How to best prepare for Briq's implementation process

Implementing new technology is a big deal for any company. It means taking time to learn new skills, new processes, and onboard your employees. With Briq, it’s a 90-day process to get your business up and running on the platform. Like any technology, it’s not just a monetary investment, but a time investment too, and often it’s time that we feel there’s not much of to go around. 

We wanted to give you an idea of what to expect from our implementation process and how to prepare in the lead-up; so you and your teams get the most out of Briq from day one. That said, if you’ve talked to Briq, recognized the pain points you want to be solved, and our solutions team has said, “yes, Briq can help,” let’s dig into what comes next.

Think big picture

Briq clients who have had the most success with our platform have built a full business process with us. You may initially talk to us about specific pain points like your dashboards causing you a headache or wanting to replicate your WIP in the cloud with Briq—and these are things we can help you with—but they are just pieces of a bigger picture. What we want to know is: why are these your pain points? What’s the deeper issue causing them?

To find the cause, our implementation team will dig down into your processes and learn how your business information is shared and moved between people and departments. Then, we’ll discuss how this can be improved moving forward with Briq. We want to know what your ideal process is.

Essentially, whatever it is you think Briq needs to fix for you right now: think bigger.

Rather than just providing a clean dashboard or the perfect WIP, we’ll make sure you have your business data connected and centralized in Briq. This will make your business processes run smoother, and ultimately you’ll find Briq more valuable.

Crawl. Walk. Run.

Getting to that point takes a lot of work, but we’re fit for the challenge. We will work with you to make sure every system you use is connected and every process is set up correctly. That way, when you’re ready to run with Briq, you’ll never have to stop. 

Each bite-size process completed is a part of the puzzle, with everything being put in place to create that bigger picture.

Know where your information is

First things first. We need to understand where the data comes from and how it’s ending up in your reports. We’ll help you think through the workflows that need to be created to capture the right data from its source and bring it to the right people, in the right place, at the right time.

Briq is for more than the finance team

Briq needs to be successful widely throughout the company, not just for one person. This isn’t software for one department, it’s a platform to encourage knowledge sharing and improve collaboration. Briq gives your teams insight into data they would normally only receive in reports and when implemented, it will be used widely by the whole company, including:

• Controllers
• Project managers
• AP clerks
• Business development
• Division managers
• Operations

Identify the people involved

In the early days of implementation, it’s important to think about who will be affected by Briq, who will need to use it. You don’t need to involve everyone right then during the initial implementation process, but you do need to know which teams and people will be using the platform—your PMs, your finance team, operations—so you can set up Briq right for your business. 

As we work through implementation, we’ll let you know when to bring in people and departments to introduce them to Briq and this new integrated way of working. 

Build hype for new technology

A lot of the time, PMs or people in operations don’t think that financial technology is in their domain. They are excited about technology like wearables or drones but don’t think of finance technology as being impactful for their job. This is because they don’t often get in the weeds of financial operations. We find that Briq is a great way for tech-savvy PMs to get more involved in the financial management of the business. 

For example, if you’re implementing a project forecasting to WIP workflow in Briq, we recommend that you start with two or three PMs who have a passion for new technology and process improvements. We find that the people in construction who have a passion for such things are the ones to bring in first to build a positive atmosphere when introducing Briq.

Briq is a great bridge between finance and operations as you can introduce the financial operations of the business to your project and division managers. Remember, the successful rollout of Briq in your business will depend on your teams embracing these process improvements. By bringing in employees at the right time, we can show them the value it brings to their role. Now, you have people across your business willing to get employees with a more ‘old school’ mindset on board.

How we define the way Briq works for you

When we start the implementation, we look at your “as-is” business process to know how things are working, and in the first 30 days of implementation, we create your “to be” business process. We make sure Briq will work exactly how you need it to work.

Briq is a blank slate: personalized to perform the way you need it to. To understand what you need, our solutions team works with you first to learn about your business and see where Briq fits in. Our solutions team are construction industry veterans who understand construction business processes, construction finance, and the technical capabilities of Briq. They will say: “Here’s your process today, here’s how you can do it in Briq”.

Essentially, if we take the example of your project forecasting to WIP workflow again, that process may have 35 steps. With Briq, we’ll take that process and come back with a new one for you that has only eight steps. The way we do that is, we automate manual, repetitive tasks with bots that can do that work for you, and we eliminate steps that you no longer have to do thanks to the collaborative nature of the Briq platform. 

Be prepared for process change

The most important thing you must prepare for during the implementation process is change. See Briq as your friendly challenger—you’ll have the ways things have always been done and we’re going to suggest you shake things up. Because with Briq, you can! 

Be ready to go from your “as-is” to “to be” and change up how your business runs. We’ve seen more personalized business processes automated than we can count and we know what works. Let's work together and innovate your business processes to be the best.

As mentioned previously, through our platform, you’ll be automating processes that previously took weeks of manual labor. Now, your people can focus on bigger and better things like strategy or new business avenues. But that means the way you work will have to change, so be open to new ideas and ways of doing things, and prepare for a spike in productivity!

When we work with you, our goal is to update your processes to make your business run better, but sometimes it’s hard to accept change — or believe technology can help. At Briq, we only work with the construction industry because we know its unique pain points and that we can help eliminate them. 

If you want to see if Briq could be a good fit for your business, set up a demo.