Don’t Let Your Projects Leave You Broke

Is there anything worse than losing big projects? Yes, there is – It’s winning big projects and then losing money on them. The unfortunate downside of big projects is that they multiply the chances of getting costs wrong. That means you could shortchange your own company, or make mistakes that inflate cost estimates, driving your customers into the arms of your competitors.

The solution? Enter cost estimating software (fanfare, please!). Good estimating software makes life much easier for many entities, including construction companies, real estate firms, and property project sponsors, because it:

• Improves project budgeting, profitability, and return on investment

• Automates job cost estimating with increased accuracy and precision, and helps avoid unfortunate (and expensive) errors

• Accelerates and multiplies the number of cost estimates you can generate, using databases holding information from specialist industry sources on costs of resources and materials, and any other information you want to include

Thus, property stakeholders can immediately see the levels of investment required, and construction companies can bid on and win more projects.

Depending on the application you use, cost estimating software may be part of an integrated construction management package, such as ONE from B2W, and Sage 300 CRE. Alternatively, it may be a separate application, like EOS Explorer and US Cost Success, designed for efficient and reliable cost estimating, while integrating with other applications in construction management for automated takeoffs, project management, and more.

Now, the use of cost estimating software is a cost in itself. Forgive us if you think we’re stating the obvious, but consider the following. People often only think about software license costs. However, total expenditure for the use of cost estimating software must also include the hardware platform on which the application runs, the initial costs of installation and configuration, user training, and continuing support, maintenance, and upgrades.

Furthermore, expenditure is not limited to money, but extends to time, effort, and also opportunity costs – meaning the opportunities to create value elsewhere that you must forego if you’re too busy with the care and feeding of your cost estimating software.

Clearly, while you want to maximize the advantages of your estimating solution, you also want to minimize the total costs of using it. This is where cloud based project management solutions expert, LoadSpring™ (another fanfare, please!) comes in. We help make the use of cost estimating software a cost-effective proposition for you all around, by:

• Hosting your cost estimating application(s) in the cloud with high performance, availability, and reliability

• Offering secure, flexible, location-independent access for your users via the SpringBoard™ cloud portal, part of LoadSpring’s smart way of helping to streamline your operations

• Providing you with the services of our in-house experts for each of the different cost estimating applications hosted, so that start-up and ongoing use are smooth and efficient

• Training users directly on the cost estimating application you choose, via the online LoadSpring Academy within the SpringBoard portal.

In fact, SpringBoard is the best and most complete platform to host all your project management related apps, including your preferred estimating software. Besides being the expert cloud project management solutions company, LoadSpring also provides globalized support 24/7/365 via email, phone, and directly on SpringBoard for all the software we host for you. Call us today to find out more!