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From Supplier to Client: Harris Uses Avetta to Unify 300 Subcontractors Under One Compliance System
Industry
Contracting
Region
USA
Solutions
Subcontractor Management
About Harris
Headquarters: St. Paul, Minnesota
Industry: Mechanical Contracting
Region: United States
Services: Harris specializes in design and engineering, construction, building automation and security systems, service and maintenance, manufacturing, conveyors and end-to-end building systems with offices and job sites nationwide.
Challenges in Compliance Management
In 2011, Harris’ journey with Avetta started in the role of a supplier. Compliance at that stage was largely transactional, driven by client requirements to prequalify on projects. As Harris has grown over the last few years, it realized there were advantages presented by joining the Avetta network as a hiring client. The current state placed enormous pressure on two high-performing compliance professionals who were responsible for overseeing a vast network of subcontractors. With company regions having their own variations in operations, comprehensive oversight of subcontractor safety and insurance requirements was a time-consuming manual task, as was maintaining Harris’ reputation for timely processing of onboarding, handling contract terms and more.
Harris realized that by developing a centralized system it could streamline unifying acquisitions, mitigating risk and enhance existing procedures to ease strain on team members conducting the work.
The Avetta Experience
Harris evaluated multiple compliance platforms before selecting Avetta as its primary system for subcontractor management. The decision was influenced by the company’s positive history as a supplier in Avetta’s network, the ease of use for both clients and subcontractors and Avetta’s strong customer support.
The rollout began in phases, focusing first on higher risk construction subcontractors, with the smaller-scaled service and building automation subcontractors slated for the next stage. With Avetta’s intuitive platform, onboarding now takes just 30 minutes, saving valuable time for a lean subcontractor management team. In addition, safety tracking and documentation is more streamlined, with OSHA data and performance records easy to obtain and share across business units. This shift has not only improved efficiency but also reinforced Harris’ ability to act as a unified organization.
Benefits Experienced
Empowering small teams with great efficiency: Avetta’s platform helped Harris streamline insurance certificate management and cut subcontractor onboarding time to just 30 minutes. This allowed the two-person compliance team to focus their attention across all tasks needing their attention, boosting productivity and performance while alleviating stress.
Better visibility, better decision making: By consolidating subcontractor data, Harris gained insight into overlapping subcontractors across regions and discovered that four subcontractors in its network had recent fatalities. This information, previously unavailable, was escalated to leadership and addressed with best practices reviews and corrective action.
Best practices for a best-in-practice culture: Avetta reinforced Harris’s safety-first culture by enabling consistent vetting across all regions and supporting collaboration with subcontractors. For smaller partners without extensive resources, Harris has been able to share safety practices and manuals, helping elevate standards across its supply chain.
Conclusion
As both a supplier and client in the Avetta network, Harris has experienced the value of prequalification from both perspectives. The platform has become a strategic tool for unifying safety and compliance processes across its acquisitions, giving the company greater efficiency and enhanced risk visibility while supporting its core value of “Safety first, last, and always.” With phased expansion underway and API integration planned, Harris is positioned to scale its compliance management even further and continue to strengthen trust with subcontractors and clients alike.
“Avetta has helped us go from fragmented compliance to a unified view of our subcontractors. The time savings are significant, but even more important is the insight we now have into safety risks that we never could have seen before. That transparency is critical to living out our commitment to send every worker home safely each day.”
Shirley Malean
Operational Services Manager