Are your current workflows wasting valuable time? Are you encountering major obstacles every day? If your answer is yes, it is time to streamline your estimating workflows.
Streamlining is defined as to “make (an organization or system) more efficient and effective by employing faster or simpler working methods.” Streamlining is an essential element to growing your business. Streamlining how you work increases productivity, eliminates unnecessary tasks, reduces wasted time, and mitigates risk. All of which can lead to higher profitability.
For Gilbane Building Company, streamlining meant finding a more efficient workflow and a leaner approach to estimating. Before switching to Beck Technology’s DESTINI Estimator construction estimating software, Gilbane was using multiple tools to complete estimates. For estimates they were using Sage Timberline, for takeoff they used Assemble and Bluebeam, and for other tasks, they used Excel. Pulling estimates together from all these different platforms that didn’t integrate was a “hassle.” Justin Wetherby, a senior estimator at Gilbane says, “There was a lot of rework. We wanted to make sure that we could get through the entire estimate process quicker and better.”
Beck Technology sat down with Justin and asked him how switching to DESTINI Estimator has streamlined Gilbane’s estimating process.
Justin points out two main pain points that DESTINI Estimator has solved for his preconstruction department:
- Saves time.
- Leverage a historical cost database.
Saves Time
Using multiple tools was wasting a lot of time. As Justin says, estimators have about two weeks of work when having to pull all this information together from disconnected platforms but only one week to deliver it. With DESTINI Estimator, the issue of not having enough time has been eliminated. “That whole workflow of trying to piece it together is gone. The time and pain that we had has been eliminated.”
Historical Cost Database
Previously, Gilbane’s estimators had to pull estimates together through a variety of different tools. Justin says, “With team estimating [in DESTINI Estimator], we have the ability to get real-time historical costs on estimate data. That’s huge. We have that information right at our fingertips. It’s extremely powerful stuff.”
Has Any Other Workflow Changed Since Implementing DESTINI Estimator?
Gilbane made the switch to DESTINI Estimator in 2018 and since then have discovered many more benefits of the preconstruction software. One example is the dashboard feature.
The dashboard view in DESTINI Estimator is the easiest and most flexible way to get the data out of your estimate and into whatever form you need it to be, whether that is to track the estimate’s progress, create deliverables to owners, or for internal review. This reporting feature is built on an Excel-like platform so estimators can create deliverables in the way they used to. To see more about dashboards, click here.
For Justin and his team, dashboards have opened a lot of possibilities. For them, the biggest benefit has been creating client-specific information. He says, “We have clients that want to see our estimates their way. Your ability to take a client bid form or a client spreadsheet, put it into DESTINI Estimator, tie your cost to their sheet, so their sheet gets populated automatically. You make changes and their sheet gets updated. It is extremely powerful.”
You have a ton of information and DESTINI Estimator houses it all in one place where every estimator has access. Justin says, “You need to tell a story about your estimate. When you produce an estimate, you’re going to need to defend your estimate, so now we have all this information available to us…and are able to tell a really visual story.”
Beck Technology is continually updating the features in DESTINI Estimator to ensure estimating teams are working as efficiently and effectively as possible.
To hear more about how Gilbane streamlined their estimating workflows, watch the webinar below.
