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Bid2Win
A new way to standardize the estimating
and bid process
By Elaine S. Silver
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BID2WIN users can
'check-out' a project estimate
to use offline and make changes to it while the
original file remains on the server as
a read-only version for other users. |
Josh Campbell, a project estim-ator for Gramling Brothers
Contracting, Gramling, S.C., has been using BID2WIN's new
version of its estimating package for only a couple of weeks.
But he is already seeing the package's benefits and efficiencies.
"They've added a new level of mobility and functionality,"
he says, "With the older version of the product, we did
not have the ability to leave the office. Now we can work
on the road. It'll allow for a lot more freedom."
"BID2WIN is a solution for heavy civil construction
projects, both public and private," says Paul McKeon,
BID2WIN president. "It standardizes the estimating and
bid process and allows companies to bid more work more accurately
and in more detail. It provides them a level of integration
with other business solutions they may use, like accounting
and project management software."
BID2WIN has been adding new features over the last year,
including mobile estimating.
"You can disconnect from the office with this feature,"
says Dave Todaro, BID2WIN's vice president. "Then you
can unplug from your network, use all the functionality of
BID2WIN, make the changes and upload to the network server
when you're done."
And since the user can work offline, one-time entries of
changes can be done on an airplane or in the field. Essentially,
the user checks out the project estimate online the way he
or she would check out a library book, then makes changes
to the estimate while copies of the original file remain on
the server for others to access.
"Also, each user can look at the same estimate but view
at it in a different way," Todaro says. "You don't
have to be bound by what the senior estimator wants to see.
They may want to look at different information on the paving
aspect of the job, for example."
Another new feature is the software's ability to swap out
labor-rate classes in figuring an estimate. Initially, the
estimate could have been done using the prevailing wage, but
now the Davis Bacon system is required. Or the estimate needs
to be updated after six months with the latest labor rate.
The software does that automatically instead of the user having
to replace each number.
BID2WIN also provides two levels of reporting-standardized
reporting at the estimate or bid level and across a range
of estimates.
"A customer can say, 'Give me a list of jobs that we
did for Company X or jobs we did in a particular state or
let me look at my public work versus my private work and compare
profitability,'" Todaro says. Then the client can look
deeper into the numbers to see where the centers of profitability
are.
Gramling's Campbell is particularly pleased with having the
newly mobile BID2WIN when he attends meetings with his design-build
clients. "Now I can work on the bid while I am at the
client's office or meeting with a project team," he says.
BID2WIN Software Inc. works on Windows. Its client-server
architecture is built on Microsoft.net and SQL Server technology.
BID2WIN Professional (concurrent user): $6,000; and BID2WIN
Enterprise (concurrent user): $7,500. Call for volume pricing.
BID2WIN
1 New Hampshire Ave.
Portsmouth, N.H. 03801
800-336-3808
www.bid2win.com
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