Best Practices
Planning
Because Correspondence is so flexible, it’s important to have a comprehensive plan upfront so you can make sure you are using it in an efficient way that best suits your teams’ needs.
Things to Consider
Survey internal stakeholders. You can create multiple Correspondence Types - make sure you’ve gotten the teams’ input on which are most critical or beneficial for their projects.
Identify good-fit processes. For a given process, if you answer “yes” to the below questions, then Correspondence is likely a good fit.
Is this process based on sharing information and communicating with other stakeholders? Do you need stakeholders to be accountable for receiving or responding to this information?
Is this process currently being handled via email, or even phone/text?
Would it benefit your business to formalize and centralize the communication around this process?
Is there a risk of lost time or money if this process is not tracked or recorded properly?
Do you have existing templates you use for this process?
Are you currently completing this process outside of Procore or within one of Procore’s custom tools?
Is there a need to tie this process to RFIs and Change Events for complete tracking and follow through?
Would this process benefit from being linked to a drawing markup?
Assess the big picture. Map out your plan for Correspondence Types and their associated data, to ensure you are using Correspondence efficiently, without redundancy, and in a way that will make sense for your teams and processes.
Rollout
Successful rollout and adoption require the teams to get on board and start using the new functionality. That means people need to be aware of the functionality, its expectations for use, and where to go for help and feedback!
Things to Consider
Socialize. Make sure the project teams are aware of the Correspondence Types that you’ve set up and clarify expectations for using Correspondence. Make broad announcements and provide opportunities for Q&A (ideally, more than once). Update company procedure manuals accordingly.
Train. If your teams need training on Correspondence, direct them to the Procore support site or in-app Help icon, webinars page, or work with your Procore point of contact to request custom training.
Collect feedback. Keep an open line of communication with the project teams so you can get direct input on what’s working well, or where you may want to make adjustments.
Use reports and dashboards. Monitor the numbers and statuses of Correspondences across projects, so you can identify areas to improve adoption, clarify expectations, or make changes to your templates.