Probuild
We help Probuild manage their multi-billion dollar pipeline with a custom-developed Gantt Chart and Dashboards within Salesforce CRM
Expertise
Platform
The Client
Probuild is one of Australia’s largest and most successful construction companies, with an annual turnover of more than $2 billion and work in hand at around $5 billion. They provide an end-to-end service, encompassing all facets of project delivery, construction planning and management.
Probuild is a national leader in large residential and retail projects, with thousands of apartments currently under construction and more than 100,000 square metres of retail work underway.
They have delivered some of Australia’s largest construction projects including the $500 million development The Towers at Elizabeth Quay in Perth, Stage 2 and 3 at Promenade Parramatta in Sydney’s west, Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne and the upgraded Jupiters’ New Six-Star All Suite Tower on the Gold Coast.
The Brief
Although they were an existing Salesforce client, Probuild was still managing its opportunity pipeline and tenders using Microsoft Excel, and printing out those spreadsheets for the board meetings.
Like a lot of businesses we meet with, they were sharing spreadsheets around the office, without the "single source of truth" that Salesforce provides.
They therefore came to us with the following requirements:
- Build an interactive Gantt Chart that would help them manage their multi-billion dollar pipeline of projects
- Design a Dashboard and related Reports that would give them a clearer picture of their business in terms of financials
Our Approach
We first met with the client to fully understand their requirements. As they were an existing Salesforce client, it was very important that we invested time in a "Discovery" phase so we could investigate how their data model was organised within the CRM.
The Dashboards and Reports component of the project was an area we had a lot of experience with - our certified Salesforce Consultants work with them on a weekly basis.
But the interactive Gantt Chart was a feature that required deeper investigation. We researched some existing Salesforce apps but Probuild's requirements were quite specific to their existing setup. We therefore decided to use a third party Javascript library and custom develop a solution. After an initial "R&D" phase, we were confident we could deliver on their expectations and produced a detailed Statement of Work.
“Mark and his team impressed us from the first time we met with them. They clearly understood our requirements and they delivered on their promises... Their work with us has been exemplary.”
Marc Tessari | New Business Analyst, Probuild Construction
The Solution
As we do with all of our Salesforce projects, we worked in an Agile Methodology. We created a core team, comprising of both Salesforce Consultants and Developers, and worked on 2-week Sprints to get releases out to the client as soon as possible.
Every 2 weeks we would meet with the client, get feedback, and then reiterate and improve. After 6 weeks, we completed the project within the estimated timeframe and within budget.
Probuild is now using both the Dashboard and Gantt chart to manage their new and existing projects, and to get a clearer picture of how their business is performing. By using Salesforce and these features, they can also keep track of tenders much more easily and there is no more having to print out spreadsheets for their board meetings.
60 Second Overview Video
Key Feature : Interactive Gantt Chart
We custom developed an interactive Gantt Chart using data from the standard Salesforce object Opportunity, which they use to track their Projects.
The Opportunity record holds key information such as:
- The State, Sector and Value of a project
- The Tender and Construction dates
The client has the ability to update an Opportunity directly from the Gantt Chart.
A tender or construction period can simply be dragged to change the respective dates.
An a project can be clicked on to update fields such as the Action or Value.
A Highlights panel was created to show roll-up summaries such as Total Opportunities, Active Tenders etc.
Filters are also available so the client can choose to show certain Projects show e.g Filter by State or Sector.
As the client has offices in multiples States, the Gantt Chart can be configured to automatically filter to the logged in user's State.
And there is an ability to export the Gantt to PDF so it can be printed out if required.
Key Feature: Forecasting with Salesforce Dashboards
In addition to the Gantt Chart, we also designed a number of key Reports and collated them into a Dashboard for their Home tab.
Some of the key metrics their dashboard shows are:
- Budget, Target and Stretch Amounts
- Active Bids By Sector
- Pipeline v Secured Amount
- Number of Bids Won, Lost and Withdrawn
* Due to client confidentiality, we unfortunately can't show you their awesome dashboard.
