BID2WIN Software in the News
Technology in Construction
Sept/Oct 2006
Andrea Estrada
Published in Grading & Excavation
In the old days of bidding and estimating, a contractor might have pulled out a pad of paper, a ruler, and a planometer to calculate the cost of a proposed job. He’d sharpen his pencil and write out the details by hand. He’d compute, either manually or with a calculator, the number of people he’d need to get the job done, how many hours they’d put into it, how much materials would cost, and what equipment would be required. An experienced contractor carried a lot of the information in his head—he’d done enough work over the years to make pretty accurate estimates.
Except when he didn’t.
A miscalculation—inadvertently counting as square feet what should have been square yards, actual costs of materials exceeding estimates—or any of a host of other errors could cost him big time, especially if he didn’t become aware of it until he was well into the project. Now, many computer-literate contractors use Microsoft Excel to complete estimates and plan out projects on spreadsheets. The possibility for error, however, is still high. Plug an incorrect formula or figure into one cell and the entire bid can be off.
Enter software designed especially for estimating and bidding. With products like BID2WIN, contractors can stay on track from initial estimates to project completion.
Estimating and bidding software address the specific needs of professionals in the construction industry. It gives them a degree of standardization, so they don’t have to rely on a mix of spreadsheets and word processing documents to track their information. In addition, specific information is often built in so the contractor doesn’t have to research it himself. It might include, for example, the cost of concrete in the user’s area or the going price for labor or equipment use.
Although software for estimating and bidding has existed for 20 years, research shows that a full 50% of industry professionals still have not incorporated it into their business operations. For those who made the leap, however, business on average has enhanced ten-fold.
Excerpted from an article in Grading & Excavation magazine, Sept/Oct, 2006.
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