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We all know that moving dirt takes time, talent, and tenacity. Moving numbers to successfully bid grading and excavating jobs takes all of that and more. By Colleen Madonna Flood Williams |
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It's no wonder today's up-and-coming construction companies are putting away their pencils and paper when it comes to bidding jobs and replacing them with computer keyboards and software programs designed to meet their unique needs. BID2WIN and Hard Dollar BID*BUILD are two examples of the software available and specifically geared toward heavy-construction-company estimators. Each program allows estimators to punch in their numbers while retaining creative control of a job's bidding and estimating process. While many companies still rely on manual estimating, those using such software programs as BID2WIN and Hard Dollar BID*BUILD are finding that the inherent edge they obtain due to the speed, accuracy, and flexibility of computer-based estimating helps them win more bids and finish more jobs on time and on budget. Griffith Company Makes
the Grade With BID2WIN Over the years, the Griffith Company has grown from its original single office in Los Angeles to a network of offices throughout southern California. As its offices expanded, so did the company's ability to provide a variety of contracting services. Fairchild-Gilmore-Wilton began as an engineering contractor focusing primarily on paving, grading, underground work, site development, and concrete work. As it grew into the ever-evolving Griffith Company, its project list expanded to cover a greater range of engineering projects. To date, Griffith Company's projects have included buildings, bridges, dams, railroads, flood control structures, national security, and airports. To ensure the successful completion of such a variety of projects, Griffith Company takes advantage of a number of specialty crews. A growing number of recent projects have honed the highly specialized skills of many—and often all—of its crews, including these:
Combining perceptive project management, prosperous partnering, and the wide assortment of skills provided by its specialty crews, Griffith Company continues to deliver a superior product on schedule and within budget. Just what software is Griffith Company using to get in those bids? Daniel A. McGrew, the district manager for the Orange County branch of Griffith Company, reports, "In less than 20 years, we have come from estimating on paper using pencils and calculators to using an integrated database that handles our customer-, subcontractor-, and vendor-contact list; sends out RFPs; and calculates cost in a format to handle a variety of different clients and agencies. During this time period, we have used proprietary spreadsheets of various forms and capabilities and packaged estimating software."
McGrew states that his company has been using BID2WIN for 18 months and explains, "Ease of use is very important to us. Software that is too complex or disjointed can impact the creative thinking of building our work in the software or can bring difficulty during the final hours of bid closeout. BID2WIN brings plenty of powerful tools while still being user-friendly. We especially like the function of tasks being ‘precreated' and imported into the bid when needed, the capability to price an item of work two or three ways, and [the ability to suppress] the tasks that are not being used. The power of the databases is a key cost-saving feature for us. Having a series of crews and materials [and] a series of steps in construction rolled into one task that can be created one time and inserted into different bids saves a lot of time in the estimate process." When asked what the company's process for going after a job was and what part the software played in that process, McGrew replied, "The process prior to bid can vary by job but generally starts with a plan and specification review, a jobsite visit, a quantity take-off, bidding our work, and a bid closeout. We hope the software is a tool that won't hinder our creative thought process when we are inputting crews and building the different components of our work and is effective at comparing subcontractors and vendors while we lock bid items and prepare the estimate for submittal. "The estimate is a tool for getting work. In today's competitive market, we need every advantage to get a job. The software can help us analyze our cost versus [the cost of] sub work, different markup schemes, and quantity-takeoff revenue. To that end, what occurs on the job sometimes cannot be foreseen. The estimating software can do nothing to deal with the risks we undertake in construction. It can, however, give us reports for resource usage, crew makeup, and productions." McGrew would not only purchase BID2WIN again but also would recommend it to others. With regard to BID2WIN's role in his company's continued bidding/estimating future, he comments, "We made a decision based on where BID2WIN is going. Software development is a dynamic process, and the vision and capabilities of the design team at BID2WIN are an important factor in our choice of software. They have listened well to us as a user, making sure our needs are incorporated into future releases." Miller Bros. Excavating
Trades In the Spreadsheet Stapleton listed BID2WIN's Windows compatibility, its crew costing, and its ability to export budgets to ComputerEase when asked what features of the software he found most attractive. He found the Windows-compatible nature of the software especially user-friendly and also cited the software's budgeting abilities as most cost-effective. BID2WIN plays a large role in defining unknowns in the process of going after a job, according to Stapleton, who found the program's ability to constantly compare successful jobs a very handy tool. Like McGrew, Stapleton would purchase BID2WIN again and recommend it to others. Keeping It Simple
and Easy to Use "In general, the construction industry has not been leading the pack when it comes to embracing technology. But it is coming along. Today, rather than using a manual method—pencil and paper—for estimating, most estimators are using spreadsheets, an in-house system that they've built themselves, or a professional, off-the-shelf estimating software solution, such as BID2WIN." McKeon stresses that the relationships his company builds with its customers is one of BID2WIN's most attractive features. "Although not strictly a product feature, one of the most attractive aspects of working with BID2WIN is the relationship we build with our customers. As a company, BID2WIN works very closely with its customers to maintain an ongoing relationship that is anchored in communication. We consider each company that uses BID2WIN a business partner. Generous user feedback helps to determine future product-development plans and ensure that we continue to provide products and services that are of the greatest value to our customers' businesses." At the annual BID2WIN user conference, users can come together with BID2WIN's entire management staff for extensive product training, customer feedback sessions, and educational presentations. This year, for example, BID2WIN invited Microsoft's technical evangelist, Joe Stagner, to give a keynote address on the significance of Microsoft.NET technology. At this conference, Stagner addressed an audience of approximately 200 construction industry professionals on the subject of Microsoft.NET technology and its relationship to the next innovative production of BID2WIN. Readers interested in learning more about Stagner's appearance at the conference can refer to www.nichesoftware.com/news/0903/BID2WINandNET_teamup.htm. Centralized Resource-Cost
Database This is a major business issue that companies face: lack of standardization in their estimating and bidding practices. BID2WIN's solution to this challenge—its unique, centralized, resource-cost database—is one of the features of the software that contractors find most attractive. BID2WIN's McKeon points out that "the construction industry is very competitive: Bids for jobs are won or lost on razor-thin margins. It is imperative that companies understand their real costs when estimating a job. It sounds obvious enough, but how easy is it to keep track of hundreds of ever-fluctuating costs or price points? BID2WIN is the only estimating software that keeps all costing information in one spot. That means that everyone involved in building a bid is using the same up-to-date, actual-cost information." McKeon goes on to point out that BID2WIN gives users a competitive advantage by helping companies to win more profitable bids through standardized, accurate, and efficient estimating. "When using traditional methods of estimating or spreadsheets, estimators simply don't have the time or the ability to break down the cost of a bid with enough detail. BID2WIN's efficiency removes barriers to creating cost estimates with any level of detail, giving greater insight into the bid." Hawaiian Contractor
Crunches the Hard Numbers Garrett Sullivan, president of Kaikor Construction Associates Inc. in Honolulu, HI, knows more than a little about dirt and pipe. When asked about his company's choice of estimating software, Sullivan remarks, "We purchased Hard Dollar Corporation's EOS/PXS software about five years ago. EOS/PXS eventually became BID*BUILD. The storehouse estimate, the reproduction wizard, the labor/equipment/material library, [and] the ability to consider various scenarios were great features, which we regularly use. The fact that the Hard Dollar BID*BUILD most closely resembled our method of estimating was our biggest reason for purchasing the software. We were fortunate to have an early-adopter engineer in our office that ate, drank, and slept the program when we first bought it. Inside of about three weeks, we were completely set up with all the various libraries, and he became our resident guru for the software by answering everyone's questions. As far as cost-effectiveness [goes], Hard Dollar constantly told me we would bid more work and get more work with their software. I was a skeptic at the time. Five years later, we are doing double the volume and bidding significantly more work with less personnel." Kaikor is a general engineering contractor dedicated to quality concrete craftsmanship, concrete repair, large-joint seal installation and repair, and extraordinary projects of a problematical nature. The company successfully has completed or upgraded bridges, parking lots/structures, retaining walls, roads, box culverts, and harbor work. Founded in 1985, Kaikor boasts a key personnel team with a combined work-experience history of more than 100 years. Kaikor has established its position as one of the leading Hawaiian construction forces with an impressive accumulation of success. On the technological side of that list is the implementation of Hard Dollar BID*BUILD software, which has led the company to experience some very remarkable profits. Sullivan explains, "Not only is Hard Dollar BID*BUILD easy to use, [but it has] helped us to double our annual bid volume and enabled us to bid significantly more work with less people. And our revenue has tripled!" But the bidding process wasn't always so easy. Prior to using Hard Dollar, all of Kaikor's estimating and project management was done manually. When asked to give a historic view of his company's bidding process, Sullivan outlines it this way: "Up until five years ago, all of our quantity takeoff and estimating was done manually without the assistance of a computer. Due to the fact that we are consistently bidding the same type of work, it was apparent that we needed to convert to a computerized system. After much research, we determined that Hard Dollar Corporation's BID*BUILD most closely resembled our historic method of estimating. We purchased the software and committed ourselves to mastering it. The great feature was the storehouse estimating capability of the software, which we set up very quickly and began to utilize for our similar-type jobs. We refined it further by inputting our historical costs into the storehouse estimates as they were completed so we could more accurately estimate the next similar job." Sullivan was asked for details on how Hard Dollar's software helped with a successful project from the bid through project completion. How close to the bid did his company come? How did the BID*BUILD software help his company with this process? He forthrightly responds, "We recently bid a $2 million precast girder bridge. Because we have built several of these throughout the Hawaiian Islands, we were able to put together the actual estimate, once the takeoff was completed in about 30 minutes. From there, we spent the remaining time evaluating different scenarios of how we could lower our costs and still make up our desired markup. [Thanks to Hard Dollar BID*BUILD, we are able to] look at different bid-up/bid-down strategies and [anticipate profit]. We can then compare this with our competitors' previously tallied prices, which are posted after the bid results are announced. The result was that we got the job by 6%." Sullivan is quite adamant about the importance of Hard Dollar's software to his company. "We are a governmental agency contractor, so we constantly scan the governmental notices on the Internet. We absolutely must have our estimating software in order to succeed. We recently set up a remote site to duplicate our system so in the event of a disaster we would still be able to continue operating our estimating software." Now there's a man who means to ensure his company's bidding success come lava or high water!
New Users Find Software
Right on the Money Walker made the transition from EOS to BID*BUILD in less than one week without taking any classes. He cites the utilization of Windows as one of the most user-friendly features of BID*BUILD. Compared to BID*BUILD, Walker sees EOS as "quite cumbersome." When asked about the software's part in the process of going after a job and getting it, Walker simply responds, "We generally find a project that we would like to bid, enter the bid items in BID*BUILD, and build the project around the items." Although the company has yet to complete a large project that was bid with the software, at the time of interview, it had three pending. Walker stated that the company had completed a few small projects with the software in place, but those jobs were less than 250k. Still relatively new to BID*BUILD, Walker is nonetheless impressed with its performance and user-friendliness. " I previously used Hard Dollar EOS. One of the principals here at EPI had begun to play around with Hard Dollar BID*BUILD, so when I came aboard, I felt it was just best to bite the bullet and begin using [BID*BUILD]. At the time, I would have preferred to continue with EOS, but after a few days, [I] found BID*BUILD to be very user-friendly. Its Windows interface is great, and I would never again contemplate using EOS." It sounds like Scott Walker is sold on BID*BUILD!
Morphing: Good Software
Sense When asked about the program's user-friendliness, Barth responded, "Perhaps the most user-friendly aspect of Hard Dollar BID*BUILD is its ability to ‘morph' to the needs of each user. A user of BID*BUILD can easily customize the screens and reports to look the way he or she wants them to look, and the system will remember those desired preferences the next time that user runs the system. In addition, BID*BUILD was designed to work very much like the spreadsheets estimators are already familiar with, so the learning curve is very short. Estimators can even link values in their BID*BUILD estimates to cells in their favorite Excel spreadsheets so they can keep using them." Contractors always are interested in the cost-effectiveness of any and all of their tools. Estimating software is no exception to this rule. "The reproduction or cloning capabilities in Hard Dollar BID*BUILD create the most value in using the system, potentially saving thousands of estimator hours over the course of a year. Even though no two jobs are ever identical, BID*BUILD makes it easy to reuse estimating logic applied to past jobs, so the estimator never has to start from scratch. As the system builds up a knowledge base of how the estimator approaches specific kinds of work, the process of estimating gets easier and easier with each new job," Barth explains. Barth also outlines the role Hard Dollar BID*BUILD could play in the process of going after a job and getting it. "Hard Dollar BID*BUILD manages the entire process of estimating and bidding a construction project from start to finish, from recording notes taken at a prebid site visit; to identifying the kinds and quantities of work involved on the job; to estimating the direct and indirect costs of performing the work; to soliciting, managing, and comparing quotes from subs and vendors; to finalizing markup and bid item pricing; to submitting the final proposal, which might be customized for each project owner." Barth continues, "When the bid is successful and the contractor is awarded the job, BID*BUILD goes on to help create budgets for accounting, bar chart and CPM schedules for project managers, and a whole range of reports used by job site personnel and company managers throughout the actual construction process. "Every estimator [imagines] how a job will be built [before estimating] it. By capturing that thought process and documenting all the assumptions that go along with it, BID*BUILD creates a ‘model' of the job that can be handed off to the construction team so they don't have to do the same thing all over again. It gives them a huge head start in planning the construction process. In so doing, BID*BUILD makes the typically chaotic stage of launching a new job much more smooth and efficient, providing easy access to all the job details that keep everyone on the same page." Determining Which
Software Is Right for Your Company Guest author Colleen Madonna Flood Williams writes for several business magazines. GEC - January/February 2004
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