Since their arrival in the early 80's, when the pioneer MS-DOS packages began to establish themselves, computerised estimating software products have evolved into an essential tool for most substantial construction companies, delivering increased productivity and reduced tender production costs.
The latter part of that decade saw a steady growth in the number of suppliers offering estimating software and the emergence of product extensions covering areas such as Digitiser take-off, OCR (Optical Character Reader) Bill Scanning, Sub Contractor Bid Comparison and Valuations.
In contrast, the 90's saw relatively few substantial innovations or extensions to the basic concept, with a rapidly diminishing number of suppliers concentrating on the conversion of their products to the emerging MS Windows "look and feel". As a consequence, though most estimating software users have now migrated to a Windows user interface, they have little else that's new to shout about and any productivity/cost saving benefits resulting from the change, were often, at best, questionable.
As we entered the new millennium, electronic transfer of tender documents replaced the never ideal OCR process, as packages like Causeway Estimating adopted and were certified against emerging electronic transfer standards like CITE (Construction Industry Trading Electronically). The "e-age" had arrived.
As we enter 2004, we may at last be seeing the arrival of the next big step forward, combining the emerging power of the internet with the tried and trusted desktop estimating software package. Causeway Technologies now offer the hard-pressed estimator a more powerful Causeway Estimating which incorporates access to a substantial Vendor Directory (Causeway's on-line database of sub-contractors and suppliers, providing up-to-date information on each vendor's specialization, coverage, financial, health & safety, QA and insurance records) and an Enquiry Alert service.
The importance of this latest innovation, which delivers a genuine productivity and cost saving advantage, is supported by industry statistics, which put the cost of each enquiry package sent out, at between £50 and £100. Furthermore, most contractors report a quarter of all tender packages dispatched are never priced and returned, which would seem to offer the potential for genuinely substantial savings, if improvements can be achieved in this area.
So how does it work? Utilising Causeway's Vendor Directory and Enquiry Alert services within the estimating package, the Causeway Estimating user is able to source and more precisely target appropriate vendors/sub contractors who directly match the package content, ensuring greater relevance to the recipient and thereby increasing the priced package return rate.
In the estimating package, the estimator quickly sets-up the project and links bill items to multiple trade packages, sub-contracts, product, or material enquiries. For each enquiry the user can optionally search for, review, and select companies from the many thousands of vendor records held within the Causeway Directory.
The estimator then approves the production of electronic Enquiry Alerts through which outline Enquiry details are sent directly to the selected vendors, by email or fax, inviting them to confirm their willingness to price a full package if received, with a fast reply facility included, to enable an almost instant response.
The outcome? At the estimator's discretion, costly packages can be produced and dispatched to those who express an interest in pricing a full package; thereby reducing wasted production costs and improving response rates. Causeway already have customers using the service and reporting favourable results.
Another key benefit of such a service, comes from the on-line availability of a substantial, national list of potential suppliers and subcontractors, from which the estimators own preferred contacts list can be supplemented and against which prices from those same long established contacts can be tested, to ensure ongoing competitive pricing in addition to quality of service.
And what of the future? Already working with others, including the National Federation of Builders who's CAPS (Construction Accredited Partnership Scheme) service is built on Causeway technology, they intend to extend the scope of the service to provide an even more comprehensive product in 2004.
Apparently therefore, substantial innovations are not a thing of the past when it comes to computerised estimating.
www.causeway.com
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