HBW can now sync  images from their Procore solution and descriptive project data from Unanet CRM directly into the respective project in OpenAsset, providing teams with a bird’s eye view of the project archive, and making it easier to cherry-pick the best, most aesthetically pleasing project photos for use in:

• sales collateral,
• branded media,
• proposals,
• advertisements,
• videos,
• marketing campaigns,
• commercials
• and more.

“With OpenAsset, the integrations to Unanet CRM by Cosential and Procore have worked seamlessly from the start. The client, HBW Construction, has noticed the great partnerships. ”

Kelly Jones – Marketing Manager

Create and Manage Architect Resumes and Portfolios

Critical to the success of any AEC firm is the ability of their team to express the skill, talent and experience of their team. Fortunately, the OpenAsset – Unanet CRM  enables firms like HBW to combine project photos with the appropriate resume, highlighting the powerful connection between the satisfaction of their clients and the incredible skill of their team.

Try OpenAsset  Today

Designed specifically for firms like HBW, OpenAsset makes it easier to share and manage the multitude of digital assets needed to create winning proposals and RFP responses. If you’re looking for a better way to find, share and utilize your project photos in Procore, then now is the time to try the OpenAsset Procore Connector. Contact us today to get started.

About HBW Construction

HBW works exclusively on commercial projects in the Washington region. It’s a market with high standards and sophisticated expectations, and an area that they know well. HBW’s clients typically work in specialized spaces that require a high attention to detail and rarely allow for downtime. These clients demand the same professionalism from their construction partner as they do their employees, and HBW’s expert staff is dedicated to providing that attention.

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