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With a reputation for quality and timeliness and over 30 years in heavy highway, site work and underground utility, the estimators at David Nelson Construction understand the importance of using an estimating and bidding solution that is dependable from the start of an estimate to the end of bid day.  With this belief in mind, they realized their system wasn’t living up to the company’s high standards and determined it was crucial they investigate other options.

Prior to purchasing BID2WIN in the spring of 2006, the company had been experiencing problems with the speed of their estimating and bidding system from Hard Dollar. Senior estimator Tom Woodward says they just didn’t have any confidence in the product. “On bid day with only twenty minutes remaining, a flurry of activity and sub quotes still coming in, Hard Dollar’s system would come to a grinding halt when more than one person tried to access it.”

Knowing that they needed to rethink their current estimating and bidding process, David Nelson Construction did their homework, searching the market for the best solution. They narrowed their search down to two companies and completed thorough evaluations of each. The decision came down to technology, says Woodward, and the company felt that BID2WIN - built on the latest Microsoft .NET framework – had the upper hand. “I thought, ‘This is a company that we can go into the future with’ and that is the biggest single reason we chose BID2WIN over its competitors.” He continues, “There were other good products that had some good features, but they’re not going where BID2WIN is going.”

Making the switch to BID2WIN proved to be a good decision for David Nelson Construction. In addition to increasing the speed and accuracy of their bidding, BID2WIN solved the problem they had been having with multiple estimators using the software simultaneously. “We are a company that team-bids,” Woodward explains. “We have up to five different people in the same bid entering quotes for vendors and subcontractors, or setting final pricing. When all that is happening at once there is no slowdown in BID2WIN. It’s fantastic how fast it is when you really need it to be fast. It’s made David Nelson Construction a more efficient company.”

Not only is Woodward pleased with the product, he was also pleasantly surprised by the ease with which his estimating team made the transition to BID2WIN.  After creating their first bid in BID2WIN, not one estimator at David Nelson wanted to go back to their old system. In fact, all they wanted to do was learn how to use BID2WIN better. “Everything works so much like it does in any other Microsoft product” explains Woodward. “It’s so intuitive that I didn’t have the typical uphill battle that you find in trying to teach people new software.”

However, when questions do arise, the BID2WIN technical support team is always there to help. “It’s amazing, the level of support you get from BID2WIN, and I mean that” Woodward expresses. “When you call in, not only do you get a live human being, but they know the answer to your question and they’re nice about it. Every single person I’ve dealt with at BID2WIN has been intelligent, friendly and professional. We’ve tried at David Nelson Construction to set a standard of being polite and professional in what we’re doing, and it’s nice to have a business partner like BID2WIN that is doing the same.”

Today the company is looking forward to the release of the next version – BID2WIN 2007. Woodward is especially excited that the new version, which he previewed at User Conference 2007 in Boca Raton, Florida, will feature the ability to compare self-performed and sub-contracted items.

A year after purchasing BID2WIN, David Nelson Construction is very satisfied with their decision. In fact, Woodward’s experience has been so positive that he often recommends BID2WIN to colleagues in the industry. “You’ll never find better support. You’ll never find friendlier people. You’ll never, in my opinion, find a product out there today that works any faster than BID2WIN does, that has the features that BID2WIN has, in a company that’s listening to what their clients want.” Woodward explains. “Your whole livelihood is dependent on this product. You want to be sure that its right and we’re very confident in BID2WIN.”

To learn more about David Nelson Construction, visit www.nelson-construction.com

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