CaseCo Streamlines Pre-Construction Scheduling and Scales Operations with Planera

With approximately 60 employees and an annual revenue between $40 million and $50 million, the company operates three distinct divisions: Commercial and Federal, Residential Homes, and Restoration. The Commercial division is currently executing an aggressive growth strategy, scaling from projects under $500,000 to pursuing large "anchor projects" in the $15 million to $25 million range, with the goal of reaching $50 million in annual commercial business within three years.

‍

CHALLENGE

‍Complex Scheduling with Traditional Tools

‍

To support its rapid growth, CaseCo needed to overhaul its pre-construction and scheduling processes, which were hindered by outdated tools. When the company evaluated its legacy software, it was challenged by several significant barriers:

• Archaic Platforms: The team previously relied on Microsoft Project and Excel Gantt charts, which resulted in "hit and miss" scheduling.
• Steep Learning Curve: Primavera P6 was ruled out due to its high expense and a technical learning curve that was too steep for a smaller general contractor.
• A Changing Workforce: CaseCo found that younger construction management professionals are often no longer trained in classic scheduling principles like the Critical Path Method (CPM) or forward/backward passes, making intuitive software critical.
• Software Sunsetting: The impending retirement of Microsoft Project Online meant CaseCo needed a modern, schedule-centric alternative quickly to avoid a market scramble.

‍

SOLUTION

Embracing Planera in Pre-Construction

‍

CaseCo went "all in" on Planera, completely migrating off Microsoft Project for their planning purposes. The company embedded Planera directly into its pre-construction workflow, mandating that estimators create a "proposal schedule" in Planera before completing any estimate.

‍

Key Benefits of Planera

• Standardized Templating: CaseCo uses Planera's import function to create templates with consistent Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) for every job, ensuring all team members start with a reliable baseline and standard library of construction activities.
• Confidence in Estimates: By building proposal schedules in Planera, estimators can accurately establish project durations, which forms a reliable basis for calculating general conditions and organizing owner-requested phases.
• Intuitive for Younger Professionals: Planera embeds core scheduling fundamentals into a highly user-friendly, whiteboard-style interface, making it a perfect fit for a generation accustomed to modern apps.
• Field Alignment: Even before full field adoption of the software, field staff can effectively manage their three-week look-aheads by mirroring the key milestones established in the Planera master schedule.

RESULTS

Greater Efficiency and Team Alignment

‍

By integrating Planera, CaseCo achieved a more robust pre-construction process and gained the confidence needed to aggressively scale its commercial operations.

• Standardized Pre-Construction: The pre-construction workflow now requires an established schedule baseline using standard WBS libraries, helping estimators quickly read the schedule and detect missed items early.
• Increased Bidding Accuracy: Planera's simplicity and effectiveness have rapidly increased the team's scheduling abilities and project understanding during the bidding phase.
• Future-Proofed Operations: CaseCo successfully transitioned off Microsoft Project ahead of its retirement, moving to a true CPM scheduling platform that can handle complex logic like stagger starts.

‍

Conclusion

‍

Planera’s intuitive interface and embedded CPM capabilities provided CaseCo with the standardized scheduling foundation required to confidently scale its commercial division. By making the scheduling process approachable for all experience levels, CaseCo is well-positioned to manage multi-million-dollar anchor projects and achieve its aggressive three-year growth targets.