Construction and property have long been relationship-driven sectors – one of their defining strengths. But as projects grow in scale and complexity, the systems supporting them have not kept pace.
For Procuracon founder Cuong Ly and co-founder Andrew McColgan, that disconnect sits at the heart of what they describe as the industry’s “procurement gap” – a mismatch between the demands of modern projects and businesses and the outdated processes still used to manage them.
Mr Ly said, historically, procurement decisions were often made without the infrastructure to support them. “The industry has been built on trust. But trust and relationships can only go so far. You need infrastructure to support why those relationships matter,” he said.
“We’ve seen it from all angles,” Mr McColgan said. “We’ve also been part of the problem because we followed the legacy processes we were taught.”
A fragmented system
Construction and property businesses in Western Australia have, in many respects, never been more sophisticated. Project portfolios are larger, client expectations are higher, and the reputational stakes of getting things wrong have never been greater.
Yet the systems most businesses rely on to manage procurement – one of the earliest and most consequential decisions on any project – have not kept pace.
Procuracon estimates suggest as much as 66 per cent of processes are still manual, while 94 per cent of firms lack full supply chain visibility.
Information is often scattered across emails, spreadsheets and disconnected templates, with little standardisation between teams or projects.
“From a client perspective, procurement is often inconsistent and reactive,” Mr McColgan said. “They start from scratch each time instead of drawing on pre-qualified suppliers.”
On the supplier side, businesses may be managing dozens of tenders simultaneously, each with different requirements and formats. “It becomes a massive administrative burden,” he said. “A lot of time and money is spent trying to secure project opportunities.”
The hidden cost of missing data
Beyond inefficiency, the more significant issue is the lack of structured, reusable data.
Procurement decisions often commit a substantial portion of a project’s budget within the first few months, yet many organisations have no system for capturing how or why those decisions were made.
According to Mr Ly, the core issue is disconnection. “Procurement runs through a journey, and the gaps across that journey can be overwhelming – especially when you’re managing multiple projects,” he said.
“Procurement is the most important decision in setting a project up for success,” Mr McColgan said. “You’re committing a large portion of the budget early on, so getting that right is key.”
Without centralised records, institutional knowledge is easily lost when staff move on or projects change hands.
“If you don’t have a record or structure of how procurement decisions were made, there’s no transparency,” Mr Ly said.
Mr McColgan noted teams often resort to searching archived emails to find basic supplier information. “Without that audit trail or centralised supplier information, critical knowledge just gets lost,” he said.
Trust alone is no longer enough
Relationships and trust remain fundamental in construction – particularly in markets like Western Australia. But relying on them alone is no longer sufficient as projects scale and risk increases.
“Trust is the key word in the industry,” Mr McColgan said. “But that trust should be supported by data.”
Clients are also under increasing pressure to justify their decisions. “Clients need defensible records for their decisions. It can’t just be, ‘we’ve always used this contractor’,” he said.
Mr Ly said relationships without structure expose businesses to unnecessary risk. “Trust and relationships can only go so far. You need infrastructure to support why those relationships matter,” he said.
Closing the procurement gap
Procuracon was developed to address this gap by introducing structure, consistency and data into the procurement process.
The platform connects clients and suppliers within a single ecosystem, enabling both sides to operate more efficiently without overhauling existing workflows.
Suppliers can centralise business information – including case studies, team credentials, corporate risk profiles – and reuse it across tender responses. It's this Infrastructure that allows a business to scale without losing control.
As businesses grow, their risk profile increases – but the last thing to catch up is their systems and processes,” Mr McColgan said. “It’s about moving procurement away from an administrative function and towards a strategic one. As businesses grow, procurement often stays the same – but it needs to evolve.”
For the organisations that have made this shift – businesses like Proven Project Management, NVS Alliance, and others operating across WA’s property and construction market – the returns are not theoretical. They are measured in time recovered, decisions better made, and clients better served.
A competitive advantage
As construction faces pressure from cost escalation, labour shortages and productivity challenges, procurement capability is becoming a key differentiator.
McKinsey research across construction companies globally found that businesses which lead on procurement practice achieve five to ten percentage points higher profit margins than those that do not. On a $50 million project portfolio, a one per cent improvement in procurement outcomes represents $500,000 in additional margin. The commercial case is not ambiguous.
Yet across WA’s property and construction sector, many businesses are scaling their portfolios, their client commitments and their reputational exposure, while the procurement infrastructure underneath those businesses quietly remains where it was five years ago.
For Ly and McColgan, the businesses that invest in structured, data-driven procurement will be better positioned to manage complexity, reduce risk and improve outcomes.
“Consistency in procurement is key, but it’s really about making quality decisions that support the project,” Mr Ly said.
Those that fail to evolve risk cost overruns, delays and missed opportunities.
The businesses that close this gap – that build procurement infrastructure genuinely matched to the quality of the work they deliver, are the ones that will be better positioned to win more work, retain better clients, and scale without losing control.
“If they don’t respond to that shift, it poses huge problems for the business,” he said.
Procurement is no longer just an early-stage task. It is becoming core infrastructure – underpinning performance, risk management and long-term competitiveness in an industry that can no longer afford to rely on legacy processes alone.
Which raises the question worth asking – not just of your procurement team, but of your organisation as a whole: is the procurement infrastructure you have today actually matched to the quality of business you’ve built?
