What it Means to Be a Partner—PC Construction Case Study

This article was written by Michael Boren, Beck Technology Chief Technology Officer.

A couple of years ago a team of estimators—Mike Steding, Todd Riordan, Alex Hango, and Benjamin Nye, and their CIO, Randy Lessor—decided to take the leap and adopt an innovative technology platform that would take the preconstruction team at PC Construction into the future.

The Challenge

After working through a solid selection process and choosing to go with our construction estimating software, DESTINI Estimator, the PC Construction team hit some unexpected issues. Getting deeper into the technology, it became clear they needed functionality that Estimator didn’t provide. During implementation, we didn’t realize they needed DESTINI Estimator to work a certain way, so PC Construction’s assumptions about the product didn’t meet the reality.

At the same time, the world turned upside down when COVID sent everyone home. Still needing to keep the business running, the team at PC pushed forward but hit additional serious problems. At the time, DESTINI Estimator worked only through a company intranet and not a distributed workforce. Going across a slow internet connection at home and having to go through a VPN to access their newly acquired platform was crippling some of the key members of the team, leaving them dead in the water.

Mike and Todd were in the middle of a massive technology shift, trying to lead a team during a pandemic, and the product they just purchased was not delivering at the level they needed. Like anyone in this position, they reached out to the vendor to ask about options so that they could build a plan to fix their problems.

The Solution

What happened next is unusual. Immediately, we connected them with the heads of every department at Beck Technology that could help them, including the head of the software development department, the head of the technical support team, the person who was leading the implementation and training, the account executive that built the relationship and ultimately sold them the product, me and the President, along with senior engineering team members. Getting PC Construction up and running successfully was one of the primary reasons why we created the “Disconnected Workflow” feature in DESTINI Estimator.

After understanding the problem, workarounds were immediately identified and coordinated through PC Construction’s IT department. Todd and Mike set up weekly meetings with us so we could talk about any unresolved issues that came up during the week and create a plan to address them.

The Results

We met every week for months. What started as fighting massive fires turned into fighting smaller fires, which turned into fire prevention, and over the weeks, the calls were something we all looked forward to because we had such a great relationship, and we had solved PC Construction’s major issues. Mike and Todd knew they could always trust the team at Beck Technology to be there and to do everything in their power to make them successful.

We could tell you a thousand stories about how we met with a client who loved our product and all they wanted was to talk about what was coming next. We could talk about how all those conversations create an exciting journey leading us to make new and better tools and get our partners problem-free. We have these conversations every day.

I’m telling this story because it’s when the times are tough that a true partner really matters. It’s easy to show up and give high fives but it matters most when things are not so rosy, and you are in need.

This is what it means to be a partner.