A design-build firm carrying 18 active projects, with a PM pool reading every inbound RFI by hand and routing by intuition. We rebuilt the RFI desk as a pipeline: LlamaParse and Azure AI Document Intelligence on the intake, Procore and Bluebeam as the systems of record, a triage queue the PMs now trust.
| RFI | Spec section | Sent to | Days open | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RFI-0418 | 08 11 13 | Architect · Olson Kundig | 2 | answered |
| RFI-0419 | 03 30 00 | Structural · Magnusson Klemencic | 4 | awaiting |
| RFI-0420 | 23 05 00 | MEP · Glumac | 1 | answered |
| RFI-0421 | 09 51 13 | Architect · Mithun | 3 | answered |
| RFI-0422 | 26 05 19 | MEP · Sparling | 6 | overdue |
| RFI-0423 | 05 12 00 | Structural · KPFF | 2 | answered |
| RFI-0424 | 07 84 00 | Architect · Olson Kundig | 5 |
| awaiting |
| RFI-0425 | 33 41 00 | Civil · KPFF | 1 | answered |
| RFI-0426 | 08 71 00 | Architect · Mithun | 2 | answered |
At a glance
One PM pool, 18 projects, the drawing index and spec register as the source of truth. Everything else was implementation detail.
The engagement
The stack
ISO 27001 · ISO 9001 · DPA and NDA signed at kickoff.
Before, the RFI desk
The desk worked. It worked the way desks work when every RFI lands in one shared inbox and the first PM to open it owns it. These were the three patterns we found in discovery.
Inbound RFIs hit a shared Procore queue. The first PM to read it decided whether to own it or pass it. On busy weeks, RFIs sat unread for three days while every PM assumed the next one had it. Trade partners followed up by phone.
Pre-build baseline: 20% of RFIs older than three business days at the start of a typical week.
Every RFI named a sheet reference (A-301, S-201, M-410). PMs resolved the reference against the current drawing set by eye, then decided which design discipline owned the answer. When a sheet had been superseded, the PM chased the revision log by hand.
Pre-build baseline: approximately 18% of RFIs referenced a superseded drawing, caught mid-review.
The PM decided whether the RFI belonged to the architect, the structural engineer, the MEP lead, or the owner. Most of the time the PM got it right; when not, the RFI cycled through two inboxes before the right person saw it. Median first-response time drifted.
Pre-build baseline: median RFI first-response 3.8 business days across the prior two quarters.
What we built
The pipeline follows the same five stages we run on every construction engagement. The details below are the ones we actually implemented for this design-build firm, not a generic template.
Procore RFI webhook on submit. Trade email polled on a 10-minute cadence. Owner portals polled nightly. All normalised to a single RFI ID per project, with originator, subject, and attached markups.
Architectural, structural, MEP, civil, owner, or coordination. Urgency tagged from the RFI subject line and due date. Below 0.90 confidence, the RFI holds for PM tagging.
Sheet references (A-301 format), spec section references (CSI-indexed), and any embedded sketches or redlines. LlamaParse primary, Azure AI Document Intelligence for embedded markups, LandingAI for sketch-heavy RFIs.
Sheet reference matched to the current Bluebeam index. Spec section matched to the project spec register. Superseded drawings flagged before the RFI lands on a PM.
Scored RFIs posted to the Procore RFI module with the discipline, assigned PM, and drawing reference attached. Exceptions routed to the design manager with the flag in plain English.
After, the numbers the desk signs off
Same PMs, same disciplines, same owners, same drawing index. The pipeline read every RFI on arrival and routed it to the right PM. What changed was the queue, not the team.
PMs still own the answer. They still sign off every RFI before it goes back to the trade. The difference is that on a clean day, the RFI lands in the right inbox with the drawing revision attached. On a bad day, the PM sees a flagged superseded sheet before she starts writing a response. The design operations team runs the pipeline today, with Hexaa on call for a fixed retention period.
Related cases
Each links to a named client, a named document, and the system the clean data lands in. We publish only what the client signed off to publish.
Submittal log reconciliation against the prime contract spec. 1,200 submittals per project, Procore as the system of record.
→Construction · 2025Regional contractor · COI tracking and renewalAcord 25 certificates read, matched to subs, renewed 45 days before lapse. Zero lapsed COIs since go-live.
→Logistics · 2025Global freight forwarder · port-side customs packetsBOL, CI, and customs entry reconciled inside the four-hour clearance window. 28,000 packets per month, CargoWise as the system of record.
→Free 30-minute call
You'll leave with a clear next step.
The RFI names a sheet reference, the drawing index carries the current revision, the spec register names the responsible discipline. The pipeline compares all three at the field level, routes to the correct PM, and flags superseded drawings before they reach a reviewer.
