DesCor Builders offers preconstruction, general contracting, and construction-management services in California. As a general contractor, the company must keep track of everything that happens at job sites and communicate important information to workers in a timely manner. These mundane logistics are vital but tedious, so when the company came across Nyfty.ai, the opportunity to automate these tasks with bots seemed like a logical choice.
Efficiency through Automation
Especially for large projects with many workers, maintaining the daily manpower log was extremely time-consuming for DesCor. About an hour every day was spent just on tracking all the details. This was a problem that DesCor did not even recognize as a problem. It was just what needed to be done.
“In gathering manpower entries for our daily log, we could easily spend up to an hour requesting, obtaining, and inputting that data”, said Jason Stidham, project superintendent for DesCor.
A team member suggested Nyfty to Stidham, and it immediately appealed to him. Unlike other solutions, Nyfty required no separate mobile app, no new passwords, and no extra hardware.
The simplicity of the automation was compelling, and Stidham quickly became convinced of the benefits during the free trial. “We’re saving around an hour a day,” he said, “not having to chase foremen or input the data manually.” DesCor subscribed as soon as Nyfty’s free trial ended. “Now that Nyfty has automated that process, we have shaved off about 90% of that time.” With Nyfty’s bots, DesCor cut that daily hour down to ten minutes.
Communicating important messages to all workers on a job was also difficult. Safety hazards, emergencies, and other vital information needed to reach large numbers of workers very quickly. But after switching to Nyfty’s Broadcast Bot, DesCor could easily send out mass texts to everyone on site.
“We didn’t even know that there was a product out there like this,” Stidham said. “Once we discovered it, there was no reason to look anywhere else. It does far more than we could have imagined, and it is saving us an immense amount of time and effort. The tool functions flawlessly, and Nyfty is always improving itself and adding new bots to their line up.”
App-Free Simplicity
Nyfty has been a hit with subcontractors too. “The subs have responded fantastically,” Stidham said. “Some can't believe it's not a human at the other end of the text message. One foreman told me about a time he was driving to the airport and got an SMS from Nyfty asking for [the] manpower [log]. He thought it was a human and replied saying he was busy driving. Nyfty understood and told him, ‘No problem! You still have thirty minutes to respond!’”
Descor was so impressed with the results that it approved Nyfty.ai for all projects across the company. “We really have seen a lot of buy-in from our trade partners,” Stidham said. “Now that their daily data entry for the manpower log is done through text, they are also seeing greater efficiency and a huge time savings. What used to get typed up or filled out by hand and emailed to us now is just a text message away from being completed and sent straight to our daily log inside of Procore.”
Integration with Procore
Nyfty’s integration with Procore is also a significant benefit to DesCor. “With the Procore integration, now I don’t have to open a separate app or web browser to access Nyfty,” Stidham said.
“From my Procore project dashboard I can simply access Nyfty from a drop-down menu and make any modifications or changes to my Nyfty settings.”
DesCor is very optimistic about future developments with Nyfty and new ways of streamlining workflows. “We absolutely love the Nyfty team,” Stidham said. “[CEO] Matt [Edwards] is super down to earth and really supports us as the customer. He encourages our feedback and is willing to make changes in order to keep on improving the tool wherever possible. We really are excited to continue to work with the Nyfty team and be a part of their future success.”