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Founded in 1931, H.J. O’Connell Construction Ltd. is one of Canada’s oldest heavy civil construction companies. As a leading supplier to the nation’s resource industries, H.J. O’Connell provides a broad range of quality construction services with a specialty in heavy civil infrastructure, mining and energy development. The company prides itself on a high quality, technically sophisticated workforce and a reputation for completing projects on time and under budget—a success for which BID2WIN Estimating and Bidding is a contributing factor, says lead estimator Darryl Gillingham. “With BID2WIN complimenting our package, we realize the real challenges facing the industry today, and stand ready to face the future.”

Prior to purchasing BID2WIN, estimators at H.J. O’Connell were using in-house developed Excel spreadsheets to complete their estimates and bids. However with three offices, almost 200 employees and a modern fleet of over 250 pieces of mining and construction equipment, the company knew that a new solution was necessary to standardize the process. BID2WIN Estimating and Bidding promised to do just that, and H.J. O’Connell made the switch in 2000.

Gillingham, who has worked for H.J. O’Connell for over six years, explains that the biggest return on investment they have experienced since purchasing BID2WIN is in the estimating time.

“Our estimates are completed much more efficiently and productively than in the past. Because our business is mainly comprised of private clients, we offer solutions or alternates to projects. BID2WIN allows us to compare estimates and manipulate bids for potential work more effectively, thus helping us to provide better solutions to our clients, which in turn makes our business more profitable.”

H.J. O’Connell is currently the lead team working on a hydro-electric dam in Northern Manitoba, in partnership with two other companies. H.J. O’Connell’s portion alone is in excess of $300 million, but the team feels confident knowing that BID2WIN will be used for the entire project.

However, Gillingham explains that the hydro-electric dam isn’t the only job BID2WIN has helped H.J. O’Connell win.

“All of our successful bids are thanks to the help of BID2WIN. We have numerous bids in the hundred to several hundred million dollar range, and one bid in the one billion dollar range—BID2WIN handles it all without a problem.”

Implementing a new estimating and bidding solution could pose a potential challenge to a company as large as H.J. O’Connell, but the process went smoothly thanks to the BID2WIN Software implementation and training staff, says Gillingham.

“The BID2WIN Software staff worked with our IT department to make implementation and progressive upgrading a work of art, without any interruptions to the estimating team.” He continues, “We also had a BID2WIN Software trainer visit our office, which provided a great opportunity for our estimators to interact one-on-one, and address their specific needs. The trainers and training services are excellent, and provided tremendous amounts of information to our estimators.”

But even more impressive, states Gillingham, is BID2WIN Software’s technical support team.

“In our opinion, the 24/365 technical support services is the shining light of BID2WIN Software. Over the years we have encountered a few unique situations, but a simple call to the technical support team has always provided fast and reliable solutions.”

To learn more about H.J. O'Connell Construction Ltd., visit www.hjoc.com

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