Scaling Growth with Streamlined Compliance

ConstructConnect is a leading software provider of construction project information, data analytics, takeoff and estimating tools, and market-level intelligence to the commercial construction industry in the preconstruction phase. ConstructConnect replaced its existing denied party screening solution with Descartes Visual Compliance to simplify its sanctioned party due diligence process in line with best practices, while mitigating compliance risk across its extensive user network. 

ConstructConnect sought to align its trade compliance program with its parent company requirements. With 1.4 million active projects across 400+ metropolitan areas and the largest network in the industry, ConstructConnect needed a denied party screening solution that could manage the volume and complexity of its due diligence requirements. After being bogged down by a previous solution with a complicated user interface and challenging execution, the company was seeking a user-friendly, robust solution to ensure compliance.

“Descartes Visual Compliance has helped us go deeper in our due diligence. As the adjudicator, I’m focused not only on our customers but also on the increasing volume of third parties within our rapidly expanding network. Descartes’ elegant compliance manager workflow provides a frictionless way of screening massive volumes of transactions to quickly assess risk exposure and meet compliance obligations with ease, efficiency, and unmatched reliability.” 

- Dave Storer, CPA, Controller and VP
ConstructConnect

Construction Starts Here™ at ConstructConnect, where the mission is to help the construction industry start every project on a solid foundation. A leading provider of software solutions for the construction industry, ConstructConnect empowers commercial firms, building product manufacturers, trade contractors, and architects to make data-driven decisions, streamline preconstruction workflows, and maximize their productivity. 

ConstructConnect provides construction industry professionals—general contractors, subcontractors, building product manufacturers, designers, architects, project owners—with preconstruction data to help them fuel greater success for their business. To mitigate trade compliance risk within this extensive customer and agent network, ConstructConnect implemented Descartes Visual Compliance.  

The Descartes denied party screening solution streamlines and expedites compliance workflows, enabling ConstructConnect to bulk verify—regardless of the number of records or lists screened against—and avoid dealing with unauthorized parties and facing fines, penalties, or damage to its reputation. 

“Given the breadth of our user network and industry data, we need to fully understand who we’re allowing access to government and commercial content (e.g., building plans, specifications, bid information),” said Dave Storer, CPA, Controller and VP at ConstructConnect. “We need to protect the integrity (and thus the value) of our content against potential bad actors. This protection extends to safeguarding information, our most valuable asset, and helping us foster a positive network.” 

Descartes Visual Compliance enables ConstructConnect to manage increasing volumes of adjudications. “By simultaneously batch screening new customers, vendors, contractors, and other third parties in a bulk submission, we can effortlessly identify compliance issues,” noted Storer.  

“The solution is the best of both worlds: we can scale screening to handle escalating record volumes but can also hone in on individual parties,” said Storer. “In multiple instances, what may have started as a denied party question about a customer or vendor led to further conversations that helped us make more effective business decisions across the organization.” 

He added, “We really value the collaborative partnership we have with Descartes. The Visual Compliance team wants us to be successful and have backed up that sentiment time and again with their responsiveness and willingness to help; it’s night and day from working with previous vendors.”  

With comprehensive and frequently updated watch list content, the Descartes solution batch screens tens of thousands of users across ConstructConnect’s rapidly growing network, reducing trade risk exposure and minimizing potential penalties, fines, and reputational damage.

Descartes Visual Compliance prompts ConstructConnect to ask more meaningful questions about its user network, empowering the company with insights that drive high-quality business conversations and, ultimately, mitigate risk exposure.

With an intuitive user interface and results that are easy to understand and act on, plus a built-in audit trail, Descartes Visual Compliance simplifies and streamlines compliance management workflowto accelerate the sales cycle. 

Working collaboratively with Descartes to tailor compliance workflows that meet its needs, ConstructConnect’s small compliance team can confidently support the continuing expansion of its customer and third-party network.