IIn the ever busy construction industry, opportunities are scattered around and it’s the responsibility of the business owner to stay competent.
Let’s take a scenario. A situation where your business receives the notification about an upcoming tender, with barely a week to submit the bid and several competitors lined up. And the worst part – you are equipped with old school methods of excel sheets, manual rate checks and also tiring generic tools that do not deliver what you intended.
With traditional tools in hand, one may wonder if that is even possible in the tight deadline? However, industry leaders fail to realise the availability of dedicated software that is built for the purpose. Yes, a dedicated construction estimation software can help you build a competent bid, even for such a short timespan.
Apart from digitising the tender and estimation process, industry specific ERP softwares include several critical processes that can ease the preparation of tender preparation.
Five critical ways construction estimation software helps you win more bids
1. Eliminating assumption with smarter site investigation.
Being the first step of tender preparation, the process is also prone to several miscalculations and missed constraints. So the site investigation process demands thorough documentation of all amenities and constraints in the project site, to help plan the requirements that must serve the entire project until completion. With construction estimation software, contractors can document the project site in entirety using mobile checklists, photos, videos, field measurement and hindrance logs. The availability of men, material and machinery sources can be well learned that would help the teams in planning the resource supply accordingly. A cloud based construction ERP will sync all these data instantly with the site team, ensuring the estimation reflects true site conditions. When a bid is strengthened by real-world observation, clients immediately trust your proposal more.
2. Tender preparation by cloning standard templates.
Manual tender preparation is time consuming. Say, when you are planning to build structures of the same specification, the process becomes repetitive. These repetitive works are obviously going to add more time. So, advanced construction estimation software are loaded with an option known as predefined templates, that can be cloned for similar works. This enables contractors to clone standard templates that include BOQ, material lists, cost heads, labour categories and more. This reduces bid preparation time by up to 70%. The investment in the best construction estimation software will reduce manhours spent in formatting and rebuilding estimates. Thus the time could be productively spent in refining strategy, enabling to submit more bids and increase the winning rate.
How Tactive ERP Solves the Top Challenges in the Construction Tendering Process?
3. Rate analysis for competitive and profitable bids.
Rate analysis is at the heat of every tender. If resource costs are miscalculated, the entire bid becomes risky. With imported BOQ lists from previous projects, the team can fetch the rates, arrive at resource productivity estimates and cost breakdowns. A construction estimation software will also help in integrating real-time vendor rates, preventing the use of outdated prices. The data obtained through site investigation can also be fetched to prepare more realistic estimations. Thus you can prepare convincing and profitable bids.
4. Multiple proposal creation.
Industry experts recommend preparing multiple projects to adapt any alternative requests that may include different materials, altered specification, phased work plans, accelerated schedules or budget-friendly version. Accommodating the said value would not be an issue, but the real task is making it reflect in the entire estimation. Doing it manually is another tiring task that takes time with possible errors. So, an automated tool can help us accommodate any changes. Such an automated tool allows to generate multiple versions within record time while all linked to the base estimate. Offering options instead of a single fixed proposal significantly improves the chances of matching client’s expectations, increasing bid acceptance.
5. Lost bid analysis.
This is an unique and crucial feature available only in well advanced construction estimation softwares. This feature turns every lost bid into a feedback, allowing the company to study the reasons for the loss, by comparing their prices with winning bids, identifying overpriced resources, analysing market trends and reviewing assumptions. A construction ERP assisted lost bid analysis helps to make every future bid smarter and more aligned with market expectations. Ultimately improving the success rate and avoid repeating costly mistakes
The additional advantages of advanced construction estimation software
yond these five points, construction ERP software improves accuracy, accelerates tender preparation, enhances collaboration, maintains historical data, ensures real-time price updates and identifies risks early and more. The unified features offers contractors a measurable competitive edge in the market
So winning tenders doesn’t mean preparing an estimation with the lowest price package. It is about offering the most accurate, transparent and well-computed estimate. Construction estimation software transforms the bidding process by improving site investigation, speeding up tender preparation, refining rate analysis, enabling multiple proposals and providing valuable lost-bid insights.
Companies that invest in advanced automation software for construction estimation tend to consistently outperform competitors. With the growing opportunities and intensifying competition, investing in a construction estimation software would be the smartest and strategic investment.
To know more about advanced estimation capabilities, click on to Tactive ERP Software.
