Planera, the leader in visual CPM-based construction scheduling, announced today that Big-D Construction Corp. has adopted Planera as its visual scheduling solution of choice.

Big-D specializes in construction management and design-build services for various sectors, including multi-family residential, commercial, industrial, and mission-critical projects. With multiple offices across the western U.S., including Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, Minnesota and Texas, Big-D generates more than $2.9B in annual revenue. Currently ranked #46 in the ENR 400, the company has been a member of this elite group of top contractors for over 35 years. 

Big-D consistently evaluates and adopts new technologies to help it run its business more effectively. The company had long considered scheduling an area ripe for improvement, but it had seen little recent innovation in scheduling tools. In 2024, the Big-D team found Planera.

“For years, we viewed scheduling to be in sore need of innovation,” said Troy S. Thompson, COO of Big-D Construction Corp. “The technology seemed stuck in the ‘90s. By making scheduling visual and collaborative, Planera has changed the game. They’ve made scheduling significantly easier without sacrificing powerful capabilities. Now, a broad array of project team participants can participate in schedule development. By democratizing scheduling this way, Planera has helped us make our schedules more accurate and more efficient.”

Big-D sees Planera not just as a scheduling tool, but as a critical component of its cultural shift towards data-driven decision-making and real-time coordination. By integrating scheduling into real-time workflows, Big-D aims to eliminate costly delays and significantly reduce overspending on General Conditions—an area where inefficiencies were costing the company in excess of $5M annually. “Planera can help us knock that number down,” Thompson added. “If we get our teams to where we want them, we could recover half or even three-quarters of that amount.”

Since it first adopted Planera, Big-D has put the scheduling solution to work on various projects in its portfolio, such as Tecoma Square and Settler’s Ridge. The company is currently using Planera on over 30 different projects and forecasts an ROI of more than $1.5M in its first year using Planera. Across its portfolio of 18 companies, the Big-D branded offices (11 total) account for an average of 250 projects per year, so the growth potential for Planera within the Big-D ecosystem is significant.

“In partnering with Big-D, we’ve teamed up with the top contractor in the Intermountain region,” said Nitin Bhandari, CEO of Planera. “From data centers to hospitals, Big-D is building major projects throughout the West, and we’re proud to be working with them as they rethink how construction scheduling gets done.”

Planera’s visual scheduling solution is designed to tackle the challenges of modern construction planning, offering teams a more intuitive and collaborative way to handle schedules, timelines, and project complexity. With its powerful interface and data-driven insights, Planera enables construction teams to plan and adapt with greater agility, reducing project delays and boosting overall efficiency.