MCP Group

MCP Group is an award-winning, second generation general contractor with a long and impressive history. Founded in Topeka Kansas in 1972 by brothers Mike and Bruce McPherson with a single goal to “build the future,” the company has grown to various construction entities that specialize in four primary markets: retail, k-12, multi-family / senior living, and higher education.

In 2018, Pat Tolin took the helm as CEO at MCP Group, where he serves as the company’s strategic leader, primarily managing business development. Pat not only completed a corporate restructure and rebrand of the company to what’s referred to as the MCP Group in 2018, but has also secured and established a group of repeat clients that have allowed for sustainable growth and stability for the company. MCP just celebrated the 50th anniversary of industry experience, which due in part to the values that remain the key focus to drive its success: honoring the client, pursuing greatness, and working with a purpose. 

Pat is most proud of MCP’s many long-standing repeat clients, which ensures that the company has locked in projects three years down the road. Pat attributes his success to always learning from his mistakes and doing the best job possible each and every day. 

THE CHALLENGE

With MCP growing and getting increasingly more complex projects, it was becoming more and more difficult for Pat and his team to complete projects on time and schedule delays were common. MCP’s biggest schedule issues were occurring on its multi-family projects. According to Pat, there was simply “no way to get these schedules completed on time.” In fact, he says that these projects were so complicated that “it would take a full-time job just to analyze 15-20 schedules.” 

His schedulers and staff were being way too optimistic and underestimating the complexity, so they were unable to set realistic task time estimates. “When you’re two months late on a project,” says Pat, “it’s a huge hit to the bottomline.” 

Pat needed a way to continue to grow his business without sacrificing schedule quality and deadlines.

Beyond how easy to use and valuable SmartPM is, Pat most appreciates that SmartPM continues to maintain an affordable price structure: “You get incredible value at this price point. Amazing ROI. We have saved up to $75,000 on a project that was completed six weeks early.” 

THE SMART SOLUTION

Enter SmartPM’s Schedule Optimization Platform. Pat heard about SmartPM’s analytics software from his network of industry professionals. After watching a demo of the analytics dashboard, he was impressed and then quickly subscribed. 

Pat learned that not only was SmartPM’s schedule analytics software intuitive and easy to use, but its customer support was exceptional. MCP received a dedicated customer account representative who met with Pat weekly, answering questions, guiding him, and “resolving any issues he encountered.” For Pat, his collaboration with SmartPM feels like a true partnership. 

Pat also quickly discovered how indispensable SmartPM’s Schedule Optimization Platform would become to his team. According to Pat, every Monday his leadership team is able to look at his SmartPM dashboard and discover at a glance each project schedule’s “quality,” compression and plan versus actual or overall performance: “SmartPM has changed our scheduling culture. We’re now very focused on the quality and accuracy of the current schedule and each PM schedule now has to be a Grade B or better.” 

Beyond how easy to use and valuable SmartPM is, Pat most appreciates that SmartPM continues to maintain an affordable price structure: “You get incredible value at this price point. Amazing ROI. We have saved up to $75,000 on a project that was completed six weeks early.” 

THE RESULTS

By partnering with SmartPM, MCP Group has been able to save up to $75K on certain projects by implementing SmartPM’s schedule analytics software and received 50x ROI on his investment. 

What’s more, MCP Group hasn’t missed a project completion deadline since it began implementing Smart PM analytics, and they are now frequently completing projects early: “Our goal is to be done on time. SmartPM helped us reach our goals. Instead of being 2 months behind schedule, now we’re 2 months ahead of schedule.”

Additional benefits Pat experienced include lowered stress levels across the board, especially at the PM level in his company, plus an overall reduction in disputes and claims: “It’s difficult to have disputes when tasks and projects are done on time or early.”

For Pat, one of the most unexpected benefits of using SmartPM was acceleration of the company’s digital transformation. In Pat’s view, construction companies are historically behind the curve when it comes to technology. But unlike other construction firms, MCP Group wants to stay ahead of the curve to keep their competitive advantage: “SmartPM allows us to stay ahead of technology and stay on the cutting edge.”

Overall, Pat wouldn’t hesitate to recommend SmartPM: “SmartPM saved us money, improved scheduling, and helped us keep clients happy.”

Up to 50x Return on Investment (ROI)