1
Profitability Begins with the Estimate
Every dollar a construction company earns originates from an estimate.
How much of that dollar reaches the bottom line as a profit depends
heavily on the estimating process and the tools used to manage it.
Those tools, and the estimators using them, are under increasing pressure.
Heavy civil jobs are getting larger and more complex, competition is
intensifying and funding gaps, particularly for public projects, are driving
margins down and making bid accuracy more critical.
This guide explores how the team responsible for winning
jobs – and winning the right jobs – can address these challenges
by leveraging specialized software to:
• Complete more bids in less time, with less manual effort and data entry
• Standardize cost data and bidding processes enterprise wide for
consistency and efficiency
• Free up time for more analysis and strategy, assisted by built-in markup,
pricing and reporting tools
• Gain confidence that calculations are accurate and error-free
• Collaborate more effectively, with multiple estimators working simultaneously
• Unify estimating with operations workflows, including field tracking
• Connect seamlessly with accounting, project management and DOT systems
"The software ended up changing our approach
to estimating and bidding philosophically, by
opening our eyes to how much more quickly,
efficiently and accurately we could work."
CONTENTS
2
Stepping Up
from Spreadsheets
3
Centralized Cost Data:
a Core Advantage
4
Accurate, Strategic
Bid Closing
5
Estimating is Not an
Isolated Activity
6
Optimize Electronic
Bidding Systems
7
Make Sure it's Intuitive
8
Best Practices for
Deployment Success
