Construction companies, as well as subcontractors, get most of their jobs thru bidding. A construction bid is a process where the construction form presents a potential client with a proposal or a tender to build a building or manage a construction project. And, although bids are not chosen on the basis of cost alone, contractors that submit the lowest tenders tend to wind the contract and win the project.
In construction bids, the contractors have one golden rule: Start with highly accurate cost estimates and then, submit the lowest bid. And this starts with looking at the construction plans (which are provided by the would-be client) and performing a material quantity takeoff. If the contractor estimates the project too high, he might lose the bid altogether. But, if the contractor bids too low, he might end up losing money.
One of the best ways of ensuring that your estimates are accurate, save for having a good estimator on your team is by using a tender management software.
A tender software for construction or also known as a construction bidding software is a program that is designed for the construction industry to streamline the estimated construction cost for a project making the bidding process faster. These programs are designed with accuracy in mind. This means that you can get a highly accurate quote in the fraction of the time, allowing you to get in your bid quickly for a project. Less time spend on a quote means more time to bid on other projects.
If you are on the lookout for a construction estimating tender software for your construction company, how do you start? What are the features that you should look for? Regardless of which constriction software for bidding you choose, here are some features that it should have:
FEATURES OF A TOP CONSTRUCTION TENDER SOFTWARE
Top Quality Templates
A good construction tender software should have in its system a set of templates for some of the most common types of building projects. In this way, when the opportunity comes for a bid, then you can just pull up the template needed, and get started on your estimate without wasting time compiling data for every project from scratch.
Includes Regional Cost Data
Software programs come up with their estimates for a bidding project by pulling up cost data from a large database. It works this way: for example, if the project you are bidding on requires a specific kind of window, the estimating software will pull the cost of that from its database, and adds it into the total of your bid.
It looks like a good system, but remember that the information on pricing is only as accurate as the information that it has stored in its database. The problem is that some software calculates the cost along with data using the national average. This will give you a rough idea on the cost, but won’t take into account price fluctuations regionally.
A good system should include regional cost and use pricing from your local area to give you an accurate estimate for your bid. A good tender construction software should also update its database regularly so that you can be assured that pricing so that you can stay updated.
Easy to Use
A good bidding software should have a simple and intuitive dashboard that even your least tech-savvy team member can create an estimate should the need arise. You should be able to quickly get a good feel on how the software works so you can use it right away. After all, you don’t want to spend months teaching your team on how to use it when you should be coming up with estimates.
Cloud-Based Data Access
One of the things that you should look for in a construction bidding software is to check if its cloud-based. Storing your estimates in the cloud is one of the best ways to make sure that you always have access to your data – whether you are in the office or out in the field. A very important feature should you need to view or make changes to your bid.
Buy from a Reputable Company with Great Customer Service
You want to make sure that the software that you are eyeing to buy comes from a company that has great after sales support. This means that if any questions or concerns will come up ( and I’m sure it will happen) with using a new software, there is a team via phone, email or online chat that can, and is willing to assist you on your concern.
Read reviews about the products, especially on their customer service. You also might want to check out their customer service by asking some questions about the software and seeing how long they take to respond.
Buying your software from a reputable company is also one way of making sure that you’ll get excellent customer support. A good software company will be a company that knows your industry and is able to cater to the needs of your specific industry.
Author Bio
Judy Lees is a super-connector with yunasphotography.ae who helps businesses find their audience online through outreach, partnerships, branding and networking. He frequently writes about the latest advancements in digital marketing, digital photography.