Construction estimating software: 5 things to look for to ensure you are getting the best product for your project

The construction industry has long been a driving force in the development of modern society, both in terms of infrastructure and investment.  Billions of dollars are committed each and every year by end users, private and institutional investors, not to mention the industry players at all levels from small sub-contractors to master developers.  The key to succeeding in this arena is cost management and margin and the world leading construction companies gain their competitive advantage through cutting edge technology such as Construction Estimating Software.  

But what should you be looking for when comparing the very best products available in the market when selecting the right one for you?

1. Accuracy

   in an extremely competitive market place is crucial.  Software that enables you to correctly factor in (and later manage and adjust) all potential costs from labour, equipment and material right through subcontractor expenses will be crucial.  CCS Candy will enable you to accurately account for the true and actual cost of a build (all but transforming estimation into an accurate blueprint) and feed into your Construction Management Software to track all these elements throughout the project.

2. Consistency

   is delivered by being able to use existing and past project data to feed into new estimations, including real time information relating to variations and over-spend.  CCS Candy can help you build, and keep up to date, a true data base of expenses and costs which will enable you to maximise efficiencies of streamlined processes and systems.

3. Efficiency

   is a key component of your Estimation Software.  It is unlikely that any other tools in your arsenal will be able to deliver the same cost and time benefits at a level or magnitude your Estimating Software will provide.  CCS Candy, CCS’s market leading product, will demonstrate time efficiency tenfold compared to traditional manual estimating method which, in itself will save money in terms of pure time spent and will enable your business to be more agile in submitting tenders and thus have the capacity to tender for more projects.  When comparing software products for your building and construction enterprise, make sure the software allows your teams to build and grow an effective database/master file.  This can be applied to future estimations and will evolve and grow with each new estimate you carry out.

4. Integration

   with your existing software suites and processes will enable you to leverage the power of your Estimating Software.  Systems such as CCS BuildSmart will work seamlessly with CCS Candy to constantly update and report on the performance against the estimation. This not only enables a Construction Company to stay on time and on budget but conversely feeds relevant key information back into the Estimation Software to update and adjust its calculations to reflect real time conditions and delivery.  Estimation Software of this kind allows a two-way sharing of information and experience and is thus constantly evolving.  The market leading software available today has already benefitted from thousands of project experiences that have been fed back into the software to learn not only from individual business experience but to extract the benefit of the experience of the market as a whole.

5. Professionalism

   is enhanced, and the reputation of your firm solidified by being at the forefront of a fast evolving and agile environment.  It goes without saying that the efficiency, accuracy and consistency already mentioned will be evident in the overall project but will also translate into vastly increased confidence.  This will be both internally and externally in delivering the core elements of a Construction Build.  With the level of competition and strain on margin, accurate estimations are essential to profitability and having an estimation proposition that feeds into your ongoing reporting and delivery, will demonstrate that confidence in the estimation accuracy.  Even in a worst case scenario and an overrun, the integrated Estimation software can even facilitate early warning to report on any deviation (with products such as CCS Candy and CCS BuildSmart, this will even deliver a deep drill-down report into specific causes)  allowing you to nip these discrepancies in the bud.

Contact your local representative and explore how embracing modern software can transform your Construction Business and deliver a genuine return on investment.